Performance

Gary Tischler • October 28, 2014

Almost 30 esteemed playwrights, commissioned to write monologues and vignettes. An ensemble of six local actors, joined by nearly 30 notable political, community and cultural leaders to present the results.

For director Anita Maynard-Losh, Arena Stage’s Director of Community Engagement, that’s quite a challenge.

It’s all about “Our War”, which is Arena Stage’s part in the multi-year, multi-city National Civil War Project. The show consists of series of brief plays commissioned as part of the 200th anniversary of the Civil War commemoration. “Our War” will be staged Oct. 21 to Nov. 4.

“Our War” is part of the National Civil War Project for Creating Original Theatrical Productions and Innovative Academic Programs. This nationwide cooperative effort among theaters, universities and other organizations was inspired by D.C. choreographer Liz Lerman, whose “Healing Wars” production was staged at Arena Stage this summer.

“There are a lot of moving parts, and it’s a little different every time out,” Maynard-Losh said. “We have an ensemble of actors, we have this small vignettes or monologues on the theme of the Civil War, and in addition, we have guest appearances each night by city and area notables.”

“I have to say, though, that to be able to direct works by twenty six great playwrights, that’s a gift and a treat, as well as a challenge,” she said.

“These are commissioned works on the Civil War,” she said. “They don’t take place during the war, necessarily, and they touch on themes about the civil war, and the effect it continues to have on Americans, on African Americans, on women. It’s about the effect of the war, more than specific figures from the war, or incidents, or battles. Some pieces are set there, to be sure, but mostly it’s how we’ve engaged with the war, it’s history and aftermath, how it’s become a part of how we live today. We have some historic figures—John Wilkes Booth, for instance, or Walt Whitman, who haunts this city.”

“We got very different works, very different responses,” she said. “There are stories about immigration, about the idea of citizenship and its responsibilities. It’s more of a contemporary take on the war, the playwrights give the war context in terms of our daily lives, of contemporary life.”

The playwrights include Maria Agui Carter, Lydia Diamond, Amy Freed, Diane Glancy Joy Harjo, Samuel D. Hunter, Naomi Lizuka, Aditi Kapil, Dan LeFranc, David Lindsay-Abaire, Ken Ludwig, Taylor Mac, Ken Narasaki, Lynn Notage, Robert O’Hara, Heathear Raffo, Charles Randolph-Wright, Tanya Saracho, Betty Shamieh, John Strand, Tazewell Thompson, William S. Yellow Robe Jr., Karen Zacarias, as well as two students.

The play features actors John Lescault, Ricardo Frederick Evans, Tuyet Thi Pham, Lynette Rathnam and Sara Waisanen.

Guest performers for “Our War” include council members Jack Evans, Yvette Alexander, David Grosso; Chris Matthews of “Hardball” fame; NPR correspondents Deborah Amos and Diane Rehm; Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia; Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg; and many more.

Among the monologues are “The Truth”, by John Strand; “Being Wright,” by Charles Randolph Wright; “A Union Soldier Writes a Letter to the Mother of a Boy He Used to Know,” by Naomi Isuka; “A Case for Laughter,” by Ken Ludwig; “La Adelita,” by Karen Zacharias”; “This is How We Do,” by Tazewell Thompson, and “The Grey Rooster” by Lynn Nottage.

According to Arena Stage, due to the wealth of content created by the 25 playwrights, the production has been separated into two selections of 18 monologues under “Stars” and “Stripes.”

For complete schedules for specific productions, go to the Arena Stage website.

Gary Tischler • October 23, 2014

It’s hard to talk about Washington Concert Opera as “show biz,” but what happened to the critically acclaimed company as it prepared for its season opener over last weekend gives rise to that old expression, “That’s show biz!”

The company, under the direction of artistic director Antony Walker, was in the midst of rehearsing Vincenzo Bellini’s “I Capuleti e I Montecchi,” a lyrical take on “Romeo and Juliet” — scheduled to be performed 6 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 28, at Lisner Stage at 6 p.m. — when the news came.

