The most notable development this season is of course the unprecedented Women’s Voices Theater Festival. Between now and November nearly every professional theater company in the region will present at least one play by a female writer, an impressive — if temporary — feat of gender parity. But that’s hardly the only thing happening in D.C.’s rich theater scene. Many of today’s most cutting-edge playwrights are represented, sometimes more than once. And what would arguably the most Shakespeare-mad city be without dozens of theatrical twists on the Bard? And not just from the most obvious sources, either. In addition to Virginia’s Synetic Theater and its multiple “silent Shakespeare” productions, there’s also Baltimore’s Center Stage, which will upend tradition by staging an all-femaleAs You Like It. Because anything a man can do, a woman can do, too.
Caps for Sale, The Musical — A peddler’s caps are stolen while he naps. Was it those merry mischievous monkeys? (Now-9/27)
Lemony Snicket’s The Lump of Coal — Holly Twyford directs this hilarious adventure about unlikely friendships and holiday miracles (11/20-12/31)
James and the Giant Peach — A musical by Pasek and Paul (Dear Evan Hansen), based on Roald Dahl’s disproportionately peachy tale (2/14-4/4/16)
Emperor’s Nightingale — A re-imagining of the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale about an aimless prince who ultimately becomes king by, you might say, putting a bird on it (4/22-5/30/16)
Jumanji — When you’re bored, you play board games and then magic will happen, according to this world premiere adaptation(6/17-8/28)
ARENA STAGE
1101 Sixth Street, SW Washington, DC 20024 202-488-3300 arenastage.org
Destiny of Desire — A telenovela-styled fast-paced modern comedy set in Mexico, a world premiere from Karen Zacarias (Now-10/18, Kreeger Theater)
Oliver! — This season’s musical, the Tony-winning take on the Charles Dickens classic, reinvented in-the-round by Arena’s Molly Smith, (10/30-1/3/16, Fichandler Stage)
Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End — Twins Allison and Margaret Engel offer a pits-and-all portrait of the award-winning humorist, with direction from David Esbjornson (10/9-11/8, Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle)
Akeelah and the Bee — Playwright Cheryl L. West and director Charles Randolph-Wright adapt the spirited story of a girl from the Chicago projects trying to spell her way to success (11/13-12/27, Kreeger)
Sweat — A gripping tale about loss, redemption and redefinition in a new era from Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, a co-commission with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1/15-2/21/16, Kreeger)
The City of Conversation — An inside look at the theater of politics and the politics of conversation as viewed by a Georgetown hostess through recent decades, from Carter to Obama (1/29-3/6/16, Fichandler)
The Lion — A rock and roll journey from boyhood to manhood as written and performed by singer Benjamin Scheuer (2/26-4/10/16, Kogod Cradle)
All The Way — Robert Schenkkan’s 2014 Tony-winning drama examines the red, white and blue-blooded leadership of LBJ (4/1-5/8/16, Fichandler)
Disgraced — Avad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning incendiary examination of one’s self and one’s beliefs — of American identity and South Asian culture. Timothy Douglas directs (4/22-5/29/16, Kreeger)
CENTER STAGE
700 N Calvert Street Baltimore, MD 21202 410-332-0033 centerstage.org
Pride and Prejudice — Christopher Baker adapts Jane Austen’s master tale of manners and morals — and the desirable Mr. Darcy (Now-10/11)
The Secret Garden — Lucy Simon’s gorgeous musical exploring the obvious pains and hidden joys of growing up (10/30-11/29)
X’s and O’s (A Football Love Story) — The NFL takes Center Stage in this unflinching, ripped-from-the-headlines examination by KJ Sanchez with Jenny Mercein (11/13-12/20)
As You Like It — An all-female cast adds new twists and turns to Shakespeare’s beloved comedy (1/15-2/14/16)
Detroit ’67 — The music and politics of the Motown-era sizzle in the background of this sharp-eyed drama about racial and generational differences from Dominique Morisseau (4/8-5/8/16)
Avenue Q — The Tony-winning musical comedy, essentially Sesame Street for adults, plays right into Constellation’s theme this season, “Playtime for Grownups” (10/22-11/23)
Equus — Peter Shaffer’s Tony-winning tale about a troubled teenager’s dangerous obsession with horses (1/14-2/14/16)
Journey to the West — Alison Arkell Stockman directs a fanciful global tale from Mary Zimmerman, with live musical accompaniment by Tom Teasley (4/21-5/22/16)
