Robert Devaney • May 3, 2012

Ryuji Ueno and his wife, Sachiko Kuno, founders of Bethesda-based Sucampo Pharmaceuticals and S&R Technology Holdings, have purchased Evermay, for $22 million, 55 percent off its 2008 asking price of $49 million. The purchase price of the historic 3.5-acre estate on 28th Street, which borders Oak Hill Cemetery at R Street, is a record sale for D.C.

The names of the new Evermay owners were first reported in the Wall Street Journal on July 22 in its “Private Properties” section. The buyers’ representative Mark McFadden of Washington Fine Properties spoke with the Georgetowner and confirmed that, indeed, Ueno and Kuno are the new owners of the 12,000-square-foot house and grounds, adding that they will continue the preservation of the estate, founded by Samuel Davidson in 1792 and sold by the Belin family two weeks ago, through a limited-liability company, Evermay LLC. The listing agent was Jeanne Livingston of Long and Foster, a Christie’s International Real Estate affiliate, whose other big sale was Katharine Graham’s estate on R Street. Livingston said the new owners would be “good stewards” of Evermay, a property which was once rumored to have caught the interest of Oprah Winfrey.

While the Japanese-born drug researchers Ueno and Kuno – who own a house on P Street – are not well known to most Washingtonians, they are known in philanthropic circles, such as the Washington Opera and the Smithsonian. The couple founded the S&R Foundation in 2000, a non-profit whose mission is to encourage and stimulate scientific research and artistic endeavors among young individuals – and “to recognize talented young scientists and artists for their distinguished work in fields of science and fine arts, especially those who contribute to U.S.-Japanese understanding.” Their foundation awards the S&R Washington Award and the S&R Ueno Award.

Ueno and Kuno’s Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, focuses on the development and commercialization of medicines based on prostones. Ueno, who is also a medical doctor, discovered “the therapeutic potential of prostones, which are bio-lipids that occur naturally in the human body.” The company markets the drug Amitiza for gastrointestinal disorders. One of the couple’s first successes was Rescula eye drops, the first bioactive lipid used to treat glaucoma.

Together, the accomplished couple holds several degrees from universities in Japan and the U.S. and have other interests as well. A Class A race car driver, Ueno is a member of the Leica Historical Society of America, Ferrari Club of America and Miles River Yacht Club. Involved in fundraising for the Washington Opera, Kuno was also cited by the Washington Business Journal two years ago in its list, “Women Who Mean Business.” She even studied in the neighborhood at Georgetown University’s International Business Management Certificate Program. Add to their resumes: “Keepers of Evermay.”
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Robert Devaney •

It’s not every day that one discovers a wallet belonging to a National Basketball Association player. Georgetown University student Ed Shehwen did just that last week on Prospect Street, where he found the wallet of the Detroit Pistons’ Greg Monroe. Shehwen’s friend, Chris Scribner who lives in one of the apartments at Halcyon House, tweeted the former Hoya Big East rookie of the year to come get his wallet. It took a few tries to convince Monroe, who is taking summer school classes at Georgetown University. The six-foot-11-inch tall basketball player pulled up in his BMW and thanked his fellow Hoyas for the find. Monroe (G_Monroe10 ) tweeted: huge s/o to @CScribs and his friends! #superclutch .

Robert Devaney •

Kate Michael, online magazine founder of K Street Kate, celebrated the fifth birthday of her D.C. lifestyle blog July 27 at the National Press Club ballroom with drinks and music, themed to “Livin’ La Vida Local.” The media entrepreneur thanked her staff and said she sees a bright future for hyperlocal websites. Friends and fans of the popular Michael, a former Miss D.C., congratulated her for hitting the anniversary whose traditional gift is one made of wood. Life is local and ironic, too.

Robert Devaney •

When the rain came in the middle of dinner, as predicted, few fled the covered patio, getting splashed nonetheless, for the exquisite interiors of Clyde’s Willow Creek Farm Restaurant. It was that good — and full of flavor and camaraderie. On Aug. 6, Clyde’s Ninth Annual Farm Dinner led 85 guests on a local food sampling exercise. From local honey, veggies, clams and lamb to fine wines, the five-course dinner was an advocate for local farms and local buying. After all, it is a main event for the non-profit Slow Food D.C.