Soprano Olga Peretyatko, who was starring as Guiletta, had fallen ill and would be unable to continue. But it became a “bad news” event followed by very good news. Luckily for the company, American soprano Nicole Cabell was more or less nearby in Boston.

“I learned about it over the weekend and was offered the role by Mr. Walker, and I said yes,” Cabell, who’s part Caucasian, African and American and a rising star, said. “I was about to go on a trip to London with a friend, but I couldn’t pass this up. It’s a last-minute thing, certainly, and quite a challenge, but I’ve done the role before, and the music is so amazingly beautiful, well, you’ll see.”

“It’s the Juliet role, but the couple at this point is not just in the throes of being in love, it’s much deeper than that, much more about love and the political situation, with the families, the frustration, she’s a much more complicated character.” Cabell said. She did the part in San Francisco, and she had the added advantage of having performed with Walker and the Washington Concert Opera last year, in the role of Medora in Verdi’s “Il corsaro.” “I think it’s just a wonderful opportunity to be here again,” she said.

Cabell, who started out in school wanting to be a writer (science-fiction, fiction things like that, she told us), was persuaded by her mother to pursue the gift that she was given, which was singing and a beautiful voice. “Writing is still a hobby with me and reading,” she said. “I’m a big fan of Stephen King.”

She’s proven her mettle, winning the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2005, and soon after that recording Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.” She performed the role of Guiletta in San Francisco in 2012 and in Kansas City in 2013, both times with star performer Joyce Di Donato.

“With concert opera, it’s different,” she said. “It’s totally about the music, of course, but I think if you pay attention to it that way, you can get the emotional force. There’s always this debate in opera, drama, performing, acting and music and singing. Here, it’s totally pure, but I happen to think that you can also achieve emotional purity through the singing and the music.”

Walker will direct again, and the cast also features Mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey as Romeo and David Portillo as Tebaldo.

Gary Tischler •

People seeing Delaney Williams as Otto, a security guard, in the Arena Stage world premiere production of “The Shoplifters (by Canadian Playwright Morris Panych, who also directs) might be forgiven if they think they’ve seen him somewhere before. 

They would probably be right, but it’s also a little more than that.  Williams has the kind of face, voice and persona that have a familiar feel, look and sound to them. You think Irish, for sure, and big, sure. You think cop, lawyer, law enforcement—all of which he has done.

Hearing him on the phone, you remember that voice almost instantly—not only for his recurring and best known  role of Detective Sergeant Jay Landsman on HBO’s highly praised and still missed by many crime drama “The Wire,” set in Baltimore, but for his sometime role on as John Buchanan, a somewhat oily defense attorney who has represented members of the mob and others on the high-tension franchise “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” sparring with detectives and prosecuting attorneys.

“Yeah, some people remember that guy,” Williams said. “I’m sure we’ll be seeing him again, representing different defendants.”

“Television has an impact, that’s for sure,” said the veteran actor who’s also been on “The West Wing,” “Veep” and films like the recent “Beneath the Harvest Sky” with Carrie Preson and Carla Gallo.

But he works his way back to the stage “because that’s where you’re doing the actor’s craft, because it’s challenging and intense,” he said. “It’s a high wire act.”

Williams has another career right now: helping to raise two sons, Liam, 15, and Chili, 12.  “You have to consider that, being a parent is the most important job you can have,” he said.

He’s obviously up about “The Shoplifters” which brings him back to the familiar atmosphere of Arena Stage, where he was last seen in Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge,” just before the company moved into its dandy new confines.

“It’s great to be back,” he said. “And this project is such a special play.  It’s fast paced. I know it’s two acts, but it’s not going to  seem like that. I play a security guard who has a gung-ho partner, who tries to arrest an older woman for shoplifting. That’s the gist. But it’s a play about real people, not villains, good or bad people. It’s funny. It’s touching, too, and it deals with the kind of people—people who resort to a little shoplifting in stores, and security guards, whom you normally don’t see in the forefront in plays, in shows or movies.

