Two Irish plays, two kicks in the head by Nelson Pressley

No doubt Northern Irish playwright and Belfast native Rosemary Jenkinson knows her political infighting, the loyalists and Protestants and paramilitary subgroups/crime rings that apparently …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:53pm on October 21, 2015☆⚑

Theater J names new artistic director: Adam Immerwahr by Nelson Pressley

Ten months after firing longtime artistic director Ari Roth, Theater J has named Adam Immerwahr to replace him. Currently the associate artistic director of McCarter Theatre Center in Prince…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:10pm on October 19, 2015☆⚑

Coalition of interests extends beyond festival for originating theaters by Nelson Pressley

What exactly is it that the seven companies behind the Women's Voices Theater Festival have in common? Marketing. And Margaritas.A monthly meeting over drinks has been an informal standard o…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:49am on October 16, 2015☆⚑

Women's Voices: Getting it done, at least for now by Nelson Pressley

It would be easy to be blasé about the Women's Voices Theater Festival that has taken over Washington's stages. New plays? Written by women? In 2015 America? You don't say.In many ways, mov…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:49am on October 16, 2015☆⚑

Signature Theatre adds show about Broadway's George Rose by Nelson Pressley

George Rose's life included Tony Awards in the 1970s and 1980s for the musicals "My Fair Lady" and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." His death came violently in 1988 under murky circumstances in…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:18am on October 9, 2015☆⚑

From Maytag to Macbeth in Women's Voices Festival: Can't complain by Nelson Pressley

Small talk looms large in three intimate shows playing as part of the Women's Voices Theater Festival. A grown woman deals with her hospitalized mother in Christine Evans's imaginative "Can'…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 6:32pm on October 8, 2015☆⚑

Murky mystery 'Animal' examines why Rachel is crazy by Nelson Pressley

Structuring the puzzle is the trouble with "Animal," a quizzical new play at Studio Theatre. It's a medical mystery that plunges you right into the mind-set of a woman named Rachel who's los…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:25pm on October 6, 2015☆⚑

At Olney, addiction tale 'Bad Dog' wags and snaps by Nelson Pressley

Don't go into "Bad Dog" lightly, and don't be fooled by its easy-access sitcom style. Yes, the dialogue by TV writer Jennifer Hoppe-House ("Nurse Jackie," "Grace and Frankie") bounds and gli…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 8:38pm on October 5, 2015☆⚑

Life is short, so touch the painting by Nelson Pressley

Don't touch the art. That's the cardinal rule in museums, especially with masterpieces such as Rembrandt's "Aristotle With a Bust of Homer" hanging on the walls. But in Jessica Dickey's pens…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 7:36pm on October 1, 2015☆⚑

Images tell the story in 'Phoebe in Winter' by Nelson Pressley

By the end of "Phoebe in Winter" the stage at Single Carrot Theatre is so trashed that Friday's opening night audience couldn't exit the way they had entered, across the set. That's appropri…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 6:33pm on September 29, 2015☆⚑

Lure of telenovelas drives Arena's 'Destiny' by Nelson Pressley

"Destiny of Desire" wants to be your guilty pleasure. Her eyes flutter and her bosom heaves, but you resist even though you don't yet recognize the horrible truth " ay, caramba, she's your c…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:03am on September 28, 2015☆⚑

Women's voices, from the halfway house to a perky fantasy by Nelson Pressley

In Liz Maestri's "Inheritance Canyon" on Capitol Hill, a jolly band of buddies slowly realize they're trapped in some kind of mysterious government experiment. Meanwhile in Annapolis, the wo…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 5:50pm on September 22, 2015☆⚑

'Queens Girl' revisits the 1960s, from puppy love to Civil Rights by Nelson Pressley

Any list of premier actors in Washington has to put Dawn Ursula's name near the top, and the actress has been handed a dazzling showcase in the solo "Queens Girl in the World." Ursula plays …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 3:46pm on September 22, 2015☆⚑