FOLGER THEATRE
201 East Capitol Street, SE Washington, DC 20003 202-544-7077 folger.edu
texts&beheadings/Elizabeth R — Karen Coonrod’s devised theater piece attempts to offer a window into the mind of the resilient queen using her letters and other material from Folger’s collection (9/19-10/4)
Pericles — Striking visual projections and live music composed by Jack Herrick promise to fulfill the dramatic potential of this rough-seas Shakespeare voyage, in a production directed by Joseph Haj (11/13-12/20)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream — It’s hard to imagine this production, helmed by Aaron Posner, will be anything less than a dream, especially with Holly Twyford as Bottom and Erin Weaver as Puck (1/26-3/6/16)
The Reduced Shakespeare Company: William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged) — Two of the world’s most famous Shakespearean comedians, Austin Tichenor and Reed Martin, throw themselves into a funny, punny physical frenzy (4/21-5/8/16)
District Merchants — Aaron Posner offers a D.C.-informed variation on Shakespeare’s The Merchants of Venice intended to be both timely and timeless (5/31-7/3/16)
FORD’S THEATRE
511 10th Street NW Washington, DC 20004 202-347-4833 fordstheatre.org
The Guard — A world-premiere comedic drama about Rembrandt, Homer and those who protect the art we cherish (9/25-10/18)
A Christmas Carol — Edward Gero returns to play Scrooge in Michael Wilson’s adaptation of the Dickens classic (11/19-12/31)
The Glass Menagerie — The Southern-fried family drama that made Tennessee Williams famous gets examined anew with direction by Ford’s Theatre veteran Mark Ramont (1/22-2/21/16)
110 in the Shade — Marcia Milgrom Dodge directs and choreographs a new production of this 50-year-old musical about cowboys, confidence and courtship and featuring a lively score from the creators of The Fantasticks (3/11-5/14/16)
‘Capers — Written and performed by Anu Yadav, this stirring blend of theater, documentary and activism focuses on how a changing city affects the lives of those within it — specifically, those families in a D.C. housing project set for demolition (10/20-23)
World Builders — A love story by Johnna Adams that blurs real-life and fantasy, for better and for worse (10/29-11/21)
The Pillowman — Authorities in an unnamed totalitarian state are unsettled by a writer in Martin McDonagh’s piercing play, cutting to the heart of art (3/10-4/2/16)
Blackberry Winter — Michael Dove directs Holly Twyford in a National New Play Network rolling world premiere about the struggles of a daughter to cope with her mother’s advancing dementia (5/19-6/11-16)
GALA HISPANIC THEATRE
3333 14th St NW Washington, DC 20010 202-234-7174 galatheatre.org
Yerma — Frederico Garcia Lorca’s poetic language soars in a contemporary adaptation of a tale about a Spanish woman’s rage against a repressive society (Now-10/4)
Senorita y Madame: The Secret War of Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein — The epic clash that revolutionized the fashion industry and changed societal views about beauty (2/4-2/28/16)
Chronicle of a Death Foretold — An adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s about a murderous mission of revenge by a band of brothers (4/7-5/8/16)
El Paso Blue — Jose Carrasquillo directs this wild and comic tale of lust, revenge, identity and the Blues (6/2-6/26/16)
KEEGAN THEATRE
1742 Church Street NW Washington, DC 20036 202-265-3767 keegantheatre.com
Dogfight — Pasek & Paul’s Off-Broadway hit musical about a love that blooms against the odds (Now-9/19)
The Dealer of Ballynafeigh — As part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival, Keegan offers a world premiere of this dark, offbeat tale about a drug bust gone wrong (10/17-11/14)
The Magic Tree — Ursula Rani Sarma’s story of love born in a very dark place examines why good people do bad things and repeat the mistakes of the past (10/10-11/13)
An Irish Carol — The Keegan holiday tradition continues with a limited engagement of Matthew Keenan’s homage to Dickens, told as only the Irish can (12/12-31)
Picasso at the Lapin Agile — Steve Martin’s slightly absurd look at the famous Spanish painter’s life — and that of Albert Einstein’s too — before they changed the world through their work (1/16-2/13/16)
American Idiot — The quest for true meaning in a post-9/11 world as told through the sharp-edged and exhilarating songs of Green Day (3/12-4/9/16)
Annapurna — A woman reunites with her husband in the wilds of Colorado in Sharr White’s razor sharp tale (4/30-5/21/16)
