Caleen Sinnette Jennings was describing what had inspired her latest play. One of the things she mentioned was a white college-age son of her friend  telling her, "If a hip hop candidate …
"We're calling it a 'zombie survival experience.'" I was talking to Rex Daugherty, one of the creators and directors of DC Dead, which is also described as an "interactive theatre quest." Da…
"I fell in love with it instantly when I read it. There is something about it that I connected to emotionally." Tom Story has a sister. Not only in real life, but also in The Wolfe Twins, th…
Ralph Cosham, one of the busiest, best regarded, and best loved of local actors, died on September 30th. Anyone who frequents our stages will have seen him numerous times and will be a great…
Lobster Alice. No, it's not a specialty at some upscale Cleveland Park hotspot for foodies. It's a play running for one more week (through October 12th) at the Writer's Center in downtown Be…
Partway through the first act of Evita at The Kennedy Center's Opera House, there's a sort of theatrical military coup. Up until then, the production has been handsome and well-sung, if diff…
"She was fun to be onstage with. She was always there, and giving and generous." I was talking to the actor Henry Strozier, long-time member of the Arena Stage acting company, about his frie…
Last week, in the Molly Smith Library, a high-ceilinged first-floor room at Arena Stage looking out onto Maine Avenue, Jayne Houdyshell and Delaney Williams spent their lunch break talking t…
Barbra Streisand, her hair cropped boyishly close, singing "Papa, can you hear me?" It's a memory that takes people back to the early 1980s. As we watch her character now, disguising as a ma…
"A performance just ended. We just finished a matinee "in the sunshine." Joseph Marcell had stepped off the stage after playing what is certainly one of the most demanding roles in the Shake…
For almost all of the last fifteen years, during the dog days of August, the devoted and discerning DC theatergoer knew that a stimulating experience would be in store at the Callan Theater …
Theatreland, a DVD compilation of an eight-part series from British TV that documents a pair of high-profile London theatre productions, has something for everyone. Almost. Sure, it's a thea…
"Danny found me. I didn't find him. And he keeps finding me." Brian Childers was talking to me about his current "and, it seems, his on-going "role as Danny Kaye. At The American Century The…
-Â DC Theatre Scene has been able to lure actor/director Christopher Henley into writing for this site. Here is his personal account of co-directing Dracula . A Love Story, the Fringe sho…
"It's the hardest thing I've ever done," Nancy Robinette told me as we sat in a small pie shop down the block from The Atlas Performing Arts Center. Â We spoke a couple of hours before she…
Michael Urie is coming to town in Buyer and Cellar, giving DC audiences the chance to see one of New York City's most talked-about performances of last season. Â It's exciting news that Sh…
"I've been a fan of Mike Bartlett and his writing for years. Â Four years ago I got to know him personally, and I've been paying a lot of attention to him. Â It's impossible to over-emph…
"It's the thing I'm most proud of in 35 years of doing theatre." Rod Menzies is in Washington to direct the current class at the Academy of Classical Acting (ACA) in its production of The Du…
There are few things in the world as rewarding as being the Artistic Director of a theatre company when you see that the hard work and strenuous effort of your board, your staff, and your ar…
"How can I capture this guy who means so many things to so many people," asked Dan Crane, who is playing the legendary Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in the Taffety Punk Theatre Company …
Last night, after the opening of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Frank Britton was mugged and severely beaten on his way home after the cast party. The injuries are serious but not life-…
"It's similar to a lot of productions that we've done." Allison Arkell Stockman was talking about the current production at Constellation Theatre Company, The Love of the Nightingale. Stockm…
Jerry Manning, Artistic Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre, died on Wednesday night, shocking friends and colleagues on both coasts. Manning, during his time at Arena Stage in the lat…
Actors love August Wilson. Audiences love to see his plays, often more than once. Theatres love to include them in their seasons. Off the top of my head, I can think of four prod…
"A handshake in a corridor," is the phrase John Moletress used to describe the genesis of Jarman (all this maddening beauty). Described as "a premiere work-in-progress performance," the piec…