From Spain's Golden Age, a bubbly 'Betrayed' by Nelson Pressley

The Spanish Golden Age meets the Jazz Age in "Friendship Betrayed," a rarely staged 17th-century comedy that WSC Avant Bard has time-shifted rather easily to the Roaring Twenties. The cast i…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:33pm on September 18, 2015☆⚑

Former City Paper publisher named as Theatre Washington CEO by Nelson Pressley

Former City Paper publisher Amy Austin has been tapped as the new president and CEO of Theatre Washington, the service organization that runs the Helen Hayes Awards. Austin replaces longtime…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:00pm on September 17, 2015☆⚑

A Polish immigrant fights American hard times in absorbing 'Ironbound' by Nelson Pressley

The Polish woman in "Ironbound" looks small on the epic Round House Theatre set, a looming grid of giant rusting I-beams in run-down Elizabeth, N.J. But her roar is huge in this gripping 90-…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 4:02pm on September 16, 2015☆⚑

Party for parity launches D.C. play fest by Nelson Pressley

"Are women's plays different?" NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg asked "Fun Home" writer Lisa Kron on Tuesday night."From each other?" Kron deadpanned. "Absolutely."The Kron-Stamberg …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:15am on September 9, 2015☆⚑

The game of life, learned on 'The Oregon Trail' by Nelson Pressley

Bekah Brunstetter is a terrific catch for Bethesda's small Flying V Theatre. The Los Angeles-based writer enjoys steady work on a cable series ("Switched at Birth") and has a premiere slated…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 5:27pm on September 7, 2015☆⚑

McDonagh and Twyford (not together) in new Forum season, and Year 3 of "Methuselah" at Stage Guild by Nelson Pressley

A nervous edge saturates Forum Theatre's just-announced 2015-16 season, while Washington Stage Guild's slate includes the final installment of its three year "Back to Methesulah" project.For…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:07pm on September 4, 2015☆⚑

Tiananmen Square drama brings designer full circle by Nelson Pressley

When the acclaimed new Tiananmen Square play "Chimerica" was selected to open Studio Theatre's new season, Beijing-born Helen Huang was a natural fit to design the costumes. She had emigrate…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:53am on September 3, 2015☆⚑

Putting women in the spotlight: New festival showcases female playwrights at 45 D.C.-area theaters by Nelson Pressley

That throat-clearing you hear is the Women's Voices Theater Festival, an unprecedented wave of world premiere plays by women that has already begun to take over Washington's stages. It's a c…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:21pm on August 27, 2015☆⚑

Musical "Dogfight" has bite, while "Kiss Me, Kate" plays dead by Nelson Pressley

Before the Benj Pasek-Justin Paul musical "Dear Evan Hansen" premiered at Arena Stage this summer, their show "Dogfight" ran off-Broadway in 2012. The fingerprints are the same: The stories …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 5:12pm on August 26, 2015☆⚑

Oh, "The Fix" these dirty politicians are in by Nelson Pressley

If your tolerance for corrosive behavior is high and you've been craving a musical version of Netflix's "House of Cards," "The Fix" may see you through. The show at Signature Theatre in Arli…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 5:34pm on August 20, 2015☆⚑

From 'Jessie' to 'Ricki,' Rick Springfield keeps it fresh by Nelson Pressley

Rocker-actor-writer Rick Springfield was already onto his second phase of American stardom when his 1981 single "Jessie's Girl" went into heavy radio rotation and a craze emerged for "Genera…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:03pm on August 19, 2015☆⚑

Ben Platt, on pitch in 'Dear Evan Hansen' by Nelson Pressley

Audiences weep at the new musical "Dear Evan Hansen," and they shed their tears for Ben Platt. The "Pitch Perfect" movie actor plays an anxious teen whose public profile accidentally goes vi…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:55pm on August 14, 2015☆⚑