Articles Tagged With: Silver Spring Stage

Church & State at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews September 19, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

How is our prayer going to stop the next senseless shooting?

How. Is our prayer. Going to stop the next senseless shooting?

It’s not a typo or a mistake that the question has been repeated. I ask it again because it is an unanswered question that continues to haunt millions of Americans each and every day. And while using a stage, a play, a performance, or a theatrical experience as a profound echo chamber for the real message that needs to be heard may not amount to much,

Assassins at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews June 8, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

author: Amanda N. Gunther

Angry men don’t write the rules and guns don’t right the wrongs. A debatable truth from “The Ballad of Booth” inside of a Sondheim show. What’s not up for debate is the caliber and quality of the production of Assassins now appearing live at Silver Spring Stage— their first musical in 27 years! And it’s quite the impressive feat considering it’s their first musical in nearly three decades and it’s a Sondheim to boot!

A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews April 16, 2024 Wes Dennis & Liana Olear

author: Wes Dennis & Liana Olear

How shall you beguile the lazy time, if not with some delight? Perhaps by running off to Silver Spring Stage for their performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and spending the evening with besotted Athenian lovers, pranking fairies, and those oddest of creatures, amateur actors!

The Director, Emma Hooks, shows a solid understanding of Shakespeare’s language, and her actors illustrate the words with enthusiastic action (though language purists – or audience members not expecting to hear multiple F-bombs punctuating the iambic pentameter – may not appreciate the choice to also insert modern phrases to add reactions where the bard neglected to spell them out).

Closer at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews May 3, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Everything’s a version of something else. Try lying for a change, it’s the currency of the world. With taglines like those, one hardly expects the intimate and fascinating dissection of human relationships that one gets with Patrick Marber’s Closer. Appearing now as a co-production between Cogent Theater Collective and Silver Spring Stage, Closer (a play published in 1997 and later transformed into a silver-screen feature of the same name) is produced by Diego Maramba and directed by David Dieudonne.

The Book Club Play at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews September 25, 2019 Claudia Bach

There is something delightfully universal about a book club
that almost anyone can relate to. So believe the characters of Karen Zacarías’s
The Book Club Play when their perfectly ordinary book club has been
selected to be featured in a documentary about the phenomenon. As the cameras
roll, and the club members find their lives under scrutiny, their perfect
social circle begins to unravel. Silver Spring Stage’s production, as directed
by Karen Fleming,

Intimate Apparel at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews July 3, 2019 Claudia Bach

Lynn Nottage’s play, Intimate
Apparel, tells the story of one woman desperately reaching out for real,
unguarded, intimate human connection, and it is fitting that Silver Spring
Stage, with its intimate and engaging black box and overall style, should
select this piece to conclude its 2018-2019 season. Directed by SSS Board Chair
Seth Ghitelman, this emotion-driven production provided an entertaining and
thoughtful experience.

Amanda N. Gunther | TheatreBloom

The play,

The Importance of Being Earnest at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews May 21, 2019 Rachel Zirkin Duda

During
the late 1800s in London, England – in a climate of prudishness and classism – especially
among the aristocratic elite – playwright Oscar Wilde turned social convention
on its ear by penning his farcical tour de force, The Importance of Being Earnest – subtitled, “A Trivial Play for
Serious People.” Director Bill Hurlbut is currently taking on this scandalous comedy
of manners at the highly lauded Silver Spring Stage, but instead of keeping it
in the Victorian era,

Appropriate at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews April 13, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

Are people anything more than porous vessels susceptible to
influence from— other people? Spirits? And is family really anything more than
mismatched memories or stories that you tell yourself when you feel a certain
way?’ What happens when the spirits of families past haunt you and influence
you right into a catastrophe? You get Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Appropriate, now on stage at Silver
Spring Stage, Directed by Jeff Mikoni. When tensions run high through the
estranged Lafayette family and historical ghosts of all sorts rise up from a
well-buried past in this intensely motived drama by Jacobs-Jenkins,

In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews February 24, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

What thing can put a man to death and bring him back to life
again? Why the cure for women’s hysteria, naturally, or better known as
electricity. Thank you, Mr. Edison, for the focal point of Sarah Ruhl’s play
with two titles, In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play. While electricity
does run as a strong alternating and direct current throughout the script,
there are so many more deeply layered,

