Play explores when your soul mate isn't your husband by Celia Wren

In one of the funnier moments in "Whenever You're Near Me I Feel Sick," Jennie Berman Eng's slender rom-com variation, an airport's recorded-announcement voice starts functioning as a supere…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:38pm on September 23, 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☆⚑

Filmmakers waylaid by sheep and sanctions by Celia Wren

Here's one thing you don't learn in film school: sheep wrangling. Though the central character in Ana V. Bojórquez and Lucía Carreras's latest film is a young girl, the supporting cast…

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

The Most Produced Plays In America include "Mr. Burns" and "Stupid F"ing Bird" by Peter Marks

American Theatre magazine surveys the country annually for the most frequently produced plays at the nation's regional theaters. Lo and behold, two of the top 10 originated at Woolly Mammoth…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:02pm on September 16, 2015☆⚑

Review of 'Chimerica': Good characters, forbidding cities by Peter Marks

The mystifying success of Lucy Kirkwood's "Chimerica" grows only more puzzling with its American premiere at Studio Theatre. After three-hours-plus of lumbering exposition, you leave the pla…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 7:39pm on September 15, 2015☆⚑

Review: Laundry day can be arduous, but at this laundromat, it's apocalyptic by Celia Wren

Have humans put the universe through the heavy-duty cycle when it really needed a quick spin on delicate? It's hard not to get carried away with the metaphorical possibilities of the laundro…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 3:19pm on September 15, 2015☆⚑

Yearning for a child in 'Yerma,' at GALA by Celia Wren

To gauge the intensity of "Yerma," Spanish director José Luis Arellano García's latest collaboration with GALA Hispanic Theatre, consider that the production doesn't even pause at interm…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:07pm on September 15, 2015☆⚑

by Peter Marks

Warning: That dish placed before you that goes by the name of Caesar, Waldorf, Chopped, Cobb or Kale may be hazardous to your psyche.Yes, you'll learn courtesy of "Women Laughing Alone With …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 7:09pm on September 14, 2015☆⚑

"We Choose to Go to the Moon": Kennedy dream inspires a dance by Sarah L. Kaufman, Sarah Kaufman

It was written in the stars. Or at least suggested by them, the night Dana Tai Soon Burgess sat outside his parents' home near Santa Fe, N.M., looking up at a Milky Way that seemed close eno…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:30pm on September 11, 2015☆⚑

Challenging the gender status quo in American theater by Peter Marks

Given the raw data, you would think that every day in the theater would be a women's festival.Read full article >>

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:30pm on September 11, 2015☆⚑

A playwright's self-imposed exile by Celia Wren

"Exile saves you even as it shatters you," said Wajdi Mouawad, a Lebanese-born writer, director and performer who is one of the most-produced playwrights in France and Canada. Mouawad knows …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:10am on September 11, 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☆⚑

In 'Night Falls,' a woman's body becomes a temple of the otherworldly by Celia Wren

The evocation of a massage session is stylized " almost jarringly so. Our heroine, Renee (Jeanne Dillon-Williams), the recovering alcoholic who is receiving the body-kneading treatment, stan…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:15pm on September 8, 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☆⚑

Mutual Inspirations Festival 2015 celebrates Czech writer Karel Capek by Celia Wren

Prepare for rebellious automatons, a 300-year-old opera singer, and a pack of newts taking a page from Ira Glass. These and other inventions will unfold locally this fall courtesy of the Cze…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:18pm on September 4, 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☆⚑

'You're the Worst' mines comedy from an unlikely source " PTSD by Jessica Goldstein

Can PTSD ever be funny?Maybe that's the wrong question. Maybe only a monster would say "yes."And yet on "You're the Worst," FX's stellar sitcom about two undateable people who find themselve…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:04am 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☆⚑

A poignant tour of the Azerbaijani capital's Old City " in 17 minutes by Celia Wren

The invitation came with a catch.An Azerbaijani producer who was putting together a collection of short films asked filmmaker and writer Maria Ibrahimova if she'd be interested in contributi…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:38pm on August 28, 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☆⚑