Broadway star Jayne Houdyshell makes her Arena Stage debut as Alma, she of the light fingers and complicated heart and life.  She’s received two Tony Award nominations, including for the Kennedy Center-produced “Follies” in 2012 and for Lisa Kron’s “Well” in 2006, for which she also received a Theater World Award.

The cast also includes Jane Sokolowski as Phyllis and Adi Stein as Dom.

“The Shoplifters” is being performed at the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater through Oct. 19.

Gary Tischler •

Just go to “Marie Antoinette” — yes, the revolutionary play about the famous, infamous, haunting and haunted Queen of France, now at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre — and try not to connect to something in the way we live today.

You can’t. Are you a French Revolution buff, or love old movies and books about the French Revolution? They’re all here folks—Marie, herself, stopping to snap selfies or pose for pictures, the count who loves her, the rag-tag, murderous mob, the baffled, clueless King Louis XVI, except for Madame Defarge, knitting, Danton in his bath, and “Let Them Eat Cake.” The queen apparently did not say that.

Think this stuff is about the curse of celebrity, way back when? You can see it all, echoes and hints and flagrant bows or curses to the likes of Kim and the Kardashians, Lindsay, J-Lo and all the celebrated nonentities on YouTube.

Think we live in turbulent times? Sure we do: Ukraine, ISIS or ISIL, the Arab Spring, the Middle East Winter, the Syrian debacle. We have beheadings, too. We even have beheadings in the news.

If it were just a stylish, hip and cool, a playful tool for connecting the foibles of a young queen to the always now and new, “Marie Antoinette” would be a witty, if not quite as serious as it might be, sendup, zippy 18th-century fashion show, bloody red carpet of a show.

Except that the play—by the now celebrated playwright Dacvid Adjami (his “Elective Affinities” starred no less a Broadway legend than Zoe Caldwell)—is both less than what it appears to be and, in the end, much more.

The play is more than a bit of a mess at times—but, like a messy traffic accident or an accidental viewing of a reality show, you can’t look away—ever. Because it won’t let you, under the immersive and stylish direction of Yury Urnov, because it pulls you in visually, hypnotically and, finally, emotionally.

Looks- and temperament-wise, the show has the feel of “Marat/Sade” or a tour of a madhouse or the old Bastille cells or a mad-hatter party at Versailles, where I was once on a spring day sitting on a bench where the queen went to get away from it, and it snowed. I mention this because it’s a scene that might have gotten into this play—along with the every curious, inventive Sarah Marshall as a sheep—or a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The fact that we accept the presence of a talking sheep at the point of entrance says a lot about the plays powerful pull.

We open with a Project Runway shot—the queen and friends, frolicking and striking Madonna-like poses, clicking, gossiping about the city, politics, fashion, the mob, in a way that Snookie and company might, before descending into a hot tub.

At this point, you should not be surprised that this production is trying to pull you in every which way—there’s a mirror on board, which for audiences front and center should make them feel like voyeurs, watching themselves watching the stage.

There’s a lot to like in the acting—James Konicek as a fiercely frustrated and cruel guard, Joe Isenberg as the soft king, Bradley Foster Smith as the cool and true blue Count Axel Fersen.

But what makes the play is the transcendent performance of Kimberly Gilbert as the queen. It’s a somewhat unexpected star turn because Gilbert has built a longish list of credits with a persona that seems modern, no matter what (she had just completed a role in the reprise of “Stupid F—-ng Bird”). It does here too, and yet she’s found a way to be Marie in her own time. She’s a dreamy teen at first, wistfully wishing to be back in the bucolic Austrian countryside, frustrated with the king, clueless about the mob and her situation.

Somewhere along the way, Gilbert’s Marie, with a kind of heart-breaking empathy, grows in stature, adds weight and bravery to her demeanor, and a dignity peculiarly stuck in her time, a quality sadly lacking in contemporary celebrities.

