Theatrics in Washington

A friend of mine teased me as we were on the way home from the mind-blowing, "Love's Labor's Lost" at the Shakespeare Theater. "So, have you given up on your blog?" he asked. "No updates since April." I sighed. The blog began as a way to chronicle, and never forget, the great, and not-so-great, shows I saw in Washington and elsewhere. Perhaps I could parley the blog into free tickets and discounts at theater gift shops and concession stands! Great influence over strangers' theatrical choices! Meetings with directors, actors, and people who give out free T-shirts that advertise a show!

Ahem. None of that has happened. Surprise, surprise. First, I like to go to the theater and then not have to write about it afterwards. It felt like homework. ("Go see a silly and enjoyable Marivaux romp, "The Game of Love and Chance," at the Folger Shakespeare Theater--and then WRITE ABOUT IT.")

Why write about that show? It was a fun evening of mistaken identities, servants masquerading as masters, men trying to deceive women who are deceiving men, all in period costume dancing around a bright lime-green set. Would I recommend it? If you're in a certain mood, well, yes, but, well, I dunno. Who are you, anyway? I can't take this responsibility!

If I don't like something, I don't want to write about it. It feels cruel. Take "David's Dance," at the Trumpet Vine Theater Company--a play so bad, with a plot so contrived, that I felt sorry for the actors. But a lot of work had gone into it, and the play verged on being worthwhile, when a religious talk show host was brought face-to-face with a gay man after one of her hateful homophobic rants. That could have been a show in and of itself, but it was only a short scene in a long evening. I stayed mum. "David's Dance," the title, must refer to a passage in the Bible where David danced before God, and there are endless commentaries about whether or not his dance was a sincere prayer, or an insult. It seemed to depend on whether or not you liked what he was wearing. Anyway, there was potential there, but unexploited.

So I am blogging much, much less. The latest dilemma is what to say about "Ellington" at MetroStage--beautiful music accompanied by a very superficial book. Everyone is raving about the show. Except me. I don't know much about Ellington, and after the show I still don't. I'm not a huge jazz fan. Maybe you have to be to enjoy this show.

I will get educated. I will try to have more confidence in my opinions, and try to justify them. But I like my theater without a writing assignment afterwards, so I won't be blogging much unless there is something I desperately want to remember and share.

Someone e-mailed to ask when the Pay-What-You-Can performances are scheduled at the Studio Theater. Answer: Usually the first Saturday matinee of the performance. (It's best to call the box office to make sure, of course.) I'm not surprised to get inquiries about the Studio. It's hard to navigate the Studio's Web site (you have to know what's playing at their main stage as opposed to what's at the Secondstage, and be pretty adept with your mouse, as well, to click properly). The Studio doesn't seem to send out as many postcards as other theaters, either. But the play's the thing, and the Studio is one of the finest theaters in Washington, having put on some very fine shows this year. They have a special relationship with Neil LaBute--"Fat Pig" was superb, as was "The Shape of Things." I loathe/dread/look forward to their next foray into Neil LaBute's cruel exposes of human nature.

Just saw the Saturday matinee of the Studio's "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." It is worth seeing, but only if you consciously pack away what remains of your memories of the movie starring Maggie Smith, and the superb novel. This is a new adaptation of the novel, which probes the religious issues raised more deeply than other versions we've seen. Very timely, given the rehabilitation of Judas that is on the front pages of many newspapers.

In a nutshell, the show deals with the devotion of a teacher towards her students, and questions what loyalty the students owe that teacher, who is constantly in trouble with the strait-laced hierarchy in a Scottish girls' school in the 1930's.

