18 stories by "Maddie Ardillo"
“You all ready to get depressed?" It's a lighthearted way to begin a performance, particularly when the title promises a subject matter that's really less than cheery. That being said,…
It’s 2015. At this point, we must have seen just about every iteration and incarnation of fairy tale that can possibly be cooked up by wandering minstrels and Walt Disney… right?…
The performance of Wrestling with the WIP begins in the lobby of Brookland’s Dance Place: four women in quilted skirts in a blend of pantomime, precise movement, and frustrated shouts …
In all honesty, I don’t want to say too much about Burlesque Classique’s Vaudevillian Romp, because I’d be cheating you out of your ticket (er, eraser). What I can tell you…
“You know, it took me ten years to become an overnight sensation,” quips the sensational Danny Kaye, the springy curls of his hair bouncing as he waltzes around the stage, kickin…
Walking into Hillyer Art Space’s main room, its walls lined with white folding chairs with a rustically set table at the head, you might get the feeling that you’re walking into …
Let’s cut to the chase: À Demain has the greatest performances of one of the finest scripts I have seen in years. I struggle to think of its equal — As You Like It at the …
The main stage at the Goethe Institut is set like a Southern living room — a rocking chair, a small side table and what appears to be a glass of sweet tea perched atop it. As I take my…
My father was an opera singer, sometimes still hums “toreador en garde” around the house, so when the arias flowed between scenes in Marriage, Lizards, and Love I was delig…
“Is this Ghostbusters?” one little girl shrieks as an almost hazmat-clad figure pushes a strange mechanical contraption along the sidewalk facing the White House. Her mother quie…
Bargain Basement University provides a service sought worldwide: a quick and easy Bachelor of the Arts program, conveniently located around Fort Fringe, by which I mean it provides a brutall…
“Ronna, when I first met you, I thought you were a snobby white bitch. I judged you by sight, and not your inner self. But girl, you are a dynamite lady!” The upstairs gallery ro…
“You go home with a stack of books, I go home with a suitcase full of empty condom wrappers,” quips Lizzie (Stacy Mathison) to Olivia (Alex Johnson), and no scene or snippet of d…
We all have those evenings that turn, inevitably, into those storytelling days of yore — gathered around a fireplace or a fruit bowl, talking about family and friends, the good times a…
“Who’s got this card?” Anna Lathrop calls, holding up the nine of diamonds. The woman in front of me raises her hand and Lathrop, the ringmaster of the evening, waltzes ove…
I know what you’re thinking: Christmas in July? Well, if you’re going to perform a retelling of the Nativity entitled Misconception: The Lost Gospel of Christmas, you might as we…
As a kid, I dreamed of walking on the moon, of seeing the distant continents and all the vastness of space from within the confines of a climate controlled suit. Click for tickets to Kids in…
Romeo and Juliet: Shakespeare's classic tragedy, hashed out a thousand times in hundreds of variations on both stage and screen. So what keeps a production of arguably the most famous love s…