Willow Creek Farm Restaurant, managed by Paul Fox, lives up to the slow food creed. It has its own farm to start — along with four reassembled heavy-timber buildings, thanks to the collecting obsession of Clyde’s main man John Laytham. Spread out like a classic American inn, parts of the restaurant are a sight to behold inside and outside, reminding the D.C. visitor of images of 1789 Restaurant, Old Ebbitt and other Clyde’s places we know and love. The farm is a few minutes’ walk from the parking lot. As for the drive, Willow Creek Farm is in Ashburn (Broadlands), Va., and a straight shot due west on the Dulles Toll Road; be mindful of the street names once off the toll road.

After a tour of the farm and a beekeeper’s presention by Patrick and Diane Standiford, Clyde’s corporate chef John Guattery, a slow food enthusiast, welcomed the diners and let the servings begin. The menu included Chesapeake Bay soft-shell clams with ravioli (herbs from the farm next to us) in Blue Ridge Dairy butter; Roast Border Springs lamb (leg, rack and sausage); roasted peach semifreddo with the farm’s honey popcorn. Virginia wines — Rapidan River, Chrysalis Vineyards, Fabbioli Cellars, Hillsborough Vineyards — accompanied the dishes.

Later, shepherd Craig Rogers gave an impassioned defense of the world’s “oldest profession,” which has been looked down on throughout history. Rogers, a shepherd with a doctorate, had the guests laughing at his contemporary and Biblical insights. Renee Catacalos, former publisher of Edible Chesapeake magazine which folded, spoke of the need to extend the taste and nutritional benefits of the slow food and local farming movement to many people, especially those in schools and hospitals.

Friends, foodies and those who simply like to eat well all learned something about the care of farming, cooking and eating locally. For us city folk, it is no longer a far-away feast, thanks to the master designers of the complete food experience at Clyde’s. Let’s give them an old-fashioned Georgetown “huzzah!”
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Robert Devaney •

All politics is local – and sometimes hyper-local – as Georgetown University students and long-time residents experienced during the opening community comment of the September Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 2e) meeting held on Aug. 29. The issue was the redistricting plan for the Georgetown-Burleith-Hillandale ANC that adds an additional single-member district (SMD) within the university campus for a total of eight in the ANC. Students had put forth a plan that included an additional eighth and a ninth district for students. A neighborhood group, which included students, voted nine to six for a new plan that keeps most SMDs the same but adds an eighth district for the campus. The role of the ANC at the meeting was neither to approve nor disapprove the proposal.

Commission chair Ron Lewis opened the discussion of the re-drawn ANC 2e boundary plan, saying it showed “respect for political geography” and chose to round down the student MSDs to two. He then asked those attending the meeting to limit their comments of pro and con to three persons who could represent the larger group. Students in attendance – who wanted three SMDs for the university area – expressed dismay at the time limitations but rolled with it, sending Georgetown University Student Association president Mike Meaney and president of the Graduate Student Association Paul Musgrave to the podium.

Meaney asked that the re-districting be reconsidered, seeing it as a dilution of students’ voting power and suggested that his group might “appeal to the Committee of the Whole” of the D.C. Council. He reminded the current ANC of its 2002 affirmation “to full representation.” Saying that Georgetown University students make up “45 percent of the ANC’s population,” Meaney maintained that “equal rights mean equal votes.”

Musgrave, a doctorate student from Burleith, called the situation “disingenuous” for its “extreme malapportionment” and said the ANC must “be a truly representative body.” “Representation means representation by person.” He condemned the plan as “unfair” and “unjust,” and stated so “as a resident, a political scientist and a voter.”

In contrast, Nan Bell of Burleith and Cynthia Howar of Hillandale stood up and succinctly said they supported new re-districting plan.

Undergraduate Robert Biemesderfer went to the podium and dramatically held up his D.C. voter registration card and declared: “I am a full participant, I am not a second-class citizen.” Student Ruiyong Chen stood up to add that councilman Phil Mendelson does not support this plan.

Ed Russell, a Burleith resident since 1954, asked debaters to “consider permanent residents who pay property taxes.” Karen Cruise contended that 1,200 students live off campus and thus can run in their own district if they wish. In the hallway, later, the young Biemesderfer and Allan Wendt of Volta Place had a lively and civil conservation about the issue.

Next week, the plan will be passed along to the Ward 2 redistricting group, headed by Tom Birch, and will be likely approved.
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Robert Devaney •

The ANC approved the voluntary agreement and a new application for a liquor license for Malmaison, a restaurant – soon to open at the corner of 34th and K Streets – from the owners of Cafe Bonaparte. The new dessert cafe’s name is a reference to Napoleon’s Château de Malmaison; it can translate into “naughty house” or “ill-fated domain.” The Alcohol Beverage Control protest meeting is scheduled for Sept. 14.