It’s a bravura performance, building, changing as it goes, until the last cliches, like the last expensive piece of clothing, is gone and what’s left is a woman in her thirties, totally aware of her fate.

“Marie Antoinette” runs though Oct. 12 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 641 D St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20004.

Gary Tischler • October 10, 2014

Who knew that a couple of wayward steaks could be peppered with so much moral weight, spiced up with so much laughter, maybe even a dash of romantic wine and layers of nuance?

The matinee audience at Arena Stage’s world premiere production of “The Shoplifters” by playwright-director Morris Panych certainly seemed to get what was going on in this often riotously funny play, alternating between ripples and riffs of laughter with intense attention at the quiet, perilous moments, then breaking out in whoops of celebration like a seasoned sitcom audience, when two of the characters surprised them by locking lips.

Matinees—as opposed to the tenser, and perhaps more dramatic, atmosphere of an opening night—may be a truer test of audience appeal, at least with these various groups of seniors, many of whom seemed to take the plight of the characters to heart. Panych—while loading the play with verbal comedy of pain and tort and retort, as well as hapless physical comedy—has something on his mind in this play.

The setup seems simple—two female shoplifters, one of them a middle-aged veteran, the other a nerves-gone-to-hell, younger first timer—have been caught with the goods by two security guards at a supermarket, about to make off with the aforementioned steaks, plus the makings of breakfast and a birthday cake, discovered dropping from the ladies’ skirts.

What to do? What to do? With shoplifters like these—the wily, justice-minded Alma who has a reason and an answer for everything and the hyper-ventilating and twitchy Phyllis—and security guards like these—Dom with all the eagerness and vehemence of the really-holier-than-thou young Jesus born again, which he is, and Otto, the live-and-let-and-live, sanguine old pro who’s on his way out—the answer isn’t self-evident or easy.

Dom sees the women as criminals, and handcuffs one of them, while Otto, much more sympathetic to the women, finds a way to look at both sides now, less eager to call in the police for help and haul them off to jail.

“It’s just a pair of steaks,” Otto says. “You’re a security guard,” Dom says. “How can you think like that?”

Alma often gives away what she’s pilfered for months in the store. Phyllis wanted to celebrate her birthday. She didn’t have the ingredients for a cake, and out pop the sugar, the flour, familiar goods from familiar stores.

Let’s not forget to mention that Otto has more than a passing interest in Alma—he’s been watching her case the joint for months. “Why do you think you’ve never gotten caught before,” he said.

“The Shoplifters” is a gem in a minor key, as a work of literature and a play. Panych isn’t trying to get the characters to stand for the downtrodden, the picked-on, the unlucky, the poor, the 90 percent . Life, he recognizes, is unfair, which doesn’t mean we have to contribute to the unfairness.

In the end, what he’s done is make us see all four characters in full, beyond the issue of why Alma never says she’s stealing—or shoplifting for that matter—but always insists she’s taking things. Even Dom, who has more troubles than even he deserves, what with the twitchy eye, his desire to convert Phyllis to Jesus. He is, as Alma notes, two sizes too small for his job and is bathed if not immersed in compassion.

It’s easy for regular folks—as opposed to critics—to see themselves on that stage, there’s no unearthly beauties here, only quirks, and the skip-a-beat hearts of real people, quirky as they may be.

The set—by Kelly McDonald—is a marvel of modern mass consumption, a store room back lit in sections, a mountain of packages that are instantly familiar from weekend and daily shopping—the brand names immediately make you visualize Safeway, Giant and CVS aisles: Utz Potato Chips, Scott towels and Raisin Bran.