This production started out confusingly, with nuns singing and crossing the stage. ("Are there nuns in the Church of Scotland" I wondered. "Gee, I never knew.") During the discussion afterwards, the dramaturg explained that he was trying to show that there was a Catholic convent located near the girls' school, but that was not clear to me. The show unveiled itself slowly, and you're rooting for Miss Jean Brodie's spirited if unorthodox instruction throughout, until the second act, when one of her students turns on her.
There was a focus on "Who Betrayed Me"--very Christ-like--but I didn't think the identity mattered so much. Any student could have grown up and, shattered by events, gone to the administration.
The acting was strong, remarkably so for the little girls and of the main student, Sandy. It's sad to agree with Peter Marks of the Washington Post--hell hath frozen over--but he was right when he said that Sarah Marshall was miscast as Miss Jean Brodie. She is not young enough for the part, and they made no effort to make her a beauty. I did not think this casting choice was fatal, as Marks did. Marshall was dynamic and fun to watch. But I didn't think she would have been as captivating to the men. Marks wrote: "Sarah Marshall proves fatally ill equipped for the role of the haughty, deluded schoolteacher in Jay Presson Allen's 1966 play. Since the casting of this formidable part amounts to sink-or-swim, this revival goes into an early free fall from which it never recovers. Marshall has a knack for comedy but also a tendency to gild the lily. Her inclination is to play things big, and often to the audience. The play, set in 1930s Edinburgh, asks for a certain level of histrionics, but Brodie, who instructs students at an old-line school to treasure art and beauty, is a bully in an aesthete's mask."

See it and judge for yourself. My general rule is that if Marks dislikes it, there's something there to like. Casting Sarah Marshall was a bold choice, and I like bold choices, even though I don't always agree with them. I didn't in this case.

Take a fascinating man, Judge Francis Biddle, who oversaw the internment of the Japanese during WWII and served as a judge at the Nuremberg Trials, and pair him a wonderful, energetic young Canadian secretary, and what do you get? A very dull play at Ford's Theater.
What a waste, I thought, as the man's aches and pains, his time at the boy's school of Groton, and the secretary's background in Saskatoon, Canada were explored in greater depth than anything this fascinating man did during his career.

The author was obviously intimidated by her subject and unwilling to probe too deeply into his wartime activities. It was as if a play about Alberto Gonzalez mentioned nothing about Guantanamo except the how hot it was in Cuba. On the other hand, issues in the secretary's life--her lonely marriage, her unplanned pregnancy--were left unresolved.

I have no doubt that this play was faithful to the secretary's memories of her work with Judge Biddle. But a play, to be worth an audience, must be bolder, go beyond mere steneography of what happened, especially with such two fine actors --James Witmore & Karron Graves--on stage.

As usual, much of Ford's audience was composed of young people dragged there to see the theater where Lincoln died. I felt so sorry for them as they sat through this three-hour ordeal. But they were well-behaved on the whole. At intermission, they said they were "Trying" not to fall asleep, and my conversations with them were more entertaining than anything that happened on stage. This play had such wonderful buzz on the Footlights' discussion list--I must find someone who shares my taste!
**
I also went to see "The Secret Garden" at the Trapier Theater at the St. Albans' School. Perhaps it was low expectations--perhaps it was my memories of how much I loved the book--but I was surprisingly impressed with the production! The students have trained voices and I could hear every word. The musical is deeper than the book, but this production was never as gloomy as I recalled the NY production as being. The acting was solid and the show was quite moving. Washington theater can surprise you. The theater that has everything (Ford), including tour buses and professional actors, can disappoint. A high school can do a great, moving job with a tricky musical. That's theater for you.

I'm feeling particularly bereft of good reviewers (by which I mean people who share my taste). For a while I relied on the City Paper's reviews, but we have parted ways. (Their taste has deteriorated, that is, diverged from mine). Must see "Measure for Measure" at the Folger. A difficult play, and not much buzz about it, but I don't trust buzz anymore. I'll go based on a friend of mine's recommendation. She's an English teacher, and we have the same taste in books, so I will use her now as a guide. It's a tricky world out there. One might almost say "Trying."