Next to Normal — Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s tremendously moving and very modern Tony- and Pulitzer-winning show (6/11-7/9/16)
The Lonesome West — A dark Irish comedy from the writer/director of the Oscar-winning film In Bruges (7/30-8/27/16)
Beautiful — The Carole King Musical — A tapestry of a musical focused on the inspiring story of the singer-songwriter’s rise to stardom, told through Douglas McGrath’s book as well as the songs she co-wrote with her husband and friends (10/6-25, Opera House)
Antigone — Juliette Binoche stars in a contemporary adaptation, from renowned Belgian theater director Ivo van Hove, of this Greek tragedy about a sister’s unyielding love and devotion, no matter the consequence (10/22-25, Eisenhower)
Matilda The Musical — A fantasy based on a novel by Roald Dahl about an extraordinary girl who dares to realize her dreams of a better life (12/15-1/10/16, Opera House)
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder — A man attempts to slay his way to inheritance in this Tony-winning musical comedy by Steven Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman (1/13-1/30/16)
Kinky Boots — Cyndi Lauper mined Tony gold with songs about a showgirl named Lola, in a story about the power of drag queens and shoes (6/14-7/10/16, Eisenhower)
The Bridges of Madison County — The story of an Iowa housewife and her life-changing, whirlwind romance with a traveling photographer gets the musical treatment (6/28-7/17/16, Eisenhower)
The Phantom of the Opera — A cast and orchestra of 52 will fill the Opera House to the brim in Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic (7/13-8/20/16, Opera House)
METRO STAGE
1201 N Royal Street Alexandria, VA 22314 703-548-9044 metrostage.org
Uprising — Inspired by true tales from her great-grandmother, Gabrielle Fulton explores notions of freedom and sacrifice, family and community, in a story set in the aftermath of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry (9/17-10/25)
A Broadway Christmas Carol — Michael Sharp returns to direct Kathy Feininger’s cross between the Dickens classic and parodies of 33 classic show tunes (11/25-12/27)
Shake Loose — A full-length revue celebrating 15 years of Metro Stage’s homegrown musical writing team, Jones, Knowles and Hubbard, whose output celebrates the music born out of gospel as created or popularized by African-American icons (1/28-3/6/16)
Black Pearl Sings! — Over 20 American folk and spiritual songs factor into Frank Higgins’s story inspired by the real-life discovery of Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter by folklorist John Lomax (4/21-5/29/16)
Unexplored Interior (This Is Rwanda: The Beginning and End of the Earth) — Ari Roth doesn’t flinch from launching his new theater company with a bang, offering a world premiere of Jay O. Sanders’s epic about the madness and majesty of Rwanda in the wake of war-time horror (10/29-11/29)
The Gospel of Loving Kindness — A poignant chamber production of the hymn- and hip-hop-tinged elegy from Marcus Gardley about a boy gunned down on the street only weeks after singing for the president (12/9-1/3/16)
Voices From A Changing Middle East Festival: Wrestling Jerusalem — A new production of Aaron Davidman’s journey to comprehend the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (1/6-1/24/16)
I Shall Not Hate — One of Israel’s leading Palestinian actors performs this memoir-based story adapted by the Israeli director Shay Pitovsky (1/23-2/14/16)
Eretz Chadasha: The Promised Land — A documentary-infused kaleidoscope chronicling the waves of Sudanese refugees in Israel as told by the youth of Israel’s national theater (2/16-2/28/16)
After The War — A new play from the author of The Admission about a middle-aged Israeli ex-patriot who returns to Tel Aviv after nearly two decades away (3/24-4/17/16)
Hkeelee (Talk to Me) — Leila Buck offers an interactive exploration of what it means to be(come) American in this probing portrait of a young American’s Lebanese grandmother (4/30-5/1/16)
When January Feels Like Summer — Serge Seiden transports this Off-Broadway romantic urban comedy to the Anacostia and H Street neighborhoods (5/19-6/12/16)
NATIONAL THEATRE
1321 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington DC 20004 202-628-6161 nationaltheatre.org
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella — Gay scribe Douglas Carter Beane updated this classic glass slipper tale that ran for nearly two years on Broadway and will become something to give thanks to in D.C. (11/18-29)
Motown The Musical — The latest Broadway jukebox show, aka the Berry Gordy Revue (12/1-1/3/16)
Annie — The sun’ll come out next spring (3/15-3/20/16)