None of this, of course, would work were it not for the cast, a brilliant quartet perfect for the parts as written, doing honor to Dom, Alma, Otto and Phyllis. Broadway star Jayne Houdyshell is the play’s sturdy tree, nothing can shake her or embarrass her, including finding herself growing fond of Otto. She is the play’s hockey goalie—nothing gets by her, no insult or assertion goes unchallenged or unquestioned, including her own reasons for being. Television and screen veteran Delaney Williams (he had a recurring role on “The Wire” as well as “SVU”) is a man who knows himself well. He’s unwilling to strike matches around a gasoline puddle or make Grand Theft out of the loss of a couple of steaks “that will start rotting any time now.” He thwarts Dom in his law-and-order posturing, calms Phyllis and warms up to and sidles up to Alma. He’s sneaky-sly and as warm as bread fresh out of the oven.

Adi Stein makes Dom, if not likeable (that’s a too-tall order), understandable. It’s not about law and order, but about order, and doing something important, at all costs to decorum, kindness, logic and reality. And let’s not forget Jenna Sokolowski, a local favorite, who brings out the funnies in a gawky, physical way. This Phyllis wants to escape. She needs to go to the bathroom, and it’s as if no part of her body is immune from twitching and shaking, especially as she turns herself into a pretzel trying to reach a stun gun.

All the laughter aside—and there is a lot of laughter—“The Shoplifters” gives you plenty of food for thought. It’s not steak, mind you, stolen or not. It’s more like that special, unidentifiable ingredient in your mother’s homemade soup that you can’t quite get out of your mind or your taste buds.

You walk out. You see an Utz truck double-parked, and you smile all over again.

“The Shoplifters” runs at Arena’s Kreeger Theatre through October 19.

Gary Tischler • October 9, 2014

A number of Washington area theater groups have begun their seasons. Here’s a look at what’s playing now.

Arena Stage—“The Shoplifters,” a new play and world premiere about the haves and have nots, a security guard and shoplifters, written and directed by Morris Panych, in the Kreeger Theater, through Oct. 19.

Theater J—Theater J’s season of Epic Expressions opens with “Yentl,” by Leah Napolin and Isaac Bashevis Singer, through Oct. 5.

Scena Theatre—“Shining City,” by Conor McPherson and world premiere of “Molly,” about Irish playwright and poet’s J.M. Synge’s lover, in repertory through Sept. 21 at Atlas Performing Arts Center.

Olney Theatre—“Colossal,” by Andrew Hinderaker, world premiere, through Sept. 28.

Signature—Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George,” launches Signature’s 25th Anniversary Season, through Sept. 21.

Folger Theatre—“King Lear” starring Joseph Marcell of “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” through Sept. 21.

National Theatre—“Dirty Dancing-the Classic Story on Stage,” through Sept. 14.

Studio Theatre—“Belleville,” by hot playwright Amy Herzog, directed by David Muse, through Oct. 12.

Round House Theatre—Sam Shepard’s brazen, “Fool for Love,” through Sept. 27.

KENNEDY CENTER

Theater—There’s no question that the buzz at the Kennedy Center is around its own production of “Little Dancer,” which debuts at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theatre Oct. 25-Nov. 30. There’s also a new touring production of “Evita” by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, with Caroline Bowman in the starring role, Sept. 30 through Oct. 19 at the Opera House.

The National Symphony Orchestra—The NSO’s fifth season under Music Director Christoph Eschenbach includes: The NSO’s Season Opening Ball, welcoming new K.C. President Deborah F. Rutter, featuring star violinist Joshua Bell, conducted by both Eschenbach and NSO Pops conductor Steven Reineke. Sept. 21 in the Concert Hall.

Eschenbach conducts works by Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Mozart, featuring violinist Midori Oct. 30 and Nov. 1.The NSO Pops Orchestra will showcase the music from the films of Tim Burton (“Beetlejuice,” “Batman”), with conductor John Mauceri, Oct. 23-15.

KC Jazz
Kennedy Center Artistic Adviser for Jazz, Jason Moran launches the jazz season with a multitude of programs: Crossroads Club: Mehliana, with Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana, Oct. 4; Jazz Select Series, with Muhal Richard Abrams, Terrace Theater, Oct. 10; The San Francisco Jazz Collective, Terrace Theater, Oct. 17; Lou Donaldson Quartet, Terrace Theater, Nov. 14; KC Jazz Club, George Cables Songbook featuring Victor Lewis, Nov. 8.