I was so happy with the Studio Theater's production of "Fat Pig." Neil LaBute is ordinarily so cruel, and powerfully so, that I dread and look forward to his new plays. This one, as the reviews hinted, was a kinder, gentler play that left you free to imagine that the characters could find happiness--perhaps even with each other. The trim, ambitious man and his obese girlfriend could change! She offered to have her stomach stapled, for Pete's sake! And he--he could learn to commit! It could happen! Pigs can fly! The men I was with were not convinced. Move on, they said. That relationship is doomed. Men are so cruel, I thought, which is exactly what I think after every LaBute play. That, and "I'm hungry," which I guess was an appropriate thought after this performance.

The play was extremely well done, fast moving, wonderfully acted, and staged with great creativity. The scenes move from a pizzeria to an office to a restaurant to a bedroom to a beach picnic and it's so well done that you don't realize how much skill it takes to shift scenes that way.

Rarely has there been such a good discussion after a play. Everyone could bring something to the table (we appropriately discussed the play over dinner).
People discussed intermarriages; interracial marriages; marriages across class; and the role of friends who just want to warn you, for your own good, about what might happen down the line. Such good, good friends.
A wonderful afternoon of theater that I will savor, like the memory of a good meal, for a long time.

It's very hard for shows to live up to the enormous expectations that are built up around them. "Wicked" at the Kennedy Center was very well acted, and beautifully staged. I loved the premise of the show--the "backstory" of the Wizard of Oz, explaining the genesis of almost all the characters. The characters could have been stereotypes or caricatures, but the acting was too good and the script too clever to allow for that. Unfortunately, the sound was so poor where we were sitting in the first tier that although we could see everything, we couldn't make out much of what the characters were saying and very little of what they sang. I felt terrible for dragging my parents out to a disappointing evening. Worse, the organizer of the evening who obtained the hard-to-get tickets (and gave us great seats) felt the disappointment personally, as if he were in charge of the sound system! Not true, but that's not something that can be explained. It has to be felt. Feelings are easily hurt and it's hard to undo the damage afterwards. Funny, but the intense feelings of the characters in the show were mirrored by many of us in the audience: "How could you do this to me?" "Why is the world so unjust?"

I still feel it was a memorable evening, and what we did manage to hear intelligibly we loved.
The idea of the show is very ambitious--how do people become Wicked? What does "Wicked" mean anyway? Does anyone who opposes the current powers that be qualify as Wicked? That's an important question to ask nowadays. When there's an enemy, does anyone who refuses to fight qualify as wicked? The show will stay with me--particularly the acting and the music. For the rest, I'll buy the book and read the clever lines and lyrics that we missed, due to a wicked--or perhaps just an old and failing--sound system.

I have been an "armchair theatergoer" this past month, but in the New Year I hope to be more a more active theater-goer, slightly less judgmental and more adventurous.

Two excellent articles begin 2006. One, from the New York Times, examines the development of a script for a bilingual Arabic-Hebrew production of a play loosely based on "Six Characters in Search of an Author." (I will never forget Arena Stage's magnificent 1989 production of Six Characters--one of those theater experiences that is seared in my mind.) The article frankly addresses the difficulties both of ANY dramatic production, but also the sensitivities that are unique to the Middle East.

Theater is one of the finest ways to resolve conflict, particularly in the Middle East, where people are desperate for entertainment, but anything too frivolous can feel like a betrayal of the terrible circumstances in which they find themselves. The play, "Them" ("Hem" in Hebrew) did more for Arab-Israeli/Jewish-non-Jewish experiences for me than years of peace work. It was honest and funny and brought all kinds of people together--people who would never go to a peace workshop or a multiethnic gathering of any kind.

Here's an excerpt from the NY Times article, which is online at:

December 31, 2005

In Israel, Where Art Imitates Messy Life
By LISA ALCALAY KLUG

When the Palestinian playwright Mohammad el-Thaher accepted a commission to write a new bilingual Arabic-Hebrew play, his inspiration was Luigi Pirandello's "Six Actors in Search of an Author." Pirandello's signature work, it explores not only themes of illusion and reality, but also ways that truth is distorted. It was a fitting choice. Mr. Thaher titled his play "Six Actors in Search of a Plot," and during the first five days of rehearsals last August at Kibbutz Ein Hahoresh near Hadera, Israel, the Palestinian and Jewish actors argued about nearly every line.