Jersey Boys — Those boys just keep working their way back to us (4/6-4/24/16)
The Wizard of Oz — We’re off to see the wizard in a re-conceived fairyland (5/3-5/15/16)
OLNEY THEATRE CENTER
2001 Olney Sandy Spring Road Olney, MD 20832 301-924-3400 olneytheatre.org
Hay Fever — Noel Coward’s madcap farce about a dysfunctional family and the hijinks that ensue when four guests unexpectedly descend on their country home (Now-9/27, Mainstage)
Bad Dog — A deliciously dark comedy featuring five of Washington’s greatest actresses, including Holly Twyford and Naomi Jacobson, and focused on an intervention gone awry (9/30-10/25, Theatre Lab)
Guys and Dolls — Jerry Whiddon directs this classic musical comedy about gambling and gangsters and starring Jessica Lauren Ball as one lucky lady (11/11-12/27, Mainstage)
Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical — Some of Broadway’s best — writer/director Moises Kaufman and choreographer Sergio Trujillo among them — are behind this world premiere adaptation of Bizet’s opera as a musical set in 1958 Cuba during the revolution (2/10-3/6/16, Mainstage)
Marjorie Prime — A tender and provocative story of an elderly woman who’s using technology to reinvent her memories (3/10-4/10/16, Theatre Lab)
Dial ‘M’ For Murder — Frederick Knott’s deliriously spine-tingling play that would go on to inspire the Alfred Hitchcock thriller (4/6-5/1/16, Mainstage)
Bakersfield Mist — Donna Miglaccio is a poor, down-and-out woman and Michael Russotto an “East Coast Elite” art curator, and the two collide over class and culture and a potentially lost Jackson Pollock painting (5/12-6/12/16, Theatre Lab)
Evita — An intimate staging in Casa Olney of the musical about Argentina’s Eva Peron (6/23-7/24/16, Mainstage)
The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado — These two supremely silly Gilbert & Sullivan comic operettas are staged in rotating repertory and in promenade style for ultimate audience attentiveness (7/14-8/21/16, Theatre Lab)
Gimme A Band, Gimme A Banana! The Carmen Miranda Story — An experimental, multi-disciplinary puppet theater piece, narrated through the samba songs of the Tutti Frutti Brazilian bombshell and emigre to the U.S. (10/15-11/14)
A Very Pointless Holiday Spectacular — “The North Pole’s 239th Annual Talent Show,” an annual irreverent cabaret for adults featuring puppetry, improv and a funky band (12/1-1/2/16)
Ugo Ball: A Super Spectacular Dada Adventure — A one-of-a-kind performance loosely based on the life of one of the founders of the Dada anti-art movement (4/15-5/14/16)
REP STAGE
10901 Little Patuxent Parkway Columbia, Maryland 21044 443-518-1500 www.repstage.org
Technicolor Life — A book-smart teenager finds love for her and her older sister and throws a party to end all parties for her ailing grandmother in a world premiere part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival (10/21-11/8, Smith Theatre)
Antigone Project: A Play in 5 Parts — Five female playwrights reconsider Sophocles’s tragedy of sisterly devotion through lenses of race, class, culture and gender (2/17-3/6/16)
Hunting and Gathering — Love, life and real estate is the focus of Brooke Berman’s smart and sexy comedy, directed by Kasi Campbell in a regional premiere (4/6-4/24/16)
Ironbound — Polish-born Martyna Majok’s humorous and heartfelt look at a hard-working immigrant struggling as a single mother in modern-day America (Now-10/4)
The Night Alive — Ryan Rilette directs this compelling new play from Conor McPherson about a floundering Irish lad who finds a sense of purpose in helping a destitute woman after an attack (10/21-11/13)
Stage Kiss — Sarah Ruhl’s lively comedy mixes real-life romance and backstage farce (12/2-27)
Father Comes Home from the Wars — An explosively powerful Civil War-era drama from Suzan-Lori Parks (Topdog/Underdog) following a slave from Texas to the Confederate battlefield (1/27-2/21/16)
Good Kids — The 14th Annual Sarah Metzger Memorial Play, presented by the Round House Teen Performance Company, is Naomi Iizuka’s provocative story loosely based on the Steubenville High School rape case (3/11-3/13/16)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — Mitchell Hebert directs a cast including local heavyweights Rick Foucheaux and Nancy Robinette in a Round House look at the Tennessee Williams classic (3/30-4/24/16)
The Who & The What — A fierce and funny new play from Ayad Akhtar (Disgraced) about identity, religion and inherent human contradictions (5/25-6/19/16)
SCENA THEATRE
Shows ATLAS Performing Arts Center 1333 H Street NE Washington, DC 20002
