August Wilson’s masterpiece drama on the civil rights movement, Two Trains Running, will receive an additional five performances during its run at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Under the direction of Juliette Carrillo and in a co-production with Seattle Repertory Theatre, Two Trains Running now plays through May 6, 2018 on the Fichandler Stage.
The National Theatre confirmed today that the pre-Broadway world premiere of the new musical comedy BEETLEJUICE will open its 2018-19 “Broadway at the National” season. This will be the second consecutive year the National Theatre opens its season with a pre-Broadway world premiere, following last season’s sold-out engagement of MEAN GIRLS.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces Drew Gehling (Waitress, Jersey Boys) will play both President Bill Mitchell and the title role in Dave, the world-premiere musical debuting this summer, based on the blockbuster Academy Award-nominated comedy. The production, by three-time Tony Award winner Thomas Meehan (Annie, Hairspray, The Producers), Tony Award nominee Nell Benjamin (Mean Girls, Legally Blonde) and Pulitzer Prize and two-time Tony Award winner Tom Kitt (Next to Normal, If/Then), is directed by Tina Landau (SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical) and will run July 13-August 19, 2018 in the Kreeger Theater.
WAITRESS, the Tony Award-nominated musical making its Washington, D.C. premiere at the National Theatre from May 15 thru June 3, 2018, is looking for two young girls to perform the role of Lulu during the national tour’s D.C. engagement.
Theater Alliance kicks off 2018 with Idris Goodwin’s The Raid, an imagined debate between two American icons. On the eve of the raid on the federal armory in Harpers Ferry, John Brown and Frederick Douglass argue the merits of violence and pacifism, order and chaos, and the possibility of a nation free of the scourge of slavery.
Strathmore and Beth Morrison Projects will present the world premiere of Iron & Coal, a theatrical concert by composer/lyricist Jeremy Schonfeld and director Kevin Newbury, in the Music Center at Strathmore on Thursday and Friday, May 3 and 4, 2018 at 8 p.m.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is pleased to announce that the Washington, D.C. engagement of the hit Broadway musical ON YOUR FEET!—based on the life story of seven-time Grammy®–winning international superstar Gloria Estefan and her husband, 19-time Grammy®–winning producer-musician-entrepreneur Emilio Estefan—will star Cuban American Broadway actress Christie Prades as Gloria Estefan, and acclaimed stage and television actor Mauricio Martínez, playing Emilio Estefan.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater will host a special post-show conversation with Gloria Steinem on Sunday, January 28 following the 7:30 p.m. performance during the run of Mary Kathryn Nagle’s world premiere Power Play Sovereignty. This gripping political exploration travels the intersections of personal and political truths, and historic and present struggles, in the fight to save the sovereignty of Cherokee Nation both past and present. Under the direction of Artistic Director Molly Smith, Sovereignty runs January 12-February 18, 2018 in the Kreeger Theater.
The third show of Mosaic Theater Company’s ambitious third season will be The Real Americans, a one-man show written and starring Bay Area sensation and now NYC-based performing artist Dan Hoyle. In an effort to escape the liberal urban bubble, Hoyle spent 100 days traveling through small-town America. The cast of characters he met and interviewed are vividly brought to life in this hilarious, poignant performance.
“We are so pleased to have Dan bring this play to Mosaic,” said Founding Artistic Director Ari Roth. “Dan is a razor-sharp writer and an extraordinary chameleon of a performance artist, in the best tradition of artists like Anna Deavere Smith, performing transcribed interview material with absolute fidelity. This play exemplifies the importance of seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. We are confident this show will make audiences laugh but also spur conversations about our country’s political and economic climate. To that end, we are pairing this show with a robust series of post-show discussions, including with Washington Post senior editor Marc Fisher, co-author of Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition.”
My next guest on INTERVUE is an accomplished actress whose work includes “The Jesse Owens Story”, “Eve’s Bayou” and “Power” and one of my favorite soaps, “All My Children”. In fact, in 1989, she was the first African American woman to win the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She has taken her memoir and created a one woman show that will be presented at the Bowie State Fine and Performing Arts Center October 21-22. We have the wonderful and talented, Debbi Morgan.