Mr. Thaher, a native of the Arab quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, based his script on personal monologues written by Israeli Arab and Jewish facilitators affiliated with Peace Child Israel, a nonprofit group based in Tel Aviv that has used theater to teach tolerance and mutual respect to Arab and Jewish teenagers. ...

During rehearsals, both sides said they felt under attack. The Palestinians were "unwilling to give up their attachment to history," Mr. Thaher said. "It's their weapon."

Jewish actors thought that Mr. Thaher's script richly expressed Palestinian claims but was anemic when it came to Jewish experience, said the director and choreographer Billy Yalowitz. "The Jews also felt they were on the defensive again and again."

[snippet]


Still, "Six Actors in Search of a Plot" survived, and after a long autumn break because of Mr. Yalowitz's teaching schedule in the United States, the team gathered again this month. In rehearsals at Kibbutz Gaash north of Tel Aviv, they kept disagreements on a back burner. But, Mr. Yalowitz said, "at any moment, things can boil back over."

When the show opens tonight and continues in the coming days at Israeli Arab, Jewish and mixed sites (including Jerusalem's Y.M.C.A.), audiences will decide if it succeeds in its goal: forging a new way to address the conflict. The play, which runs about 75 minutes, airs tragedies on both sides and challenges the actors, who go in and out of character, to focus on the present and the potential for new human life. Each performance will be followed by a discussion with audience members and an invitation to form dialogue groups.

"It is like a birth, so I feel a little bit afraid, a little bit hope, and a little bit tension," Mr. Thaher said. "But I hope that the end will be like a baby birth, a beautiful thing."
[snippet]]
****
Closer to home, two fine theater critics --Bob Mondello and Trey Graham-- analyze Washington, D.C.'s theater scene in an interesting article in the City Paper. I disagree with their conclusion--that more theaters means more trashy productions. Also, I happen to like some things that these critics dismiss as fluff. Anything that pays the bills is not fluff. But the article is well worth reading:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/cover/2005/cover1230e.html
Musicals, Chairs

by Bob Mondello and Trey Graham

Too many seats. Now there’s a problem to make D.C. theater old-timers scratch their heads.

For years, local troupes complained that—unlike, say, Baltimore or Chicago—Washington had precious few decrepit warehouses, abandoned firehouses, and unused industrial spaces to convert into theaters. Now, so many local stages have raised the cash to raise new roofs that the community’s latest worry is whether there are sufficient theatergoers to fill all the new seats.

The concern is entirely rational. The Studio Theatre, the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, the Gala Hispanic Theatre, and the Olney Theatre Center have all come close to doubling their capacities with their new houses. Arlington’s Signature Theatre will soon go from 136 seats to nearly 400. The Shakespeare Theatre Company won’t be giving up its 451-seat Lansburgh Theatre when it adds an a 776-seat main stage around the corner. Arena Stage dreams of a new “Cradle” for experimental work, the Washington Stage Guild will be ensconced in a flashy downtown high-rise, and the brand-new Atlas Arts Center will soon open a main stage to complement the two black-box theaters it already has.

The only venue going dark as these other stages light up is the Clark Street Playhouse, soon to be demolished for condominiums. And even its chief tenant, the Washington Shakespeare Company, is likely to grow by a few seats if it ends up sidling across I-395 to the space Signature is vacating.

If all these houses operate year-round, they’ll add close to 2,000 new theater seats to the more than 12,000 that Washington already has. Figure six performances a week, 30 weeks a year—which is about right for most stages with mortgages—and putting butts in 2,000 extra seats nightly will require some 360,000 additional butts per season.

