Calling all Potterheads! Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, the brilliant Brits otherwise known as Dan and Jeff, are once again at Shakespeare Theatre with their over-the-top live version of all 7 Harry Potter books. Even if you have seen this show before, their performance is guaranteed to make you giggle and want to read the books all over again.
The premise of the show is simple: two storytellers promise to summarize all books in the Harry Potter series in 70 minutes. However, numerous sketches, costumes and games make this anything but an ordinary reading. This is a two-man show, not counting the excellent lighting and sound technicians, so all of the characters are portrayed as basically the same guy in a different hat and with a different accent. I used to do improv, but I did not do anything nearly as impressive as playing over 10 characters an hour! To add to the pressure of mastering the nuances of each key player in Rowling’s universe, Dan and Jeff also have to incorporate the audience response into the show. This makes the performance interactive, which is especially important for the large number of children who typically attend, and also creates a sense of witnessing something unique, for no two shows are the same.
Potted Potter – The Unauthorized Harry Potter Experience is a fantastic way to spend just over an hour, whether you are a parent looking for something fun to do with your children or someone looking for an out-of-the-ordinary spectacle to witness before dinner with friends in DC. The production is the Lansburgh at Shakespeare Theatre until June 21.
Tickets: http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/plays/evt_detail.aspx?id=18037&source=t
Tour: http://www.pottedpotter.com/tour-dates
Twitter: @daniel_veronica, @actorjeff
About The Author
Co-Editor/Entertainment Reporter
She may be a traffic engineer by day (hence the ‘stopsigngirl’ alias), but do not let her technical skills or multiple calculators fool you. Stephanie Taylor has a way with words. She will destroy any opponent in Scrabble, and get 50 points for using all 7 of her letters in the word “destroy.” She can a-n-n-i-h-i-l-a-t-e you in a spelling bee, having competed in no less than ten as a child. She uses correct punctuation in her text messages. It’s no wonder that copy editing comes naturally to her, and she is happy to fine tune the work of other writers before it reaches TRR readers.
Proofreading is not all that Stephanie loves to do. Regular reading without the proof is just fine, and she also loves to write. In fact, Steph has been writing since the tender age of 6 when she penned her would-be bestseller Mouse in Jail. It “would be” if all literary critics were in Kindergarten. Since elementary school, Stephanie has helped publish newsletters, yearbooks, and the Arts & Entertainment section of The Rice Thresher, Rice University’s student newspaper.
Stephanie’s other gigs have included singing her heart out in the chorus of My Fair Lady in Houston, doing improv comedy in front of hundreds of people in Atlanta, and teaching A.P. English in Los Angeles. She loves to travel and have cultural adventures like tubing down a river in Ecuador, dancing in a South Asian festival, or riding a ferry from Italy for 19 hours just to get real Greek food. Cooking and Yoga are also among Stephanie’s list of favorite things to do, but she cannot do them at the same time.
This native Texan genuinely adores reporting on entertainment as much as she loves to entertain, and is looking forward to learning more about what the D.C. area has to offer and sharing that news with you.
Stephanie Taylor also likes to write about herself in the third person.