WASHINGTON PERFORMING ARTS

Rising star classical pianist Steven Lin performs a diverse program of Mozart, Schuman, David Hertzberg, Chopin and Ravel at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, Sept. 27.

The Danish String Quartet, considered one of the hottest string quartets going, performing at the Terrace Theater with works by Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, and Beethoven, Oct. 15.

On Nov. 1, the gifted jazz singer Cecile McLorin Salvant returns by way of WPA in a much anticipated concert at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.

STRATHMORE

Strathmore kicks off its 2014-2015 Season with the irrepressible comedy of Wanda Sykes on Sept. 20 in the Music Center.
Ground-and-boundary breaking guitar groups California Guitar Trio and Montreal Guitar Trio perform at the Music Center, Oct. 10.

If Clint Eastwood’s movie version of “The Jersey Boys” wasn’t enough for you, check out the one and only original Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons at the Music Center, Oct. 15 and 16. In the Mansion on Oct. 23 are the sweet sounds of “The Moon & Seven Stars,” featuring Ronn McFarlane on lute and Mindy Rosenfeld on flute. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will feature world-class star violinist Hilary Hahn and soprano Tamara Wilson performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, with Marin Alsop conducting, at the Music Center, Sept. 18. The National Philharmonic starts its season at the Music Center under director Piotr Gajewski performing Dvorak’s New World Symphony with violinist Chee-Yun Oct. 18 and 19.

OPERA

The Washington National Opera begins its 2014-15 season with the company premiere of “Florencia in the Amazon,” by composer Daniel Catan. WNO artistic director Francesca Zambello directs this opera, based on works by Nobel Prize winning Columbian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which she also directed at its premiere at the Houston Opera Company in 1996. Two-time Grammy Award-winnner American soprano Christine Goerke stars as a famous opera singer in search of a former lover on a riverboat trip down the Amazon. At the Opera House, Sept. 20, 22, 24, 26, 28.

More familiar but also fresh and youthful will be the WNO’s production of Puccini’s opera about young bohemian lovers, “La Boheme,” directed by Joe Davies, with Phillipe Augin conducting. Nov. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 and 15.

Washington Concert Opera—This critically recognized company will present Vincenzo Bellini’s, “I Capuleti e I Montechi,” Sept. 28 at Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University. It’s an Italian, operatic version of the tale of Romeo and Juliet which stars Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko as Giulietta, mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey as Romeo, and David Portillo as Tebaldo, with WCO Artistic Director Antony Walker conducting.

UPCOMING THEATER

Arena Stage—“Fiddler on the Roof,” directed by Molly Smith, Oct. 1 through Jan. 4. A 50th anniversary production of the play.

Theater J —“The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures,” by Tony Kushner. Nov. 13-Dec. 21.

Folger Theater—“Julius Caesar,” directed by Robert Richmond, Oct. 28-Dec. 7.

Constellation Theater—“Absolutely (perhaps),” by Luigi Pirandello, Oct. 9-Nov. 9.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre—“Marie Antoinette,” by David Adjimi, starring Kimberly Gilbert. Sept. 17-Oct. 12.

Shakespeare Theatre Company—Isango Ensemble Repertory, “The Magic Flute,” with Impempe Yomlingo and “Venus and Adonis,” September 12-21. “As You Like It,” directed by Ethan McSweeney, Oct. 28-Dec. 7.

Olney Theatre—“Awake and Sing!,” by Clifford Odets, Sept. 24-Oct. 19.

Forum Theatre—“Walking in the City of Silence and Stone,” fall through summer 2015; “How We Got On,” by Paige Henandez, Oct. 30-Nov. 23.

Gala Hispanic Theatre—“Cancun,” by Jordi Galceran, Sept. 11-Oct. 5.

Signature Theatre—“Elmer Gantry,” Oct. 7-Nov. 7; “Sex With Strangers,” D.C. Premiere, Oct. 14-Dec. 7.

