So the big winners at last night’s Helen Hayes awards were… puppets? Indeed, Aaron Posner’s unique vision for Measure for Measure, produced at the Folger this year, where puppets took on many of the play’s roles, earned him a best director trophy (he tied with Michael Kahn, for his zany take on Love’s Labor Lost), as well as the award for Outstanding Resident Play. Signature Theater’s Assassins won the most awards of the night with…
Tonight, the D.C. theater community will descend on Warner Theater, decked out in tuxes, kilts, ball gowns and whatever else the artsy crowd comes up with to approximate “black tie” attire. It’s the night each year they get the chance to party their brains out and recognize the outstanding contributions they’ve made this year; it’s the Helen Hayes Awards. As busy theater critics with day jobs, we don’t get the chance to attend and review…
FRIDAY: >> It’s Friday the 13th. Scaaary? Nah. We laugh in the face of danger. Or at least, you might if you swing by HR-57 tonight for all the DC Comedy Fest events happening on their stages. We gave you the rundown on the festival yesterday, and we’d especially recommend heading over later on to catch the 11 p.m. Leno-Letterman Audition Highlights, which features some of the fest’s funnier comedians in longer sets than usual….
Hyperbole can be dangerous, but it’s hard to think of a more laugh-inducing scene that we’ve seen on the DC stage this season than Kate Eastwood Norris’s exchange with, well, herself, during Woolly Mammoth Theater’s uproarious production of She Stoops to Comedy. Kate is playing two lesbian lovers, Kay Fien and Jayne Summerhouse. The wonderfully self-aware She Stoops is more than conscious of the fact that the actress has been on double duty, and keeps…
It’s officially December, so we find our thoughts turning to holiday shopping. Will you be giving the gift of local theater (or hoping to receive it) this season? Here are a couple of things on our wish list for the D.C. theatre community: 1. For tiny companies like Meat & Potato and Natural Theatricals to have their seats filled more frequently, and for small but innovative companies like Rorschach to get Helen Hayes nods this…
Funny females are a hard commodity to come by these days. DCist doesn’t blame biology. It’s a simple fact that there aren’t many works around that showcase women’s comic talents. Luckily, we have Folger’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and while we can give a little credit to the Bard for writing parts with the potential to earn laughs, it is the amazing group of women assembled here who deserve most of our thanks. It’s no…
Sure, with Free Night of Theater on the horizon, it may be hard to justify shelling out for a ticket to a stage show, but trust us — with all the intriguing offerings that local companies have in store, you’ll want to see more than one show this month. Previously at the Fringe Festival, Round House Silver Spring presents Bushwa: A Modern Ubu, about an intellectually-challenged king. Hmm. Wonder what it’s like to have your…
DCist is through with living a lie. We have to confess: we’re developing quite the crush on Kate Eastwood Norris. After seeing her shine as the barb-tongued Beatrice in Folger’s Much Ado About Nothing last October, it was no surprise to catch the Helen Hayes award nominee investing Anna, one half of the tumultuous lesbian couple at the center of David Mamet’s Boston Marriage, with the same kind of unbridled energy and wry wit we…
Before there was Lois and Clark, Hepburn and Tracy or David and Maddie, there was Beatrice and Benedick. Shakespeare’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, now being staged at the Folger Theatre, gave us the original archetypes who proved that if a couple doesn’t wittily express their initial hatred before eventually realizing they’re nuts about each other, they’re really not all that interesting to watch. And Folger’s duo is certainly more than interesting enough to keep…