Contact 1050 17th Street NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20036 202-399-7993 scenatheatre.org
Lady Lay — Lydia Stryk’s play focuses on a Berlin clerk who discovers Bob Dylan just as the Wall falls and sets off on a personal revolution seeking freedom (10/6-10)
The Cripple of Inishmaan — Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy linked to the real-life filming of the documentary Man of Aran (10/19-11/22)
SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY
Lansburgh Theatre 450 7th Street NW Washington, DC 20004
Sidney Harman Hall 610 F Street NW Washington, DC 20004
Salome — Yael Farber adapts Oscar Wilde’s landmark play (10/6-11/8, Lansburg Theatre)
Kiss Me, Kate — The latest musical to get the Alan Paul treatment is Cole Porter’s classic kiss to the Bard (11/17-1/3/16, Harman Hall)
The Critic/The Real Inspector — Michael Kahn directs this double bill of one-act comedies about life in the theater (1/5-2/14/16, Lansburgh)
Othello — Internationally acclaimed director Ron Daniels promises a dramatically different spin on Shakespeare’s hero-turned-murderer (2/23-3/27/16, Harman)
1984 — A new multimedia adaptation of the George Orwell classic that was a hit in the U.K. (3/8-4/10/16, Lansburgh)
The Taming of the Shrew — Kinky Boots star Billy Porter leads an edgy, all-male production helmed by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar (3/17-6/26/16, Harman)
Cake Off — A wild musical satire about a battle-of-the-baking-sexes starring Sherri L. Edelen. A world premiere as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival (9/29-11/22, Ark)
Girlstar — A world premiere musical fairytale that sounds something like a modern-day, pop-oriented retelling of Gypsy (10/13-11/15, Max)
West Side Story — Considered one of the greatest musicals of all time, Bernstein and Sondheim’s retelling of Romeo and Juliet finally gets the Signature stamp (12/8-1/24/16, Max)
Road Show — Signature offers the D.C. premiere of this rarely produced Sondheim show about a traveling duo of brothers (2/9-3/12/16, Max)
The Flick — Annie Baker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy focuses on three employees at an increasingly out-of-date movie theater struggling to find their place in the world (3/1-4/17/16, Ark)
The Mystery of Love & Sex — From the writer of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and Showtime’s Masters of Sex comes this unexpected story of an evolving friendship between not-quite-straight best friends (4/5-5/8/16, Max)
La Cage aux Folles — The perennial Helen Hayes Award winner Bobby Smith leads the cast in this drag-centered, gay-affirming musical (5/31-7/10/16, Max)
STUDIO THEATRE
1501 14th Street NW Washington, DC 20005 202-332-3300 studiotheatre.org
Chimerica — A sensation in London, Lucy Kirkwood’s play covers Sino-American relations from Tiananmen Square to the 2012 presidential elections (Now-10/18)
Animal — A Studio Theatre commission from Clare Lizzimore, this dark comedy looks at the underside of domesticity and the thin line between sinking and survival (9/30-10/25)
The Apple Family Cycle — The final two plays in Richard Nelson’s bold four-part examination of a rapidly changing America, staged in rotating repertory and with the same cast (10/28-12/13)
Bad Jews — Already the best-selling play in Studio’s history, returning for another holiday run (12/3-1/3/16)
Between Riverside and Crazy — Yet another boisterous and unflinchingly dark comedy from Stephen Adly Gurgis about another, well, New York Motherfucker. Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1/13-2/28/16)
Constellations — David Muse directs a distinctly intimate staging of a play that charts the infinite possibilities of one relationship (2/10-3/6/16)
Moment — Director Ethan McSweeny makes his Studio debut with an Irish tale about a family reunion and long-simmering sibling resentment (3/16-4/24/16)
Hedda Gabler — Mark O’Rowe’s contemporary adaptation intends to provide a nuanced portrait of one of the most fascinating figures in modern drama (5/11-6/19/16)
SYNETIC THEATER
1800 South Bell Street Crystal City, VA 22202 800-494-8497 synetictheater.org
Alice in Wonderland — Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili combine their signature cinematic style along with a script by Lloyd Rose for a fresh, physical take on Lewis Carroll’s fairy tale of the absurd (9/30-11/8)
As You Like It — All the world’s a stage for Synetic’s 12th “silent Shakespeare” adaptation (12/9-1/17/16)
Romeo and Juliet — A revival of this Helen Hayes-winning “wordless Shakespeare” production (2/17-3/27/16)
The Man in the Iron Mask — More swashbuckling bombastic adventures in this follow-up to The Three Musketeers (5/11-6/19/16)
