Recently by Chris Geidner

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announced a one-night-only reading of 8, Dustin Lance Black's play about the trial over the constitutionality of Proposition 8, to take place at 7 p.m. Monday, June 4, to coincide with Capital Pride 2012.

All tickets will be $5. The reading of 8 at Woolly Mammoth will be directed by Alan Paul, associate director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, and will feature Woolly Company Members Jessica Frances Dukes, Rick Foucheux, Jennifer Mendenhall, Eric Sutton and Emily Townley.

Other actors are to be added to the cast in the coming weeks.

The production is produced with license from the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) and Broadway Impact.

Following the DC reading, Woolly Mammoth announced that it will host a town-hall style discussion with National Gay and Lesbian Task Force executive director Rea Carey, Maryland State Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D), Human Rights Campaign legal director Brian Moulton, and U.S. Department Civil Rights Division of Justice senior counselor Matt Nosanchuk.

The discussion will be livestreamed on #NewPlay TV (www.livestream.com/newplay).

Tickets may be purchased online at www.woollymammoth.net, over the phone at 202-393-3939, or in person at the Box Office located at 641 D St. NW.

The Helen Hayes Awards nominees for 2012, DC's theater awards, were announced on Monday, Feb. 27, and include nominees ranging from fifteen nominations, including Outstanding Resident Play, for Synetic Theater's King Lear to nine nominations, including Outstanding Resident Musical, for Signature Theatre's Hairspray to six nominations -- including two Robert Prosky Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, Resident Play, nominations -- for Studio Theatre's The Habit of Art.

For the top resident musical and play nominees, 11 shows were nominated.

For Outstanding Resident Musical:

• Follies - The Kennedy Center
• Hairspray - Signature Theatre
• Liberty Smith - Ford's Theatre
• Pop! - The Studio Theatre 2ndStage
• Side By Side By Sondheim - Signature Theatre
• The Sound of Music - Olney Theatre Center

For Outstanding Resident Play:

• A Bright New Boise - Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
• Cyrano - Folger Theatre
• King Lear - Synetic Theater
• Ruined - Arena Stage
• Venus in Fur - The Studio Theatre

Among the other nominees are Hugo Weaving, profiled by Metro Weekly, for his supporting performance in the non-resident production of Uncle Vanya at the Kennedy Center; Tom Story for his lead role in Studio Theatre 2ndStage's production of Pop!; and Story's partner, Chris Dinolfo, for his supporting role in the resident production of King Lear at Synetic Theater. The couple, starring together in Round House Theatre's Next Fall, recently were profiled by Metro Weekly.

The Helen Hayes Awards is a signature program of theatreWashington, the only organization that promotes, supports, and represents Washington area theatres, artists, and diverse audiences of all ages.

SEE all the nominees.

[Photo: Story and Dinolfo (Photo by Todd Franson.)]

Among the nominees for Academy Awards announced this morning are several who were nominated for playing characters from across the spectrum of LGBT identity, including two Best Actress nominees: Glenn Close for for her role as Albert Nobbs in Albert Nobbs and Rooney Mara for her role as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

The duo will, however, be facing an uphill battle for the Oscar, facing off against The Irony Lady's Meryl Streep, My Week With Marilyn's Michelle Williams and The Help's Viola Davis.

In the supporting categories, Janet McTeer was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Albert Nobbs and Christopher Plummer was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Beginners.

Also of note: Madonna's W.E. was nominated for Outstanding Costume Design.

Read all the nominees here.

The Oscar winners will be announced on ABC on Feb. 26.

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Patti LuPone has problems. Mainly, though, they come down to Cirque du Soleil and Hair.

On Saturday, Sept. 10 LuPone will be performing her sold-out show, Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda, at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, kicking off the multipurpose arts venue's 10th anniversary season.

Although Metro Weekly talked with LuPone about the up-side of the arts in the issue of Sept. 1, LuPone also has criticisms to level.

What are the Tony Award-winner's biggest complaints? Ticket prices and microphones.

First, the tickets. LuPone told Metro Weekly:

You know, I'm very angry at the ticket prices in New York City, and I think it has more to do with greed than it has to do with anything else.

Cirque du Soleil – it's the big, bad brother now. Cirque du Soleil taking a five-year lease on Radio City Music Hall is going to suck Broadway dry. ... If you don't know a particular playwright or a particular play and you're facing a huge ticket price, what are you going to do? You're going to go with what you know, and more people know Cirque de – the tourists come and people know Cirque du Soleil. They really are, I think, ridiculous now. Go back to Montreal.

But, her prime problem is the sound. She said:

That's my main complaint: That the productions are just too loud. You can't have an intimate experience in the theater anymore. And that's what it's about. It's really about the unification of an audience, having a collective audience, individually, and listening. And we're not allowed to listen any more because the sound level is too loud.

And, I don't know where the voice is coming from. It's not coming from the stage any more. My eyes are looking at the stage, and my ears are searching for the sound that the mouth is producing. So, immediately I'm disenfranchised from my experience.

Hair is a perfect example. The revival was just too loud. I remember seeing it originally; it's an intimate musical. And this – I couldn't understand any of the lyrics.

On Saturday at the Clarice Smith Center, audiences -- with reasonable ticket prices and, hopefully, LuPone-approved mic levels -- will have their opportunity to see the opinionated performer at work.

On Wednesday, April 13, Nellie's Sports Bar will be hosting a benefit for Ben Shallenberger, who was recently diagnosed with lymphoblastic lymphoma, a rare and aggressive cancer.

The event will take place from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday, and Nellie's will be "offering a $1 donation for every Nellie Beer sold" all night.

Shallenberger's work first gained national attention when he won a national video competition in 2008 called "Film Your Issue." That connected him with the Human Rights Campaign, where he is a manager in their media production department.

From the Facebook page set up for the event:

As Ben later explained, "I wrote a poem about the personal struggle with being gay and a Christian. I spoke from the heart about my experiences. The whole thing took under 4 hours, but the effects of it will last forever."  You can watch his video.

When the battle for marriage equality was taking place here in the District, Ben offered testimony as a resident of Ward 5 in support of the The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009.  In his words: "I’m not even involved in a relationship at this time. To be completely honest, I've never even been on a date. But I do know that someday, I will be ready to commit my life to someone, and I want the opportunity to get married in the eyes of God and the state."
 
Through his work at the Human Rights Campaign and his time and talents in the field of video editing, Ben's work has been seen by many.

Most recently, Shallenberger told Metro Weekly that he had worked on some of the videos seen at the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's annual dinner held on March 19, including the video of Lady Gaga accepting the Randy Shilts Visibility Award. Lady Gaga herself later tweeted her thanks for the award by sharing Metro Weekly's coverage of the award and video.