Arts & Society

Mary Bird • September 30, 2014

The Washington Home & Community Hospices held a memorial and tribute bricks dedication to loved ones in the reflection garden on Sept. 14. Alexandra Villard de Borchgrave, founder of the Light of Healing Hope Foundation, who has generously donated thousands of volumes of her inspirational poetry prompted by the losses September 11, provided copies of her most recent compilation, “Healing Courage Messages of Love, Hope, and Strength,” available Oct. 1. “We are blessed when we share the stories of our loved ones and when we listen to others’ stories,” Rev. Robert Wellington said, as red chrysanthemums were placed on the memorial bricks.

Mary Bird • September 29, 2014

The Friends of Book Hill Park was founded in 2000 by the late Ed Thomson and Julia Diaz-Asper to supplement government funding in supporting the grounds behind the Georgetown Public Library. On Sept, 18, a sellout crowd was in attendance as acclaimed author Kitty Kelley hosted a benefit to ensure the preservation and maintenance of this now vibrant park with the completion of the new shade garden and trident fence. [gallery ids="101868,137602,137629,137626,137608,137613,137617,137622" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

For Washington audiences, “Florencia in the Amazon,” the season-opening offering of the Washington National Opera which debuts Saturday, Sept. 20, will be something new and different, the first-ever production here of this singular work by composer Daniel Catan.

For WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, however, who is directing, the project was practically something of an old home-week effort, a way to return to a work she had first directed in its 1996 debut at the Houston Grand Opera.

At the time, “Florencia in the Amazon” was the first ever Spanish-language commission by major American opera companies. The Cincinnati Opera was the other participant.

“It was a very challenging, original work, of the kind people had not heard or seen before,” Zambello said. “I wanted to return to the work, to look at it with fresh eyes and insight. We had this wonderful, lush and new work by an American composer, Daniel Catan, and we had a great libretto, by Marcela Fuentes-Berain. And, then, there was Marques.”

That would be Gabriel Garcia Marques, the Nobel Prize-winning Colombian novelist, a giant figure in Latin American and world literature. The opera was based very loosely on several of his works, most notably “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and “Love in the Time of Cholera.”

One look at the plot, and you can almost feel the longing of lovers trying to find each other in the course of time and separation, a feeling aided and abetted by the magical realism atmospherics and the landscape surrounding a journey on the Amazon River. That’s what Florencia, a famous opera singer, is doing as she embarks on a river journey and a return to her native Brazil, all the while searching for her long-lost lover of long time ago, a butterfly hunter—yes, there’s that—who has disappeared into the jungle. Along the way, there are forces of nature—heat, storms, the river itself and a cholera outbreak, which besets the travelers on their way to the capital, where Florencia will sing. Their guide? Rilobo, a mystical river creature.

“It’s very much guided by the spirit and writing of the magical realism of Marques,” Zambello said. “We went to Colombia back then and had an opportunity to meet the man, and, of course, Colombia was very different in those days. He was very courtly, kind and gentle — a fascinating man — a little elfish, almost. He was very excited about the project and offered some of his own ideas. It was an amazing experience. We went to him by helicopter.”

As for this new production, Zambello said, “I think it will be a very different sort of experiences for Washington audiences. We’ve tried to expand the horizons, not just with this, but our new opera initiatives, an expanded focus on young audiences.”

We’ve already seen newer operas—“Moby Dick” is an example—in which the libretto, not usually one of the highlights of classic opera, with the exception of at least three of Mozart’s operas, and some of Wagner, has become if not literary, certainly very readable, because read you must. “Florencia” is sung in Spanish, with English subtitles.

The two-time, Grammy Award-winning American soprano Christine Goerke will star as the famed Florencia. She was last seen at the WNO in the 2008 production of “Elektra.” A rising star, Carolyn Kuan, will make her WNO debut conducting. Norman Garrett is Riolobo, Andrea Carroll is Rosalbo, Patrick O’Halloran is Arcadio, Nancy Fabiola Herrera is Paula, Michael Todd Simpson is Alvaro and David Pittsinger is the Captain. The design team includes Robert Israel, sets; Catherine Zuber, costumes; Mark McCullough, lighting, and Eric Sean Fogel; choreography.

