Archive for the ‘We Love Arts’ Category
We Love Arts: Othello
There’s a moment in Folger Theatre’s Othello that sums up director Robert Richmond’s insightful approach. Courtesan Bianca, transformed in this production into a saucy bellydancer played by Zehra Fazal, stands in the wind, staring at a small fluttering handkerchief. At the same time, Othello himself (a commanding Owiso Odera) struggles with the depths of jealous rage [...]
More »National Geographic Live: November 2011
For November, the folks at the National Geographic Museum have put together some great programs before the holidays, including photographers, authors, and speakers. If you’d like to win a pair of tickets to an November program, simply list the two events you’d like to attend in comments before 2pm Friday, October 28. Make [...]
More »We Love Arts: Arms and the Man
A play about the hypocrisy of war and romantic illusions set against the lunacy of class warfare seems like a perfect win for our Operation New Dawn, Occupy Wall Street days. No doubt G. Bernard Shaw, a playwright and critic of scathing intelligence, would’ve had something to say about these times of ours. As the [...]
More »We Love Arts: A Bright New Boise
photo by Stan Barouh
Joshua Morgan, Company Member Emily Townley, Felipe Cabezas, Company Member Michael Russotto, and Company Member Kimberly Gilbert
Woolly Mammoth’s A Bright New Boise takes a look into the heart of those who seem excited to see the world come to an end and brings us along for the ride. Which you might think would [...]
The Lincoln Legacy Project at Ford’s Theatre
‘Rehearsal, Ford’s Theatre’
courtesy of ‘Jenn Larsen’
With Republican debates underway and the growth of both Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Occupy Wall Street, it appears most of America is angry, frustrated, or confused. And we’re all pretty much broke.
What better time, then, to look back on the legacy of a president who saw the country through [...]
We Love Arts: The Book Club Play
Despite being an avid reader, I’ve somehow missed out on the whole book club phenomenon. Maybe it’s that whole Groucho Marx "I refuse to join a club that would have me as a member" thing. So when it came time to see Karen Zacarias’ The Book Club Play at Arena Stage, who better to bring [...]
More »Juliet and the Demon Fish
A first glance at the title “Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks” would probably invoke visions of bloody feeding frenzies, mouths full of razor-sharp teeth, and the sleek arrow-shaped bodies of deadly sharks. With, of course, the appropriate Jaws theme rolling around in our heads. And we couldn’t be more wrong with [...]
More »We Love Arts: Lungs
With British playwright Duncan Macmillan’s Lungs, Studio Theatre begins The Studio Lab Series – new plays produced bare bones for $20 a ticket. It’s an admirable venture that I’m excited to watch develop.
However, this first play out of the gate isn’t particularly innovative – though if the playwright’s intention is to resurrect the existential crises [...]
National Geographic Live: October 2011
The National Geographic Live series is back for the fall and we here at WeLoveDC want to share their great lineup of programming with you once again. Thanks to the generosity of our friends at NatGeo, we’ll be again offering two pairs of tickets for our readers to go and experience some great talks, lectures, [...]
More »We Love Arts: 30 Americans at Corcoran Gallery of Art
At Tuesday night’s preview of 30 Americans, a representative of the Corcoran told the story of how, in 1940, a young, female, African-American artist secretly entered a contest held by the gallery, sending a white friend to drop off the painting because she feared she would not be allowed past the building’s grand front stairs [...]
More »We Love Arts: Mad Forest
Photo by Melissa Blackall
Entering Caryl Churchill’s "Mad Forest" is a step back into late 80’s Europe during the final years of the Cold War. Forum Theatre sets the mood just right. Pillars with busts of Nicolae Ceaușescu, the Communist leader of Romania, loom over the action like big brother. Drab fashions and chain smoking Romanians is reminiscent of a [...]
We Love Arts: Trouble in Mind
If there’s a theme emerging from this year’s theater offerings it’s definitely the play-within-a-play. From Venus in Fur to The Habit of Art, many recent productions have highlighted the rehearsal process itself to uncover uncomfortable truths about power and control. These are all relatively new plays riffing on an old theme, but Trouble in Mind, the [...]
More »Smithsonian Snapshot: Skyhooking
In the 1930s, U.S. postal officials tried different ways of moving the mail. One technique was called “skyhooking,” which brought the mail to rural towns that had no adequate railway or highway mail routes. Unfortunately, the towns which needed this type of service usually did not have adequate landing fields for planes.
Although a low-flying airplane [...]
We Love Arts: Macbeth
What would you do for absolute power? Could you kill your friend? Murder children? Call it justice? Watch out. On the path to conquering the world, you might lose your soul. “Fair is foul and foul is fair…”
There’s a gasp-inducing moment in Synetic Theater’s production of Macbeth that focuses it as a straight-up morality tale. [...]
DC Graff: The Case for Open Walls (Part I)
Murals DC Piece at Fuller and 15th NW
The debate is fresh but the line seems to already have been drawn.
On one side, facing an uptick in tagging that has cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in removal fees this year alone, DC officials agree that illegal graffiti is criminal before artistic: “I appreciate [...]
We Love Arts: Fela!
The music from Fela! can only be described as infectious.
The Broadway musical that won the 2010 Tony for best Choreography certainly deserves its praises in regards to dance- but the show’s music is worthy of recognition as well. Presented by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, the Broadway World Tour of Fela! opened at STC’s Harmon Hall [...]
We Love Arts: The Heir Apparent
Floyd King as Geronte and Carson Elrod as Crispin in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Heir Apparent,
directed by Michael Kahn. Photo by Scott Suchman.
The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Heir Apparent is quiet and subdued for about as many seconds as you can count on your two hands. Then Crispin (Carson Elrod) comes clamoring in [...]
We Love Arts: The Habit of Art
Artistic process. Can it make for a sexy night at the theater? The grueling path to perfection through grinding repetition, as the artist develops techniques and habits that can release creativity or stifle it, sometimes makes for a great play. Sometimes not. Recently Studio Theatre explored the artistic process in Venus in Fur, where the [...]
More »We Love Arts: Stop Kiss
No Rules Theater Company’s Stop Kiss tells the story of reluctant Callie and bold Sara as they meet and change each other’s lives in late-90s New York. Callie has a level of comfortable living that lazy accidents and compromises have delivered to her, and with it the ability to take in the cat of a [...]
More »2011 All Roads Film Festival at NatGeo
‘National Archives Film Canisters’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’
Starting tomorrow, the National Geographic Museum hosts the 2011 All Roads Film Festival. The five-day festival showcases nearly 40 films in 24 countries, created to provide an international platform for indigenous and under-represented minority-culture artists to share cultures, stories and perspectives through the power of film and [...]