American Century Theatre—“The Seven Year Itch,” by George Axelrod, Sept. 20-Oct. 11.

Ford Theatre—“Driving Miss Daisy,” starring Nancy Robinette and Craig Wallace, Sept. 26-Oct. 26.

Studio Theatre—“Bad Jews,” by Joshua Harmon, begins Nov. 4. “The Wolf Twins,” by Rachel Bonds, begins Oct. 15.

MUSIC

The Embassy Series—Now in its 21st season under Jerome Barry, the Embassy Series continues to offer a unique yearly program of concerts which combine world-class music with the opportunity to conduct musical diplomacy during trouble times. The venues—the city’s embassies and ambassador residences—provide rare opportunities for audiences to hear great music and come face to face with embassy officials from around the world.

This year, the series begins with a group of concerts that amount to a journey through Eastern Europe beginning with the Embassy of Slovakia (baritone Martin Babjak and pianist Daniel Buranovsky), Sept. 18; Embassy of Ukraine (Oleh Kaskiv, violin and Oksana Skidan, piano), Oct. 10; Embassy of Hungary (Hugo Kauder Trio), Oct. 14; Embassy of Bosnia-Herzegovina, (singer Azra), Nov. 7.

In addition, there is a special concert on Nov. 14, at the Residence of the Japanese Ambassador, with violinist Nanae Iwata.

The S&R Foundation—The S&R Foundation will hold its Overtures Fall Concert Series beginning with Char Prescott & the Ryo Yanagitani Duo, Sept. 12, at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, followed by the Urban Tango Trio with Kazuma Miura, Sept. 24; Mohamed Shams, Oct. 2; METRio, Oct. 4; Outstanding DC Artists, Oct. 17 and Ayane Kozasa with Michael Djupstrom and Paul Wiancko, Oct. 24, all at Everyman Estate.

The In Series—The In Series is presenting “The Cole Porter Project,” through Sept. 20, and will stage the unusual “Fatal Songs: The Great Opera Murders,” through Sept. 21.

DANCE

Kennedy Center Terrace Theater—The iconic, edgy choreographer Martha Clarke brings a big cast—actress Amy Irving anddancers Alessandra Ferri and Herman Cornejo in a production of “Cheri,” Oct. 1-4.

Washington Performing Arts presents the sixth annual Velocity Dance Festival at Sidney Harman Hall Oct. 9-11, featuring over 20 of the area’s top dance companies and ensembles, from ballet to hip hop to flamenco.

Georgetowner • October 8, 2014

Marie Antoinette—This play by hot playwright David Adjani is part celebrity-conscious send-up, part historical grand guignol, and, thanks to a startling, emotional star turn performance by Kimberly Gilbert, a powerful and evocative portrait of the celebrity queen who lost her head. At Woolly Mammoth Theatre through Oct. 12.

The Shoplifters—“The Shoplifters,” written and directed by Morris Panych, at first seems like a quartet of character studies in a minor key. But thanks to a terrific cast of actors—Jane Houdyshell, Delaney Williams, Adi Stein and Jenna Sokolowsky—it rises to something more serious (and funny.) Through October 19 at Arena Stage in the Kreeger.

The Taming of the Shrew—The Pellas Theatre Company updates Shakespeare’s classic battle of the sexes to our times, and sets it in Louisiana, no less. At the Anacostia Arts Center through October 26.

Awake and Sing!—Clifford Odets’ stirring, tragic-comic masterpiece is set among the lives of a struggling, politically active Jewish family in Brooklyn. Through October 19 at the Olney Theatre Centre.

Gary Tischler • September 29, 2014

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

Gary Tischler • September 18, 2014

It’s already evident that the recent crop of new cultural and art institution leaders who have taken over the reigns at the region’s biggest and most revered institutions are striking some common themes.

You could hear them from Arvind Manocha, who took over as President and CEO at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, as he spoke at the Georgetown Media Group’s second Cultural Leadership Breakfast at the venerable George Town Club Sept. 11.