Twelfth Night — Set in the Roaring Twenties and inspired by the silent comedy of Keaton and Chaplin (7/13-8/7/16)
THEATRE J
1529 16th Street NW Washington, DC 20036 theaterj.org
Queens Girl in the World — A world premiere from Caleen Sinnette Jennings about the struggles of a black girl in the ’60s to integrate and discover a new world (now to 10/11)
Sons of the Prophet — A 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Stephen Karam’s dark comedy is said to laugh in the face of human suffering (11/18-12/20)
Stars of David: Story to Song — Shirley Serotsky directs a funny and captivating musical revue celebrating the lives of your favorite Jewish public figures, based on Abigail Pogrebin’s best-selling book (12/22-27)
The Sisters Rosensweig — Wendy Wasserstein’s heartfelt comedy about women grappling with their life choices (1/13-2/21/16)
Falling out of Time — A new adaptation of acclaimed Israeli author David Grossman’s novel about enduring loss and accepting death in a way that is moving and beautiful (3/17-4/17/16)
The Body of an American — A breathtakingly provocative drama, based on a true story, about the friendship that develops between a playwright and a photographer that spans from Rwanda to Afghanistan to the Canadian Artic (4/27-5/29/16)
Another Way Home — Anna Ziegler’s insightful, sardonic drama about the strangers we all live with — our family (6/23-7/24/16)
Women Laughing Alone with Salad — Sheila Callaghan’s bawdy, gender-bending comedy about sex, desire and shame, and a biting critique of our image-obsessed culture (Now-10/4)
Winners and Losers — A seemingly harmless drinking game between friends separating the champs from the chumps leads to a wicked hangover about harsh realities (10/26-11/22)
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind — The Chicago Neo-Futurists return to Woolly for the fifth time and a special holiday run of this never-the-same-twice sketch comedy show (12/7-1/3/16)
Guards at the Taj — A tragicomic fable as hilarious as it is horrifying, questioning how much we’re willing to pay for beauty (2/1-2/28/16)
The Nether — A modern crime drama exploring themes of desire, technology and morality in a futuristic Earth wasteland (4/4-5/1/16)
An Octoroon — Billed as “part period satire, part meta-theatrical middle finger,” Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s play explores America’s lasting legacy of slavery and of racial pigeonholing (5/30-6/26/16)
When I started reviewing theater for the Hill Rag in 1984, as a wide-eyed novice to the local performing arts scene, I remember thinking, "How much theater could there be to fill a weekly column?" A lot, it turned out.
I still mourn the loss of the companies I once frequented, among them Leslie Jacobson's Horizons and Bart Whiteman's Source, where the work was always challenging, insightful, and fueled by passion and purpose.
By the same token, I marveled at the slow but steady growth of companies like Woolly Mammoth, who went from performing in a church on G Street to operating their own gorgeous downtown space.
Broadway has never had a shortage of leading ladies, but the fall season offers a surplus of divas who will no doubt be leaving indelible impressions long after the curtain falls.
Other recognizable A-listers from stage and screen will grace New York's Broadway and Off-Broadway houses as well in shows ranging from sturdy American classics to contemporary subjects of Artificial Intelligence.
Whether you're a local, a frequent visitor, or a tourist, these upcoming productions promise to be worth your time, money, and in some cases, all the gay gasps you can muster. Will they make good on such claims? Metro Weekly will be on the aisle to offer adulation, admonishment, or a combination of both.
At the corner of 17th Street and Rhode Island Avenue in downtown Washington, the headquarters of the Human Rights Campaign is a beacon. As the largest LGBTQ-advocacy organization in the country, with its shining equality logo near the roof, its similarly styled flag flying above, there's hardly another building in D.C. that so clearly announces its presence as a safe space.
If this mid-century office tower might be considered a factory, its assembly-line workers are churning out legislative action, policy pushes, community advocacy and all the other products one would associate with an iconic human-rights organization. These products, however, aren't merely domestic. HRC also does a thriving export business.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
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