Shakespeare Theatre Company brings its
Summer Free For All program to life for a 29th season, this year reviving its
2018 production of Hamlet, originally directed by Michael Kahn and
remounted by Artistic Associate Craig Baldwin, and starring Michael Urie as the
title role. The show is a power-packed run at over 3 hours, but a scattered
performance from the cast and an incohesive design leaves the audience feeling
every minute of it.
Everything feels as if it has just happened. Ellen McLaughlin’s
The Oresteia, freely adapted from the
trilogy by Aeschylus that is nearly 2,500 years old, feels as if it is
happening. And what must happen does. Boldly closing the 2018/2019 season at
Shakespeare Theatre Company in their prestigious Sidney Harman Hall under the
Direction of STC legend Michael Kahn, The
Oresteia is modernized yet timeless, prescient yet ancient;
Shakespeare Theatre Company is in its 28th year of presenting the annual Free for All program, offering free productions every summer. This year features Romeo & Juliet, the STC’s most often-produced play, as directed by STC Associate Artistic Director Alan Paul. STC’s Free for All emphasizes accessible, relatable Shakespeare, and in that goal, this production excels. For those who have never seen Romeo & Juliet,
Proposition: A show consisting of little more than pageantry and sentimental idealism can still find sturdy footing in the modern world with potent relevance to the happenings of today’s society in the hands of the right director.
Proposition: The right director, in this case Alan Paul, can take Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot, which is filled with pageantry and sentimental idealism, and transform it into something relevant and intriguing which reaches modern audiences on a relatable and interesting level.
We are all born mad. Some remain so. But what is madness? The inevitable wait for that which will not come? The yearn of tomorrow knowing that it will never truly be tomorrow because tomorrow will always be tomorrow? Skipping Druid’s production of Waiting for Godot at Shakespeare Theatre Company this spring? That last one borders dangerously close on madness if not sheer delirium. Directed by Garry Hynes this classical reincarnation of Samuel Beckett’s darkly humorous and dreary drudgery of a drama finds reanimation and breaths of new life in this potent production presented by Druid.
In 1879 when Henrik Ibsen premiered his play A Doll’s House he probably didn’t imagine that today, nearly 139 year later, it would be the inspiration for a new work about a modern Iraqi-American family who welcome an Iraqi refugee into their home for Christmas. But that is exactly what has happened, Heather Raffo has brought Ibsen’s work to new life with her play Noura, now playing at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Lansburgh Theatre as part of the Women’s Voices in Theater Festival.
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. By that logic, theatergoers should be rushing out to Shakespeare Theater Company for Michael Kahn’s production of Hamlet starring Michael Urie as the mad Danish prince. Disturbingly dystopian, albeit conceptually undercooked, this production marks the end of an era as Michael Kahn, the show’s director and the company’s long-standing artistic director, makes it his final production before retiring. Not without impressive performances given by the featured player and others,
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Final boarding call for all passengers boarding flight STC-2017 to Illyria. All passengers please make their way to Sidney Harman Hall and follow the instructions of the flight attendant.
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The setup is astonishing, and at first a peculiar choice, but Director Ethan McSweeny’s conceptualization of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is nothing but gob-smacking by the play’s conclusion. Not unlike a cinematic psychological thriller,
Just who is who and what is what? Who’s lying? Who’s telling the truth? Scandal, lovers, mistresses, and then some await eager audiences of Washington DC as Shakespeare Theatre Company opens the 2017/2018 season with a double-bill of Harold Pinter. Artistic Director Michael Kahn brings The Lover & The Collection together for an evening inside the darkly scandalous and peculiarly humorous world of Pinter’s somewhat dated characters. Overlooking the misogyny and general banality of the female character featured in each of these productions,
The United Kingdom has survived for centuries; it has survived being Thatcherized— even Reaganized from afar in recent decades— but can the crowned country survive a reign under King Charles III? Mike Bartlett’s thought-provoking drama examines exactly such a premise, kicking things off at the funerary farewell to the woman who was arguably England’s greatest monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. Now appearing in the Sidney Harman Hall of Shakespeare Theatre Company, the American Conservatory Theater production of Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III as Directed by David Muse is taking Washington DC by storm.