In other design requests, commissioner Jeff Jones showed annoyance at the owner of 3254 O Street. The design for a second story above a back garage was denied, as Jones said that this scheme has bounced around for 10 years. Neighbors of the residence in question left the meeting smiling. Five Guys restaurant was asked to redesign its new awning with fewer “Five Guys” logos (not five) on the umbrella fabric. Designs for a planned four-story condo at Grace Street and Cecil Place was opposed as being out of size and out of whack with the secluded neighborhood.

Robert Devaney •

While the words, “The Amazing Race,” “Modern Family,” “Mad Men,” “The Good Wife” and “The Kennedys,” read like chapter headings in a book about our nation’s capital, they are, in fact, names of TV shows or movies that earned Primetime Emmy Awards Sept. 18 in a place called Hollywood.

With occasional appearances before Congress, at the Kennedy Center or in a downtown restaurant, denizens of Georgetown, Foggy Bottom and Capitol Hill are acquainted with a few of these actors, actresses, directors and producers but know little of the inner-workings of their powerful TV and film industry, those dream factories, in a state called California.

Luckily, D.C. had some knowledgeable representation out there during Emmy Awards weekend. Businesswoman Elizabeth Webster is newly employed as director of business outreach at the District’s Committee for Small and Local Business Development which oversees the Commission on Motion Pictures and Television Development, chaired by At-large Councilman Vincent Orange. So, Webster reached out to Los Angeles, attending pre- and after-parties and the awards show during a trip that she planned and paid for before her District government job began. She is also well known as secretary of the Georgetown Business Association.

“My favorite part of the Emmy Awards show was Michael Bolton’s performance and the beautiful, colorful staging throughout the show,” said Webster, who, like many, wore a red dress to the show. “I thought Melissa McCarthy was very down to earth. I could relate to her comments in her speech about her parents’ endless support of her career.”

Clearly in her element, Webster, a former actress and model, spoke of meeting friends and former colleagues at the Governor’s Ball, HBO’s after-party, the NBC party at Spago’s in Beverly Hills and the Vanity Fair pre-party in West Hollywood. She said she was also glad to see longtime and family friend, actor Vincent De Paul, a former Marylander who lives in L.A. and whose sister lives in Georgetown.

En route back, Webster said she is preparing for public hearings before the District Council on Nov. 9, 10 a.m., with “studio executives and experts in the entertainment industry to testify about what incentives and requirements D.C. needs to implement to be more movie- and production-friendly.” Orange and his TV-film team have set a goal of getting two permanent TV series to be produced regularly out of DC. as well as increasing film production. (Mayor Vincent Gray and Orange last met with film executives in L.A. on July 21.)

Aside from rushing to fly home from sunny Southern California so soon, Webster was asked, any other vexations? “Betty White should have won in her category.”
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Robert Devaney •

You know you got a hot party going on, when the Mayor of Washington, D.C., boogies until the last dance, wearing a red boa. Yes, hizzoner Vincent Gray along with hundreds of Georgetowners got down at the Russian Embassy Dec. 2 at “Winter Wonderland,” the annual gala for the Citizens Association of Georgetown.

Fine food, Russian vodka and caviar with disco and motown music were the formula for fun — and with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and his wife Natalia providing their elegant venue once more. The Right On Band returned with its high-energy ’70s music with tunes like “Disco Inferno,” “Love Train” and “I Will Survive.”

Gala co-chairs Nancy Taylor Bubes, Michele Evans and Patrice Miller organized the night which honored Georgetowners John Richardson and Franco Nuschese. Richardson helped transform Volta Park in the 1990s; his contracting firm has renovated many houses in Georgetown. Nuschese, owner of Café Milano, supports many community charities. The lively auction, run by newcomer Martin Gammon of Bonhams, got the crowd to put their hands up and bid — and they did. Councilmembers Jack Evans and Vincent Orange were dancing; former Mayor Anthony Williams showed up, too.

Sponsors included Vornado Realty Trust & Angelo Gordon & Co. on behalf of the Shops at Georgetown Park, M.C. Dean Inc., MRP Realty, Washington Fine Properties (Nancy Taylor Bubes), Western Development Corporation, EagleBank, EastBanc Technologies LLC, Georgetown Cupcake, Georgetown University Hospital, Clyde’s Restaurant Group and The Georgetowner.

