(Photo by Amber Wilkie)
Sample the nation’s best beers, beat your buddy at bocce, and more in this week’s roundup of the D.C. area’s most intriguing events.
MONDAY, APRIL 10
WRITE ON: The premise of Scribe Night is simple: Actors perform scenes written by local playwrights. Professional judges give on-the-spot feedback to the playwrights, and each judge “adopts” one playwright by the end of the night to provide more feedback later. Uninvolved audience members get to pick a favorite at the end — but otherwise, they can sit back and relax, leaving the hard work to the scribes and the thespians. Oh, and everyone gets a free PBR. (The Pinch; 7 to 9:30 p.m.; $5 to $10)
BEER SUMMIT: Little-known fact (at least to me): There’s an annual conference devoted entirely to brewers of craft beer, and it’s located right here in D.C. All week long, ChurchKey will host some of the nation’s most renowned brews, including Bissell Brothers Swish, Other Half All Green Everything, Suarez Family Call to Mind, Trillium Double Dry-Hopped Stillings Street and The Veil Never Aloha. I promise those are all real names. (Churchkey; 2 to 11 p.m.; FREE admission to the event)
CLASH OF THE COCKTAILS: For the third year in a row, the Adams Morgan establishments Compass Rose Bar & Kitchen, Jack Rose Dining Saloon, and Rose’s Luxury will compete for the honor of Best Cocktail in a competition officially dubbed War of the Roses. And if you don’t have a dog in the fight, well, at least you get to enjoy three cocktails. (Compass Rose; 7 to 11 p.m.; $20)
HOLDOUT: Along with five of his fellow football stars, Michael Bennett of the Seattle Seahawks made a notable choice two months ago. When Israel called on the NFL to send a delegation of 11 players to the country, hoping to turn them into ambassadors of goodwill, Bennett declined. At a Georgetown University student-led event, Bennett will explain his decision, and pontificate about his role as a global citizen with a powerful platform. (Georgetown University’s Healey Family Student Center; 12 to 1:30 p.m.; FREE)
CONCERT WITH A CAUSE: Refugees are people. Their humanity will be on display during a special concert organized by refugees, with performances by refugees. It’s part of a broader nationwide effort from the Refugee Orchestra Project to convey important messages about a lightning-rod political issue through the power of music. (The Fillmore; 7:30 p.m.; FREE with donation suggested)
More: Soulful Movement; Rogue Nation Invades the Baron; Dhana and the Rosebuds
TUESDAY, APRIL 11
Get your bocce on, and your drink on, at The W on Tuesday evening. (Photo by NCinDC)
FUN ON THE LAWN: Winter is officially over. Did it ever really begin? Regardless, it’s spring, which means it’s time to return to playing outdoor games like bocce ball. For the athletically challenged, Grey Goose specialty cocktails might loosen the joints. (The W Hotel; 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.; FREE)
GHOSTLY REGRET: In Julie Buntin’s debut novel Marlena, the title character is a “manic, beautiful, pill-popping” teenager who seduces her new next-door neighbor Cat into a life of mayhem and revelry, only to die within a year. Cat struggles to free herself of that painful memory — and the arrival of a ghost doesn’t help much. At a discussion event, Buntin will provide a window into her own psyche, perhaps offering additional clues about what the characters are thinking. (Kramerbooks; 6:30 to 8 p.m.; FREE)
STRANGER IN A FAMILIAR LAND: Konrad Wolf and his family fled Germany for Moscow when was a child. Then Wolf returned at the age of 19 as a soldier in Germany’s Red Army in 1945. The sensation was complicated, as documented in his fittingly titled 1967 film I Was Nineteen, which will be introduced at a screening event by Paul Werner Wagner, the man who published Wolf’s diaries. (Goethe-Institut Washington; 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.; FREE)
More: Jon Ossoff Phone Bank; Blossoms and Baseball
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12
The Czech That Film Festival will begin with a screening of Tiger Theory at the Avalon Theatre in Chevy Chase on Wednesday. (Photo by Jeff MacDonald)
CZECH IT: The Czech That Film Festival will make its D.C. stop on Tuesday and Wednesday, kicking off with a screening of Radek Bajgar’s debut feature film Tiger Theory, about a veterinarian who sets off on a journey of self-discovery. The movie bears no relation to The Life of Pi, a movie with a superficially similar premise that easily could be renamed Tiger Theory without changing anything about the movie itself. (Avalon Theatre; 8 p.m. $12.25)
ROYAL LINEAGE: Season two of Netflix’s The Crown will focus on Prince Charles, but it’s still months away from its debut. In the meantime, Vanity Fair contributing editor Sally Bedell Smith has written the first biography of the Princes of Wales in more than twenty years, and she’ll likely have plenty of dish to reveal at her book talk. (Politics and Prose; 7 to 8 p.m.; FREE)
MAKING MEMORIES: Commemorating a major historical event isn’t as simple as tossing up a statue and snapping a selfie. The process is inevitably subjective, and shapes understanding of the past for decades to come. Brent Glass, director emeritus of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, will illuminate those debates during the first in an ongoing series of lectures about the hidden history of D.C., and Dupont Circle in particular. (Heurich House Museum; 5:30 to 7 p.m.; $5
EXPEDITED DIPLOMA: Ten stand-up comedians have been enrolled in comedy school for the past four weeks, and on Wednesday night, they’ll “graduate” and show off what they’ve learned. Imagine if real school were that short. (DC Improv; 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.; $10)
More: Yoga in Luce; Being the Butcher: Burgers and Brews; Patrick McAvinue; Art Tasting Happy Hour Discussion
THURSDAY, APRIL 13
Learn about the secret feminine history of pirates at Upshur Street Books on Thursday. (Photo by Victoria Pickering)
NOTHING TO SEE HERE: In the mood not to laugh? According to a press release, award-winning humorist and bestselling author David Sedaris is previewing his new collection Theft by Finding with a “dry, boring, and very un-funny reading of his favorite work” at Strathmore. Sounds not-entertaining. (Strathmore; 8 p.m.; $35-$75)
MEET ABE: President Lincoln himself will be making an appearance during Lincoln Restaurant’s sixth anniversary party — or at least, that’s what the advertisements claim. Don’t blame me if they don’t follow through. (Lincoln Restaurant; 5 to 8 p.m.; FREE)
YO HO HO: For most, the pirate images that spring easily to mind are Jack Sparrow, Blackbeard and the like — dudes. But it doesn’t have to be this way, Laura Sook Duncombe argues in her new book Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas. As the title suggests, the book offers counterarguments to the idea of pirate-dom as exclusively male, and Duncombe will do the same at her book talk. (Upshur Street Books; 7 to 9 p.m.; FREE)
More: Women Veterans Open Mic; Kawehi