“Florencia in the Amazon” will be performed at 7 p.m., Sept. 20 and Sept. 22; 7:30 p.m., Sept. 24 and Sept. 26; 2 p.m., Sept.28 at the Kennedy Center Opera House.

Gary Tischler •

The space—a bare room with a table and chairs, no decorations on the wall in the Shakespeare Theatre’s rehearsal studio near Eastern Market—seems the ideal setting for an interview with Nancy Robinette. She is here to rehearse her role as Daisy Werthan in the Ford Theatre’s upcoming production of “Driving Miss Daisy,” which runs from Sept. 26 to Oct. 26.

She’s still in the middle of the rehearsal process and there’s a certain clean slate aspect to talking about a play you haven’t seen yet, and which isn’t totally locked in yet for the actress.

“One thing I’ve discovered is that the play really holds up well. I was really pleased to see that,” she said. “I think it has a lot to say about how we deal with race and prejudice, not just in the play’s time setting, but for us and how we live today.”

Playwright Alfred Uhry won a Pulitzer Prize for “Driving Miss Daisy,” which starred Dana Ivey and Morgan Freeman, with Freeman eventually reprising his role in the movie version with Jessica Tandy. Julie Harris and Brock Peters were in a touring version and in 2010 the play was revived on Broadway with James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave.

The play revolves around widow Daisy Wertham, a retired Jewish school teacher in her seventies living in Atlanta in the 1960s. Her worried nephew has hired Hoke Coleburn to be Daisy’s chauffeur after she’s caused a car wreck. The play becomes a time-spanning saga about the relationship between a prideful, stubborn woman, who has experienced prejudice herself, but is deeply set in her ways, and a recalcitrant, proud black man. Theater-goers watch as they try to overcome their initial feelings about each other and experience the civil rights struggle taking place around them.

Robinette, one of Washington’s theatrical gems and treasures, is working with longtime Washington actor Craig Wallace. Jennifer L. +Nelson is directing the season opener.

“I think while the film was lovely, it was almost too naturalistic in its physical details,” she said. “We’re working with suggestion as far as the noise and reality of history is concerned. I think one of the things that occurs in the play is that both realize that they’ve suffered in the South and been outsiders. But this isn’t just about racial issues, it’s also about class. Daisy, in many ways, will not change because she’s from an upper class family where you didn’t do certain things and say certain things. I want to get into her strengths and her independence, which she’s losing because of age.”

Robinette had only recently finished starring as Winnie in the Scena Theatre’s production of Samuel Beckett’s “Happy Days.” “That was my first Beckett,” she said. “You’re immobile through the whole play, buried halfway up to your neck in sand, reminiscing, trying to be alive. You have to figure out a way to connect to the audience.”

“You know, Robert (McNamara, the artistic director and founder of Scena Theatre) is one of the most under-appreciated theater artists in this city.”

We had talked several years ago when she starred with Kimberly Schraf and Holly Twyford in “The Carpetbaggers’ Children,” another Southern-resonant play by Horton Foote.

She remains careful in what she says, and how she says it, an approach you suspect she uses in dealing with her characters to do them justice and get them right. This comes across as caution and reticence at first, but after a while, you discover she has a gift for listening and watching so that at some point in the interview we start swapping theater stories and people stories. She has a knack for encouraging that sort of thing—tales of Beckett, other actors, other plays, her life in the theater, arrived at and built with some caution. “I couldn’t really say I was an actress full-time until I could give up my day job.”

When she came to Washington more than 20 years ago she studied with Studio Theatre founder and artistic director Joy Zinoman, which was a transforming experience. “She was my great teacher and mentor,” Robinette says.

During the course of our conversation, I began to feel as if I knew her.