All this comes at a time when the ground is shifting under cultural institutions in ways that could shake all these new buildings to their foundations. [snippet]
**
May 2006 be filled with good theater, sold-out shows, and many thoughtful writings and discussions.

The African Continuum Theatre Company will be having Pay-What-You-Can
Previews of the Fresh Flavas Rep productions of Draft Day and Kingdom on
Thursday, November 10th and Friday, November 11th.

Draft Day by Marvin McAllister and directed by Tre Garrett will be on
Thursday, November 10th at 8 pm. Kingdom by David Emerson Toney and
directed by Jennfer L. Nelson will be on Friday, November 11th at 8 pm.

Draft Day is a dark fantasy dissecting the ambitions of two young basketball
players on the verge of rocketing into the professional leagues. The action
moves between the 21st Century players' ego-driven braggadocio and 19th
Century slave traders assessments of humans as commodities.


Kingdom is a gritty, funny, inner city meditation on Shakespeare's Richard
III. Set in above a barbeque joint in Cleveland, three brothers maneuver to
control their family legacy.


All performances will be at the Atlas Performing Arts Center at 1333 H
Street NE, Washington D.C.

To RSVP for these special PWYC previews, please email Managing Director
Melvin Gerald at mgerald@africancontinuumtheatre.com.

For more information, visit www.africancontinuumtheatre.com

NOTE: MAXIMUM NUMBER OF TICKETS PER PATRON IS TWO.

FEEL FREE TO FORWARD TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!!
--
Melvin D. Gerald, Jr.
Managing Director
African Continuum Theatre Company

Below are three shows of interest, especially to those of us on a budget. I
listed the relevant performances at the Calendar of Free, Cheap, and
Pay-What-You-Can Shows at:
http://www.my.calendars.net/dcfreecheappwyc/

**

A Pocket Full of Grace: This is a free workshop performance by American
University students in conjunction
with Ford's Theatre. A Pocket Full of Grace is a new musical about a young
pick-pocket.
The performance is in the new Katzen Arts Center at American University.

For more information, see the web site:
http://www.american.edu/cas/katzen/event_description.cfm?event=154

Written by William Hopkins and Carl Menninger.

Dates: November 11, 2005 and November 12, 2005
Time: 8:00 PM
**
For the show below, pay-what-you-can previews are Nov 9-10 at 8 p.m.

AS BEES IN HONEY DROWN
by David Carter Beane

As Bees in Honey Drown is the story of hot, young novelist Evan Wyler
(Andrew
Zox) whose first novel has received critical acclaim. When the fabulous and
mysterious
Alexa Vere De Vere (Kari L. Ginsburg) approaches Wyler, about writing the
screenplay
of her bizarre life story, he is taken in by her charm and apparent
connections.
She leads him on a whirlwind tour of the "it" crowd and list places peopled
by
models, rock stars, actors and the powerful (sixteen roles played by an
ensemble
of four actors; Heather Haney, Jon Townson, Sarah Ellis and Gerald B.
Browning),
promising him a future of Armani suits and success. In the course of their
adventures
gay Evan falls in love with Alexa who is described as "pure confection"
and
"a mixture
of every woman you've ever loved in a movie."

But everything comes crashing down when Alexa, a con artist, disappears
without
a trace and Evan is pummeled by Skunk (Gerald B. Browning), one of Alexa's
other
victims, who believes Evan is in on her scam. As it slowly dawns on Evan
that everything
Alexa has told him is a lie, he begins to search his notes for clues to
Alexa's
true identity....[snippet] As Evan plots his revenge, he embarks on an
adventure in
self-discovery and finds that the experience with Alexa has lead to new
inspiration,
growth and love.


