Archive for the ‘We Love Arts’ Category
First Look: the Terra Cotta Warrior Invasion
Yesterday was the opening of “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor” at the National Geographic Museum. A rare treat, the exhibit is on the final stop of a four-city US tour and closes on March 31, 2010.
Promotion for this visit has been going on since spring of this year. The hype is justifiable, [...]
We Love Arts: Disco Pigs
The joy of being so entwined you can finish each other’s thoughts… the pain when those thoughts become dissonant.
For one hour in a small black box theater, Madeleine Carr and Rex Daugherty command your attention with these extreme emotions, in Solas Nua’s production of “Disco Pigs.” It’s rare that I cry at the theater – [...]
We Love Arts: Full Circle
Twenty years ago this week, the Berlin Wall fell. It seemed proof positive that an overwhelming force of people could make a change for good, a stand against government oppression, by sheer numbers and tenacity, forever dispelling the myth of public apathy. Still true?
Woolly Mammoth’s production of Charles L. Mee’s rather chaotic “Full Circle” pushes [...]
FotoWeek DC 2009: What to See
FotoWeek Projections by coolmarie
Before last year there was a huge void in DC’s photography world. Despite being the home of National Geographic, the Newseum, the Washington Post, and many award winning photographers, we were missing an event to bring everyone together, to celebrate photography. Sure, some of the galleries in town would have a photography [...]
We Love Arts: Much Ado About Nothing
I can’t think of a better antidote to losing the sunshine when you leave work than to head to the Folger to see its vibrant production of “Much Ado About Nothing.” Once inside the theater you’ll feel instantly transported back to summer.
Setting Shakespeare’s “Much Ado” during our own DC Caribbean Carnival may at first seem [...]
We Love Arts: Dracula
Oh, Vlad. How we missed you. Vampires are back in fashion, sucking blood and living forever. Sad soulful looks are fine, but let’s say you prefer your undead to be more aggressive and lustful. Synetic Theater’s revamp of their smash rendition of “Dracula” will be just the thing to get you in the mood. For [...]
More »We Love Arts: A Flea in Her Ear
Missing suspenders, snapped frilly garters, a revolving bed, a man who can’t pronounce his consonants – Georges Feydeau’s “A Flea in Her Ear” takes some uptight French aristocrats and rattles them around in the Frisky Puss Hotel. It’s a tightly constructed “bedroom farce” that Constellation Theatre Company attacks with frenetic physical comedy. Lots of scenery [...]
More »The Strange Comfort of Brian Jungen
Opening today at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is a new exhibition that will run through August 8, 2010. Brian Jungen: Strange Comfort is a major exhibit showcasing the critically acclaimed works of the Canadian-based artist and is his first exhibition organized by a Native American museum. Jungen’s work has been [...]
More »We Love Arts: The Alchemist
David Manis as Subtle, Jeff Biehl as Abel Drugger and Michael Milligan as Face
in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist, directed by Michael Kahn.
Photo by Scott Suchman.
I can’t speak for any other reviewer, but for me the most enjoyable reviews to write are the ones where I really enjoyed a production [...]
We Love Arts: Man Ray
I love Man Ray. There’s something still so – cool – about his photographs, even today in our digital informal age. Hauntingly evocative of my favorite era, I usually rather narrowly think of him in context of 20’s fashion. There’s no better representation of the iconic beauty of that time than his Noire et Blanche, [...]
More »Edward Burtynsky: Oil
Thankfully for those of us in D.C. who love art, especially those with a particular fondness for photography, we have Paul Roth and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Over the past couple of years they’ve had an amazing lineup of photography exhibits, showcasing a dream team of photographers including Annie Leibovitz, Richard Avedon, Ansel Adams, [...]
More »We Love Arts: Measure for Measure
Esther Williamson as Isabella, and Kimberly Gilbert as Angelo
Photo by Kristin Holodak
“Measure for Measure” could be described in simplest terms as a “he said, she said” kind of play. When fellow author Don shared his thoughts on Taffety Punk’s current production with me, it fascinated me that we had two disparate views. So why not [...]
We Love Arts: Eclipsed
At what point does the abominable become mundane? At what point is a woman raped so much that she can shrug it off? At what point does she become so immune to violence against herself that she can turn around and become the perpetrator, the pimp and the executioner? And at what point does our [...]
More »We Love Arts: Festival Fever!
Bagpipers at the Virginia Scottish Games and Festival by Corinne Whiting
Considering the headlines that dominate news pages these days, who could blame us for craving a bit of escapism? Luckily, an avalanche of September festivals offers ample excuses to wear kooky costumes or to (attempt to) speak in charming accents, to relive the past or [...]
We Love Arts: Edgewood Mural Jam
Photos by Max Cook
As luck would have it I didn’t end up going to the beach this weekend after all, so I decided to scooter over to Edgewood with my camera to check out Saturday’s Mural Jam and I’m sure glad I did. What is easily the summer’s biggest public art event in DC, the [...]
We Love Arts: La Bohème
It’s not quite Rent, but its certainly not your grandmother’s Puccini, either. Wolf Trap Opera Company’s one-night staging of La bohème fell somewhere inbetween classical and modern — with the occasional wink at the post-modern — with its multi-media presentation of the opera set in Brooklyn, NY. Director Kevin Newbury’s treatment of Puccini’s immensely popular [...]
More »We Love Arts: Mohamed El Hosseny
Sometimes I pinch myself, being so lucky to live here. There are many incredible opportunities available to us, it’s a bit overwhelming! You can learn about different cultures every week, sampling a bit of the world.
As I’m currently studying bellydance at Saffron Dance, I’m learning more about Middle Eastern culture, dance and music. One area [...]
We Love Arts: Living Dead in Denmark
Zombies…so hot right now.
No, really. If there is a pop culture meme that has taken the arts and culture world by the throat in the past eighteen months, its the resurrection (puns absolutely intended) of the Zombie. The New York Times stretched, a bit hilariously, to attribute the rise of the Zombie to the recent [...]
Wolf Trap Opera: Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria
It’s a July evening and at Wolf Trap’s colonial-era barns, Claudio Monteverdi’s 1640 opera Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (The Return of Ulysses) is being performed. Despite the historicity of the place, the opera and its performance by the Wolf Trap Opera company has a decidedly contemporary feel. Everything the modern viewer loves — romance, [...]
More »We Love Arts: Jim Reed, Stormchaser
For city dwellers and even for suburbanites, the weather is like a hallway — we pass through it, briefly and hurriedly on our way to our destination. Weather is something that comes across out path through desktop clients and Blackberry applications, something we endure between the house and our car, or from the metro and [...]
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