Manocha came to Wolf Trap from a long career in California at the Hollywood Bowl, the “Best Major Outdoor Venue in America,” according to the industry. Additionally, he served previously as the CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Asssociation. Over breakfast, Manocha stated his aim and desire to cooperate with other cultural institutions with regard to both the performing arts and museums.

Wolf Trap and its Filene Center—an outdoor and indoor performance center which began operations in 1971– is the brain child and amazing creation of philanthropist Catherine Filene Shouse. As a performing arts center, it has become an institution in the traditional sense of the word, providing a huge array of performing arts events and concerts, ranging from opera to symphony concerts to recitals to jazz, classic rock and pop concerts. The venue has expanded its interests and that of its audience over the years. It now features the Barns, a more intimate venue that allows Wolf Trap to be a year-round performance arts center.

“Let me tell you, living and working in Los Angeles as I did, you can feel like you’re a little spoiled,” said Manocha, who displayed both enthusiasm for the arts and a sense of humor. “Los Angeles is this huge sprawling place, and I worked at very visible institutions. But I have to say, I was amazed at what a great urban arts community this city and this area has, and we’re so glad to be a part of it.”

To Manocha, the summer programming at Wolf Trap is like a summer festival, and a unique one at that. “It functions like a festival, because it’s a festive atmosphere, and it has this ongoing celebratory nature, but no festival – not Tanglewood, Lalapalooza, the opera festival in Santa Fe – offers such a variety and scale of concerts and events. There is literally something for everybody, for every taste, and it changes every day. Nobody does this in this country on this scale, which, of course, is what we all love about Wolf Trap. It’s a challenge to put this together, to do the kind of programming we do. It never ceases to amaze me. I come from the world of music. So, some of my interests and expertise obviously lie there.”

Manocha was proud of Wolf Trap’s long-standing opera company and opera series, and the fact that it is basically comprised of young artists, who vie to perform, learn and master their craft at Wolf Trap. “The thing that we do that nobody else does is that we guarantee that people in our program will be singing lead roles, not just being a part of the chorus or smaller parts. And it has worked. You should have seen ‘Carmen.’ It was astonishing, and we used a lot of new technology there.”

“We’re also proud of our early education program, the Early Childhood Institute for the Arts, which brings children to Wolf Trap, and lets them be exposed to the arts at an early age.”

Manocha noted that the Filene Center and the Barns hold more than 200 events every year, and that each not only bring regulars back time and time again, but events also attract new audiences.

“That’s the challenge for every institution,” he said. “To bring in new audiences, to continue our regular audiences. I’ve seen and talked with a lot of people who tell me they and their friends and families have been coming here for years, and that’s what we want to continue. We’ve changed some things – there have been pop musicians that seem to come every year, they’re traditions, so sometimes we’ve tried to shift the focus just a little to newer kinds of music, more of this, less of that. We have some advantages – while you have to commit to come out there, it’s a beautiful place, there’s no other arts and cultural experience like it. Our prices are lower for one thing, what with lawn seats and all, it’s accessible. We’re proud of our educational components and you can’t find a more family friendly place anywhere.”

“ ‘Carmen’ is an opera for people who might not go to opera,” he said. “I know lots of people who brought their kids to Wolf Trap this summer, and then the kids had their first experiences with classical music or opera.”

“With ‘Carmen,’ we saw a lot of young people on the lawn, lots more than we’ve ever seen before,” he said. “That’s an encouraging sign. They’d never been there before.

“Of course, you can always spot newcomers. They’re the ones that didn’t bring blankets, wine or food. What a concept—you can picnic on the lawn.”

Manocha said that, in the end, professionals in his business, “try to make things better—our own product, but also the experience that people carry with them after a concert or an event. We want to engender love and trust. We want to have the kinds of programs where everybody—myself included—has at least one to five events at Wolf Trap per year that feel like they’ve been planned especially for them.”
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