Season of Light: A Winter Fairytale at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews December 8, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

The winter woods are ripe with snow; there’s a crisp clear moonlight glow and the world is ready for winter’s end. The solstice! December 21st this year, but don’t wait until then to celebrate. Silver Spring Stage has a fabulous story all about hope in the bleakest darkness of winter right now upon their stage in the spirit of the season. Season of Light: A Winter Fairytale by Steph DeFerie makes its debut as the seasonal,

The Crucible at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews October 30, 2018 Claudia Bach

Silver Spring Stage’s production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, directed by Craig Allen Mummey, tells the story of a fictionalized Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 as a stark fear of witchcraft spreads through the town. Miller’s story, famously an allegory for 1950’s McCarthyism, steps audiences through the dark pervasiveness of paranoia.

Standout performances include Melanie A. Lawrence as Tituba, Sophia Stringer as Mary Warren, Lennie Magida as Rebecca Nurse, Omar LaTiri as Reverend Hale,

Emilie La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews September 19, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Easy. Simple. They are not identical things. Stories are not equations. Lives aren’t either. They don’t have answers. Plays are stories; maybe they aren’t equations and they don’t have answers. Love is magic; life has force; theatre is love; Silver Spring Stage has life. And magic. And love. And equations. And a play. A spark is how The Stage opens their 2018/2019 season. Emilie La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight,

The House of Blue Leaves at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews July 16, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

It’s 1965 and your music career hasn’t quite turned out the way you thought, the pope’s come to town, your freshly drafted son has gone AWOL, your mistress is trying to drag you down to the street side to see his holiness, and your wife has gone bananas, or rather is Bananas. And then the nuns arrive. It sounds like a zany barrel of laughs, but there’s a much deeper and unsettling darkness happening inside the walls of Artie Shaughnessy’s apartment in Sunnyside,

A Delicate Balance at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews June 3, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

The best friends show up unannounced, terrified for no reason whatsoever to continuing living in their own home, so they’re moving into yours. The alcoholic live-in sister is at the brandy again and has learned how to yodel and play the accordion. The only child is returning home after her fourth failed marriage. And the wife is bent on going mad, intentionally or otherwise. It must be an episode of The Twilight Zone,

The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews April 20, 2018 Spencer Nelson

If you expect to see a pipe smoking, violin playing, deerstalker wearing detective Sherlock Holmes solving crimes you’ve come to the wrong show. This show is not about Holmes at all, it’s about his companion Dr. John Watson (and he does wear a deerstalker, fans of the iconic hat may rejoice!). Well, the play really isn’t about Dr. John Watson either. Actually it’s really very complicated and complex. The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence comes from the mind of award-winning playwright Madeline George and it won the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Playwriting Award.

All in the Timing at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews February 27, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Everybody has to be someplace. How about Silver Spring Stage? Sure thing! It’ll be more than just words, words, words with The Stage’s production of David Ives’ All in the Timing as they prove that it is absolutely…well that. All in the timing. Six hilarious one-acts that are too hot-too-trot…sky, all rolling out one after the other over the course of the evening, what’s not to love? Directed by Rob Gorman, this intellectually stimulating,

Wit at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews January 19, 2018 Spencer Nelson

According to the Oxford Living Dictionary the meaning of Cancer is “A disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body”. Sounds so simple right? A nicely put definition for a disease that is anything but nice and simple. This is the backbone for Margaret Edson’s Wit, a dark comedy that won her the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1999, which is currently playing at Silver Spring Stage under the direction of Jeff Mikoni.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews December 13, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

God bless us, everyone!

And in Whoville, they say, the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day.

You’ll shoot your eye out.