When a thing is wick it has life about it— just come to the garden and you’ll see— The Secret Garden now appearing in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Sidney Harman Hall. Blooming with beauty and bursting with vibrant life, this newly envisioned production of Marsha Norman’s book & lyrics and Lucy Simon’s music based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel, is a sensational and mesmerizing musical experience. Directed by David Armstrong with Musical Direction by Rick Fox,
Men’s eyes were made to look and let them gaze upon the riveting new production of Romeo & Juliet at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Directed by Alan Paul, this revitalized and somewhat modern approach to the Bard’s most woeful tragedy attends the fates gaily and with swift justice for both the poetic nature of the text and the emotional capacity of the plot. Perilously little can be ascribed in complaint, save for the missed opportunities to push the conceptualized vision on the whole in a slightly different direction,
With spirits to enforce and arts to enchant, Shakespeare Theatre Company offers up the most whimsically enchanting of the Bard’s theatrical canon with their production of The Tempest. Presented as the 26th Annual ‘Free for All’ performance, and Directed by Ethan McSweeny, Shakespeare’s final play is delivered with radiant justice, mesmerizing theatrical magic, and exquisite emotional endeavors that envelope the audience for a truly fantastical experience. The majesty of Lee Savage’s set juxtaposed against a myriad of miraculous production design elements make this a truly magnificent experience for all who are able to attend.
“The theatre community here <Washington DC> is something other cities can only dream of.” An earnest and rewarding quote pulled directly from the lips of David Ives, this year’s recipient of “Outstanding Original Play or Musical Adaptation” at the 32nd Annual Helen Hayes Awards Ceremony. Just one of 236 nominees being celebrated over the course of the evening, Ives’ statement captured the tone of the evening early on with the aforementioned quote given during his award acceptance speech.
Salomé…seductress? Salomé…femme fatale? Salomé…revolutionary heroine? South African Playwright and director Yaël Farber posits how a nameless young woman mentioned briefly in the Bible as the catalyst for the death of John the Baptist became the femme fatale of Oscar Wilde’s version of the story. By examining the biblical narrative in the context of the conquest of Judea by the Romans, Farber presents a provocative reimagining of this woman’s place in history. The result is a fascinating if flawed look at the oppression of feminine narratives in history and literature.
A man is a man, he is not an angel nor is he meant to be. Tartuffe is just such a man, and his tale in its tragically comedic entirety can be found at Shakespeare Theatre Company as they finish out their 2014/2015 at Sidney Harman Hall with a co-production of Molière’s iconic production shared by South Coast Repertory and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Under the Direction of Dominique Serrand, the classic dark comedy is heralded with new enlightenment;
When your friends are really your enemies you get the modern-coined phrase “freinemies.” And when Bridesmaids meets Mean Girls you get Bachelorette now playing at Dominion Stage for a limited engagement. TheatreBloom takes a minute to get inside one of these zany character’s brains by sitting down with actress Maura Hogan to get her perspective on the show.
If you could introduce yourself to our readers, we’ll get started!
There aren’t enough superlatives in the English language to describe the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s spectacular production of Man of La Mancha, which opened on Monday to a packed house at Sidney Harman Hall.There is simply no need to travel all the way to Manhattan to take in Broadway-caliber theatre. It’s right here, with all the fire, passion, and intensity of any show on the Great White Way.
We bear witness to the opening as the prisoners in Allen Moyer’s steel cage of a set mill about,
We’ll tell you a tale marvelous told. Of a beautiful girl like the stories of old. The most wondrous girl, and not just by chance…this story here happens inside of— Weird France? The Baltimore Area premier of Tom Horan’s 13 Dead Husbands is making waves…or perhaps corpses…over at Cohesion Theatre Company. As the second production of their inaugural season, this dark and humorous fairytale takes place in a “Paris of the imagination.” In a TheatreBloom exclusive 3-Part series entitled “Welcome to Weird France” we go behind the scenes with the designers and performers of this exciting new work,
A call has been issued throughout Washington DC to all the dames and dandies
Grab your tickets, get your seats; don’t forget your drinks and candies
A troupe of actors, performers in tights, as you’ll read here on this page
Perform for you an evening’s comedy; they shall traipse across the stage.
Shakespeare Theatre Company, running David Ives’s new comic jewel
The Metromaniacs,
Be very, very careful about the way in which you hear and use words. It can be the key to understanding victory or misinterpreting failure in battle. And a battle of epic proportions is what the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC has set out to display with their national premier of the National Theatre of Scotland and The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Dunsinane. A thrillingly dramatic sequel to one of the Bard’s bloodiest tragedies,
All the world’s a stage and the men and women of the Shakespeare Theatre Company are divine players in the 2014/2015 season opening production of As You Like It. One of Shakespeare’s more amusingly confusing comedies with romantic subplots twisted hither and thither all throughout, the play entreats theatergoers to delight in the marvels that are love, folly, and foolishness whether ye be man or woman. Directed by the critically acclaimed Michael Attenborough,