Trumpet Vine Theatre Company
at Theater on the Run
3700 South Four Mile Run Dr., Arlington
703-912-1649
trumpetvinetc@yahoo.com
http://www.trumpetvinetheatrecompany.org

**
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
presents

STARVING
by S.M. SHEPHARD-MASSAT
directed by SERET SCOTT
featuring Woolly company member Doug Brown with Bethany Butler, Jessica
Frances Dukes, Lizan Mitchell, J Paul Nicholas, Dawn Ursula, Craig Wallace,
Michael Anthony Williams.

November 14 — December 18, 2005
at Woolly Mammoth, 641 D Street, NW (7th & D)
WORLD PREMIERE

PWYC — Pay-What-You-Can Performances: Monday, Nov. 14 & Tuesday, Nov. 15 at
8pm. Tickets are sold at the box office the day of the show beginning at
6:30pm. Two tickets per person, cash or check ONLY.

Stampede Seats:
If a regular performance is not sold out, available seats will be sold for
$10 each 15 minutes prior to showtime, on a first-come, first-served basis.


Meet-the-Artists discussions: Nov. 23 (8pm), Nov. 27 2pm, & Dec. 1 (8pm)
Meet the Playwright: Wed., Nov. 16, after the performance with playwright
Sherry Shephard-Massat and Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz

SYNOPSIS: A bustling apartment stoop in a new black neighborhood in 1950s
Atlanta brims with vitality and ambition as a community blossoms with
residents moving from the country to a fresh start in the city. But a peek
behind the apartment walls reveals a steamy world of private bonds and
struggles within, where the women try to better their lives in a new place
and keep their men focused and striving for more. With a keen eye, vivid
language and riotous humor, Shephard-Massat captures a pivotal moment in one
particular black community as it struggles over sex, shifting values, and an
uncertain future.

WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANY

641 D St NW, Washington, DC 20004 Admin: 202-289-2443 Box Office:
202-393-3939

Round House Theatre Bethesda

presents


A Year with Frog and Toad

Music by Robert Reale

Book and Lyrics by Willie Reale

Based on the books by Arnold Lobel

Directed by Nick Olcott
Choreography by Michael J. Bobbitt
Musical Direction by Jay Crowder



November 16 – December 11, 2005



Pay-What-You-Can Performances: Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 19 at 3 p.m.

Tickets go on sale one hour prior to performance at the Round House Theatre Bethesda box office. Cash only. Best availability on 11/16.

“A bright, bouncy, altogether lovable show!” —The New York Times

This Tony®-nominated Broadway musical celebrates the joys of friendship and sparkles with snappy, sophisticated songs that Variety says pay "homage to the music of Cole Porter." Laugh as you follow the amphibian "Odd Couple" and their friends through an adventure-filled year and find out why The Wall Street Journal called A Year with Frog and Toad "the best new musical on Broadway" when it opened in 2003.

Performances: Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. No performance on Thanksgiving.



Adult Tickets: $25-$50. Available at the Round House Theatre Bethesda box office, 240.644.1100 or www.roundhousetheatre.org.



Kid and Teen Tickets: $15. Available at the Round House Theatre Bethesda box office, 240.644.1100. Not available for online purchase.



CAST: Will Gartshore, Steve Tipton, Bobby Smith, Sherri L. Edelen, and Erin Driscoll
ARTISTIC TEAM: Set Designer, Jos. B. Musumeci, Jr.; Costume Designer, Rosemary Pardee; Lighting Designers, Daniel MacLean Wagner and Harold F. Burgess II; Sound Designer, Tony Angelini; Properties, Timothy J. Jones; Stage Manager, Cary Louise Gillett



This production is funded in part by the generous support of The Dupler Family.



PERFORMANCE EXTRAS:

Designer Discussion: Nov. 16 at 6:45 p.m.

Meet the designers and get a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the show.

Directorially Speaking: Nov. 18 at 7:15 p.m.

Meet the director and learn about his vision for the show.

Meet Frog and Toad after every performance.




Round House Theatre Bethesda
4545 East-West Hwy., Bethesda, MD 20814
Metro: Bethesda, 1 block



Box Office: 240.644.1100

www.roundhousetheatre.org