Oh, yes, Mayor Gray joined the conga line with the band’s Arline Baxter nudging him on.
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Robert Devaney •

Director P.J. Paparelli often refers to the title of his new gig at the Shakespeare Theatre Company as “the two gents.”

That would be “The Two Gentleman of Verona,” one of Shakespeare’s earliest works, and to Paparelli’s way of thinking, his most youthful. One way or another, you can expect that youth will be served in his production of the play.

“The Two Gentleman of Verona” is lumped in with Shakespeare’s comedies, a kind of precursor to “The Comedy of Errors,” when the Bard was more assured in matters of twins, doubling up, the big laughs and setups. In “Verona” Shakespeare was not yet the poet that he would soon become, most notably in “Richard II” and “Romeo and Juliet,” two later but still early plays that sang with true poetic music and genius.

“It’s a comedy,” Paparelli says of ‘Two Gentlemen.’ “But I like to think of it leading to “Romeo and Juliet.” Both plays are about young people—in R&J’s adolescence, here, maybe late high school or college. To me, it’s about young people learning about the real meanings of friendships, love, jealousy, real adventure and challenges. Like a lot of his plays that are, like you say, dense, it’s full of possibilities. Things went completely wrong for the protaganists, which is why it’s a tragedy. Here, it could have gone wrong—two life-long, steadfast friends fall out over a woman—a situation that can always go wrong.”

“I like the challenge of doing ‘Verona’ because it’s not done very much,” Paparellli said. “The Shakespeare Company did it a few years ago, but it’s still rarely done. But I think you can find all sorts of later Shakespeare tropes here—strong female characters, issues of friendship, outlaws in a forest and so on.

“One of the things about Shakespeare is how we confront him early on,” Paparelli said. “In high school, he’s sort of shoveled at kids. I spent a lot of time trying to get it, to understand it all and it’s not that easy.”

This production of “Verona” is very special to Paparelli, 37. He got to plunge deeply early and with lots of responsibilities right here with the Shakespeare Company, where he worked under Artistic Director Michael Kahn as assistant and associate director from 1998 to 2004. “So this is really a wonderful thing for me,” he said It’s like coming home.”

Listening to him talk, there’s a youthful precociousness in his voice even though he’s amassed quite a reputation and impressive credits already, including currently running the American Theatre Company in theater-crazy Chicago for the past seven years. Shakespeare isn’t much on the seasonal bill at the ATC, which concerns itself with contemporary, often new American plays and issues. “We try to be like the Public Theatre in New York,” he said. “Our plays are on the edge, new, fresh, often dealing with contemporary issues.”

Prior to that, Paparelli was artistic director of the Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska, a company that had originally been brought to prominence by Molly Smith, now the high-profile artistic director at Arena Stage.

“Two Gentleman of Verona,” which features Adam Green and Miriam Silverman in a large and stellar cast, is the tale of Valentine and Proteus, boyhood friends raised in Verona who are thick as blood brothers until both fall in love with the comely Sylvia, the daughter of the Duke of Milan. Things happen—jealousy, fights and love and the whole damn thing. Still, it’s awfully funny. “But you know,” Paparelli said, “It could have gone the Romeo way.”

That observation mines the fact that many of Shakespeare’s comedy are only a split hair away from tragedy, that his tragedies are replete with comic characters at times (with the exception, perhaps of “Macbeth”).

Paparelli thinks “Verona” is about youthful angst, so don’t be shocked if you think you’re hearing things—like Bono, Maroon Five and other contemporary rock. “Music is one way of contemporizing. It will be Verona, but you might see a McDonald’s there.”

One thing that won’t change is the dog. You might recall a sequence in the Oscar-winning film “Shakespeare in Love” where the young Bard is working on “Verona”. “Don’t forget to put in a dog,” a friend tells him. “The queen loves dogs.”

Oliver, a veteran Broadway performer in ‘Annie’ among other shows, a super-pro mutt, takes on “Crab” the dog, although he doesn’t answer to the name.

“But,” Paparelli says, “he’s a real pro.”

As is often the case with Shakespeare, the play will be familiar. And with Paparelli there, it will be as fresh as an adolescent with attitude.

“Two Gentleman of Verona” will be performed at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Lansburgh Theatre, January 17-March 4. For more information visit ShakespeareTheatre.org.