And in many ways, I do. I’ve seen her on stage many times, have spent two-hour chunks of my life over two decades with her at the Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage and at other venues. I been able to watch her build a life, reputation and career. She has won three Helen Hayes Awards, including one for her role as Florence Foster Jenkins in “Souvenirs” at Studio Theatre.

Actors have a way sometimes of becoming totally immersed in their parts or bringing some unique and special quality to them, to create what the late Tana Hicken said were “transformations.” Robinette brings a voice, a kind of kinetic quality that’s all-at-once trembling and vulnerable backed by a tensile, but warm strength. Put her in tall, restoration wigs, floating-ship dresses for Shakespeare or Wilde, and she can make you laugh until it hurts. In spite of the formidable echoes of other Daisy Werthans that exist—Harris, Tandy and Redgrave—you can be sure that Nancy Robinette will make Miss Daisy her own.

“Driving Miss Daisy” runs at Ford’s Theatre Sept. 26 through Oct. 26

Georgetowner • September 26, 2014

The Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts hosted its annual ball Saturday, Sept. 13. The soiree was held on the stage of the Filene Center and was presented in partnership with the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates. The night’s entertainment, décor and cuisine paid tribute to Emirati culture, with guests smoking hookahs in a makeshift lounge and sporting henna art painted on-site. The event raised more than $1 million for the foundation’s arts and education programs and was well attended by members of the area’s political class, including Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) and Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.

Photos by Neshan H. Naltchayan [gallery ids="101866,137639,137636" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird •

On Sept. 10, D.C.’s Dancing Stars Gala hosted a pre-event launch party to kick off its first annual black-tie dancing challenge taking place on Oct. 25. Event chair Maria Coakley David, executive director Susannah Moss and presenting sponsor Fred Astaire Dance Studio D.C. welcomed over 200 guests to the Huxley. The gala will generate thousands of dollars to support local charities. Eleven local celebrities will compete to be crowned the first D.C.’s Dancing Star Champion. [gallery ids="101869,137601,137597" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird •

Judy A. Greenberg, director of the Kreeger Museum, welcomed neighbors for a glass of wine and a stroll through the Sculpture Garden on Sept. 7 to view the museum’s newest works. They included sculpture by Emile Brzezinski, whose exhibit, “The Lure of the Forest,” will be on display Sept. 16 to Dec. 27. Guests gathered by the reflecting pool to learn about the museum’s capital campaign to develop five acres of land. They were warmly told “don’t make this your first and only visit. We want you to think of this as your museum.” The sculpture garden is open free to the public. [gallery ids="101867,137631" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird •

On Sept. 4, the Fairmont hotel toasted the near completion of a five-month project of exterior resurfacing. Guests in the hotel’s courtyard enjoyed signature lemon honey highballs, barbecue, a photo booth and raffles on free stays at Fairmont resort hotels. All proceeds from the event will go towards Team Fairmont participating in the Best Buddies Challenge. The walk, run and bike ride raises funds for Best Buddies International, a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Robert Devaney • September 25, 2014

DBGB Kitchen and Bar kicked off its opening with a Sept. 12 food party that will be tough to top. The great food and good, Gallic cheer did not subside. Chef Daniel Boulud, who got his start in Washington, said he was happy to welcome to D.C. The casual French-American restaurant DBGB marks the New York-based chef’s first restaurant in D.C. and is at CityCenter on H Street, NW. On hand were hundreds of Boulud’s friends and admirers — and, of course, his family and his famous chef pals. Boulud said of his D.C. mentor and pioneering chef Jean-Louis Palladin: “He was the finest chef Washington ever had.”
[gallery ids="101864,137658,137648,137654" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

The entire Behar family was on hand Sept. 18 for a grand opening party for the new Ike Behar store at 2900 M St., NW. The shop has been open for a few months. Founder Ike Behar along with Regina, Steven, Alan and Lawrence Behar greeted friends and clients. [gallery ids="101865,137642" nav="thumbs"]