86 stories by "John Bavoso"
They say you should never meet your heroes, but what about crowd-surfing them? That was what I was thinking the night of February 8, as I helped keep John Cameron Mitchell aloft as he made h…
Few words strike fear into the hearts of wide swaths of the theatre-going population than 'Audience Participation.' But when said participation involves sipping champagne, swanning around a …
A couple of weeks ago, the satire site McSweeney's published an article entitled, "How Can I Help to Promote Diversity Without Relinquishing Any of My Power?" This title alone could serve as…
There's no such thing as love without risk. Risk of rejection. Risk of your partner finding someone else. But for gay men in the '80s and '90s, at the height of the AIDS crisis, love and sex…
Several years ago, a good friend of mine married a Swiss citizen. Over many glasses of wine, she detailed to me having to provide emails, OkCupid messages, photos, a dn receipts to prove the…
In fraught times, where do you go to find hope? Assuming the answer is not "within yourself," might I suggest the basement of a church where, seated in a circle with a group of strangers, yo…
In the promotional materials for their production of Iris Dauterman's Sing To Me Now, Rorschach Theatre has been highlighting one particular quote from the script: "Every second you hesitate…
Imagine a large group of college students, surrounded by the international media, anxiously awaiting the moment when a statue depicting a key figure from their country's racist past is toppl…
Before you read this review, I'd like to ask a favor of you: open a new browser tab and navigate to your favorite news/politics site and spend five minutes browsing the stories there. Seriou…
While a very popular musical currently running at the Kennedy Center is asking audiences, "Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?" across town at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Brandon …
It's become a truism in the queer community that coming out of the closet isn't a singular event. And yet, the very expression "coming out" conjures up images of individuals in their teens o…
What do you get when you take one of America's most controversial theatre artists and its most divisive political issue and put them in a room together in our nation's capital? In the case o…
At this point, theatrical works about gay men and their over-the-top, overbearing mothers practically comprise an entire genre unto themselves"think Torch Song Trilogy and Mothers and Sons, …
Sometimes the identities we construct for ourselves become our prisons. This is the scenario playwright M. Cristina Garcia uses as the central conceit of her play, Lesbians and the Men Who L…
Some of the best theatre presents you with an impossible choice and asks what decision you would make in each character's place. In the case of 2000FeetUp Theatre Company's The Body of a Wom…
Dating. Dating in DC. A play about dating in DC. "This must be dystopian," I thought as I entered Caos on F to take in the latest world premiere by Nu Sass Productions. To my delight, what t…
There are certain individuals who haunt the Capital Fringe festival (and I'm not talking about the reviewers). Antigone and Medea always seem to make an appearance. And, of course, every cha…
Many theatrical experiences are perfect for Pride Month, but few are devised specifically for the celebration. Enter Brett Abelman's Switch, a new play set on the night of DC Pride, during w…
Fans of Jordan Tannahill's work, including his 2015 book Theatre of the Unimpressed: In Search of Vital Drama"a screed against the ubiquity of the well-made play and the modern theatre's pro…
Montagues and Capulets. Vampires and werewolves. Rock musicians and DJs? The conflict between the latter is the proxy war at the center of Laura Eason's The Undeniable Sound of Right Now, cu…
Rainbow Theatre Project's production of Kevin Michael West's comedy Top and Bottom contains total male nudity"of both the physical and emotional varieties. What begins as a bondage-filled…
“My drag isn’t a costume I use to hide in," famed performance artists and playwright Taylor Mac says, "it’s exposing what I look like on the inside.” And the same cou…
Traditionally, a peepshow is a one-way affair"someone performs and someone (or someones) else observe, usually without being seen themselves. But I knew walking into dog & pony dc's cont…
Autism, family obligation, and innovative design collide on stage in Olivia Haller's This Is All Just Temporary, Convergence Theatre's contribution to the 2018 Women's Voices Theater Festiva…
Mashuq Mushtaq Deen's one-person show Draw the Circle is a radical act of empathy. Not only does he explore the impact his life and gender transition has had on his loved ones and othe…
