Weekly Arts Round Up, April 1, 2021
By • April 1, 2021 0 974
In person, you can feast your eyes at the Kreeger Museum and Hemphill Fine Arts and delight your ears at the Rectory in Alexandria, Virginia. Now available for streaming: Broadway star Daniel J. Watts’s one-man show. For details, click on the headings that follow.
Signature Theatre: Streamed One-Man Show
Signature Theatre has made “The Jam: Only Child” available for on-demand streaming through May 7. With a nod to his great-grandmother’s plentiful recipe, Daniel J. Watts — who appeared on Broadway as Ike Turner in “Tina,” among other roles — recounts his life as the only child of a single mother. Incorporating jazz, tap and spoken word, the one-man show traces his metamorphosis from boyhood innocence and teenage awkwardness to maturity as a proud Black man. Tickets are $35.
The Kreeger Museum, 2401 Foxhall Road NW, reopens on April 1 with admission by free, timed-entry pass reserved in advance. Visitors can spend up to 50 minutes in the galleries, then stroll in the museum’s sculpture garden. Masks are required except for children aged 3 and under. Indoor sessions are 10 to 10:50 a.m., 11 to 11:50 a.m., 2 to 2:50 p.m. and 3 to 3:50 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday. The group exhibition “Traces” is on view through May 29.
Also reopening on April 1 is Planet Word, D.C.’s immersive museum of words and language, located at 925 13th St. NW in the historic Franklin School (enter on K Street). Hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $15.
Hemphill Fine Arts: New Exhibitions
Two new exhibitions will open at Hemphill Fine Arts, 434 K St. NW, on April 1, remaining on view through May 28: “19 Paintings” by Robin Rose and “Listen to the Night As It Makes Itself Hollow” by Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi. Hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., by advance appointment only.
Classical Movements: In-Person Concerts
The next pair of in-person chamber concerts in Classical Movements’ Sounds of Hope & Harmony series at the Rectory, 711 Princess St. in Alexandria, Virginia, will take place on April 3 at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Performed by trumpeters Kevin Gebo and Anthony Bellino, hornist Robert Rearden, trombonist Douglas Rosenthal and bass trombonist David Murray, “A Garden Full of Angels” features selections to greet the Easter holiday by Purcell, Handel, Bach, Haydn, Bizet and others, along with traditional American, Israeli and Japanese melodies. Seating is socially distanced and masks are required. Tickets are $42.
Shakespeare Theatre: Camp Audition Workshop
Shakespeare Theatre Company will hold audition workshops for Camp Shakespeare’s summer intensive production on April 3 and 10 at 10:30 a.m. Camp Director Julane Havens will guide children and teens through this summer’s plays, helping them select and prepare a monologue and explaining what to expect when they audition. Tuition is $50.
Folger Consort: Guided Online Listening
On April 5 from 6 to 7 p.m., Folger Consort Artistic Directors Robert Eisenstein and Christopher Kendall will share their favorite springtime music from the early music ensemble’s discography — including out-of-print titles such as “Showers of Harmonie” and “Of Kindly Lust and Love’s Inspiring” — along with historical images. Tickets are $10 (free for Folger Consort subscribers, who need not register in advance).
International slam-poetry champion Anthony McPherson will lead a free online workshop for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, “Ode Poetry + Harriet Tubman,” on April 7 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Participants will look at examples of odes — poems that praise an individual, an idea or an event — and spend time composing an individual work inspired by the legendary abolitionist.
Opera Lafayette: Online Storytime
As part of Opera Lafayette’s “Opera starts with Oh!” online series, children will explore the story of Alessandro Stradella’s 1681 oratorio “La Susanna” on April 7 at 4 p.m. Participants will have a chance to sing, play and draw while learning to speak up for what’s right. Additional sessions, all at 4 p.m., will take place on April 14 (storytelling), April 21 (set design) and April 28 (conducting). Admission is pay-what-you-can.
Choral Arts: Online Conversation
On April 7 at 5 p.m., composer Adolphus Hailstork, who taught at Norfolk State University in Virginia from 1977 to 2000, will converse online with Scott Tucker, artistic director of the Choral Arts Society of Washington. Admission is free to this subscribers-only event. Virtual Choral Arts subscriptions are $11.99 per month or $34.99 per quarter. Click HERE to subscribe.
Intelligence historian H. Keith Melton and former CIA Office of Technical Service Director Robert Wallace — International Spy Museum board members and executive producers of the Netflix series “Spycraft” — will discuss their book “Spy Sites of Philadelphia” from Carpenters’ Hall in the City of Brotherly Love on April 7 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Registration for this online event, presented by the museum in partnership with Arch Street Meeting House and the Franklin Institute, is free using the code ISPY.
