196 stories by "Jessica Goldstein"
'Present Tense" begins with a heartbeat. Six teenagers, all of whom have experienced a death in the family, create what the Arena Stage Voices of Now program calls "a group breathing tableau…
Jacqueline E. Lawton's "The Hampton Years" is about as local as local can get: The D.C.-based playwright's world premiere got its start at Theater J's first Locally Grown Festival. Lawton's …
Samantha Stach had a friend conundrum. The 25-year-old Charlotte, N.C., native left her hometown for a stint in the District and, upon her return to the South last spring, found that every l…
On May 7, 98 years ago, the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat. More than 1300 passengers were killed, at least 130 of whom were American. The Lusitania sank in less than 20 minu…
At Friday morning's "Creativity Conference" sponsored by TIME, Microsoft and the Motion Picture Association of America, the media masses assembled at the Corcoran Gallery of Art to discuss c…
Important word nerd news: In its third annual ranking of the Most Well-Read Cities in our great nation, Amazon has crowned Alexandria, Virginia, as #1 for the second year in a row. To celebr…
Pinky Swear Productions is kicking off a three-play repertory Friday, with two one-acts by local playwrights Allyson Currin (her "Hercules in Russia" enjoyed its world premiere with Doorway …
World, we have waited so long for a new Superman movie worthy of entertaining our eyeballs. We thought the wait was over when that Christopher Reeve doppelganger emerged from obscurity and i…
Roberto Clemente, the Puerto Rican baseball legend, played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and died at the age of 38 in a plane crash; he was en route to Nicaragua on a humanitarian aid mission. …
It's easy to forget when you see a play that what you're watching didn't spring fully formed out of somebody's forehead. At first, it's a rough draft, with the emphasis on rough. Writing tak…
After a 7 ½-year run as the artistic director of Rep Stage, Michael Stebbins is stepping down to "continue on my . . . artistic journey again," he said. Stebbins, who consid…
"Spend the night with Helen!" implores TheatreWashington's announcement for the 29th Helen Hayes Awards, held Monday night at the Warner Theatre. Now, if I took out a billboard inviting this…
Matthew Morrison, the man who's been inspiring musically inclined outcasts with his catchphrases andwhiteboard since 2009, will be performing at the Washington Performing Arts Society Annual…
It's easy to forget when you see a play that what you're watching didn't spring fully formed out of somebody's forehead. At first, it's a rough draft, with the emphasis on rough. Writing tak…
Theater J's 2013-14 season wasn't supposed to look like this. Associate Artistic Director Shirley Serotsky related how Theater J had selected "these plays that did really well in New York la…
When Wade Laboissonniere, Ford's Theatre's costume designer, moved from Rhode Island to New York City he wanted to be a dancer. He'd been dancing since he was 8; the then-just out of high sc…
Aziz Ansari is a dozen years into his stand-up career and five years into his role as technophile and wannabe-entrepreneur Tom Haverford on NBC's "Parks and Recreation". Even though he just …
After more than 50 years in the music industry, Patti LaBelle " the powerhouse soprano voice behind such hits as "Lady Marmalade," "If Only You Knew" and "Somebody Loves You, Baby" " still h…
Can you imagine asking Audrey Hepburn to the prom? Fifty-some years ago, when she was the silver screen's biggest name, and men dressed like Don Draper, movie stars seemed so far away they f…
The Anacostia Playhouse, originally slated to open as early as mid-March, is probably going to be mired in parking-permit purgatory at least until the end of April, if not the end of the sum…
When the Kennedy Center selected "Jason Invisible" as a play to produce for young audiences, "we weren't looking for a play specifically about mental illness," said Betty Siegel, director of…
In addition to the five "masterpieces of the genre," as Shakespeare Theatre Company artistic director Michael Kahn called them, STC is announcing a sixth mainstage production and two present…
It's a big week for the religious crowd. Yesterday Francis was plucked from House of Cards Argentina and declared, via smoke signals, the new Pope. Mazel tov, Francis! And over at the Kenned…
There are last-minute changes, and then there are, well, really last-minute changes. When two cast members of Signature Theatre's "Crimes of the Heart" left the show for personal reasons, th…
Elizabeth Keckly was a freed slave when she met Mary Todd Lincoln. Keckly, a gifted seamstress, became the private dressmaker for the first lady; hundreds of years later, for Tazewell Thomps…