Nope, nope, nope. Not at Silver Spring Stage this Christmas. You won’t find Bob Cratchit or Tiny Tim and Mister Scrooge, and you won’t find the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who. And you won’t find Ralphie Parker and his Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time,

Omnium Gatherum at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews November 1, 2017 Spencer Nelson

Just another boring upscale dinner party-alcohol flowing freely, chatter, strong opinions, heated debates, and an almost Stepford hostess fluttering around her guests. Right? Well, if you consider helicopter noises, explosions, and fiery lighting boring and normal then absolutely! You will want to make your way to Silver Spring Stage right now to see their latest production led by Director Bill Hurlbut, Omnium Gatherum by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros and Theresa Rebeck. It is a production that will make you laugh one moment,

Deathtrap at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews September 17, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

You feel the feverish chill of something suspenseful about to happen. There is a prickle at the hairs on the back of your neck, a tingle that flickers up your spine, and the ever so sudden jolt of your entire body when you hear anything sounding remotely close to a gunshot. You’ve contracted a terminal case of Thrilleritus malignus! And your only hope for a cure is going to see Silver Spring Stage’s production of Ira Levin’s Deathtrap.

Review: The Language Archive at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews April 14, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

What is language if not an act of faith? Take a leap into the language of the theatre and you’ll find yourself pleasantly pleased with Silver Spring Stage’s current production of Julia Cho’s The Language Archive. Directed by Joseph Coracle, this tender tale of words and love finds the soft spot of your heart and whispers the language of true understanding. A carefully crafted touching drama with an exceptional cast guiding the story through an ocean of linguistics,

Review: 33 Variations at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews February 28, 2015 Patrick Albright

The past and the present collide very graciously on the Silver Spring Stage with a remarkable presentation of Moises Kaufman’s 33 Variations. The production effectively twists a gap of almost 200 years together, showing that emotions and life situations don’t change all that much through time. The play is a fictional piece inspired by Ludwig Van Beethoven’s work. It takes place in two time periods; the present, and the later part of Beethoven’s career in 1819-1822.

WATCH Award Nominations

News January 18, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

It’s that time of year, folks! The Washington Area Theatre Community Honors have come around again to honor all of the truly exceptional theatre being performed in community venues across the Washington DC and surrounding metropolitan area. The 2014 award nominations were presented live this evening at The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA.

There were 111 different productions– 34 musicals and 77 plays– adjudicated over in the 2014 theatrical season. 31 community theatre companies participated in WATCH adjudication in 2014.

Review: Orson’s Shadow at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews January 11, 2015 Patrick Albright

After gaining control of my excitement over the chance to see my first production at Silver Spring Stage, I decided to do a little exploration on the plot of their current production, Orson’s Shadow. Written by Austin Pendleton, the play is a fictional story about a true situation of the dramatic and intertwined relationships between Hollywood egos; a writer, a critic, an actor, and a director. The Stage’s production of this piece is a roller coaster ride into the lives of some of the most beloved famous icons of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Review: Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews December 14, 2014 Amanda N. Gunther

Ho-ho-humbug and all that rot! Christmas is enough to make you gag. That’s the Christopher Durang interpretation, though one would expect nothing less from the satirizing parody artist. Silver Spring Stage has gone round the twist this holiday season by mounting Durang’s unusual Christmas play Mrs. Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge for a two-weekend limited engagement run over the month of December. Directed by Star Johnson with Musical Direction by Jimmy Mrose,

Review: God of Carnage at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews September 21, 2014 Amanda N. Gunther

Are we ever interested in anything but ourselves? If one can be interested in something other than ones’ self for just a moment, take interest in the Silver Spring Stage production of Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage. Translated by Christopher Hampton and Directed by Adam R. Adkins, this viscerally biting comedy displays the inner child in four seemingly sophisticated adults. As their children come to blows on the playground and how to handle the situation is discussed,

Review: Good People at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews June 28, 2014 Amanda N. Gunther

Silver Spring Stage closes their 46th season with a riveting production of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People. This captivating dramadey about life struggles from rock bottom is both humorous and heartwarming; the perfect combination of reality and optimism blended into a brilliantly acted evening of theatre. Directed by Michael Kharfen, it’s an emotionally engaging opportunity to view life from many angles, including the less fortunate.

Set Designer Mike Hovde creates two contrasting locations within the confines of the uniquely angled stage.

Review: The Arabian Nights at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews May 18, 2014 Amanda N. Gunther

If the wind’s from the east, and the sun’s from the west, and the sand in the glass is right, then come on down, stop on by, hop a carpet and fly to Silver Spring Stage to see their sensational production of Mary Zimmerman’s The Arabian Nights. Directed by Jacy D’Aiutolo, this production lives up to the mission statement of The Stage— “Little Theater. Big Ideas.” With a cast of over a dozen on the intimate stage,