fbpx

DOROTHY’S DICTIONARY

by E.M. Lewis, directed by Laura Giannarelli
Featuring Helen Hayes Award recipient Deidra LaWan Starnes and Alexander Kim.

September 28 to October 22, 2023

Words are powerful…books can transform. Sparks fly when Zan, an angry high school student, is forced to work off his community service assignment helping ailing, but feisty librarian Dorothy. With seemingly little in common, this unlikely pair may find deep meaning in each other’s life experiences… if they can only find the right words. An Area Premiere

“I always tell people that plays are made out of playwrights.  There are big pieces of ourselves in what we write — who we are, what we love, what frightens us, what delights us.  And in this play, I finally had a place to put all my love of words and books and libraries.” — E.M. Lewis*

Under Laura Giannarelli’s direction, the play’s final chapter is particularly moving. It is in this well-written sequence that Lewis fully unleashes her love of words, particularly those that encompass emotions and relationships much larger than our everyday language can adequately describe. This resolution inspired emotional reactions from many in the audience, including this reviewer. — Washington City Paper

more

ARMS AND THE MAN

by G.B. Shaw, directed by Michael Rothhaar
Featuring Lynn Steinmetz

November 16-December 10, 2023

Shaw shatters romantic illusions about love and war in one of his most sparkling comedies. In the aftermath of the Serbo-Bulgarian war of 1885, heroes turn out to be hypocrites and cowards turn out to be heroes. What is a romantic girl to do when she realizes she may be in love with the wrong one? First produced by the Stage Guild in 1992, Arms and the Man makes a welcome return in a fresh take. 

“A DELIGHTFUL PRODUCTION. The play takes witty aim at class distinctions and military pomposity, wrapped in a plot that any rom-com screenwriter could envy. [Lynn] Steinmetz gives something of a master class in the use of specific, often subtle, hand gestures to command the stage on multiple occasions. Michael Rothhaar’s direction kept the pace lively…creating a HIGHLY ENTERTAINING performance.”
— DC Theater Arts

“…met with great applause, and the Washington Stage Guide company earned every bit of it. Zack Powell’s understated performance [as Bluntschli] makes it clear why Em Whitworth’s Raina is attracted to him despite herself…she is a delight.”
MD Theatre Guide

more

THE VICTORIAN LADIES’ DETECTIVE COLLECTIVE

by Patricia Milton, directed by Morgan Duncan
Featuring Laura Giannarelli and Helen Hayes Award nominee Steven Carpenter

February 1-25, 2024 EXTENDED TO MARCH 3rd

Sherlock Holmes meets “Arsenic & Old Lace.” In 1893, a brazen serial killer is terrorizing London. So two strong-willed sisters who run a  boarding house for single ladies take matters into their own hands – especially when Scotland Yard proves no help at all. Teaming up with a cheeky American actress, they set off to solve the crime in this entertaining murder mystery with a modern women-take-charge sensibility. An Area Premiere

“The traditional murder mystery is a tightly structured morality tale, in which a lone male detective deploys his logical powers to solve the crime and restore society’s status quo. What happens when the detectives are women, and the powers they use are their middle-aged invisibility, their belief in other women, and their finely-honed skills of surviving a status quo they fiercely oppose? And what if it was funny? Those were the questions that prompted me to write ‘The Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective.’” — Patricia Milton

“[A]DIVERTING COMIC WHODUNNIT…playwright Patricia Milton brings gleeful subversiveness to 19th-century mystery tropes in this play, which reimagines an Arthur Conan Doyle-style crime tale through a contemporary ‘she persisted’ lens.”
Washington Post (full review)

“This witty contemporary spin on the Victorian murder mystery confronts convention, gender bias, and a serial killer all in…a heady concoction of suspense, thrills, and laughter.”
— BroadwayWorld

AN UNBUILT LIFE

by Elizabeth DeSchryver, directed by Helen Hayes Award nominee Steven Carpenter

April 11-May 5, 2024

When Agatha Ganner discovers a mystery painting in her deceased husband’s art collection, she engages an energetic graduate student to research it for her. As disturbing crimes of the past are unearthed, Agatha must decide to either right the wrong – and possibly ruin lives – or leave the past in the past. Is doing the right thing always the right thing to do? A World Premiere.

“Life isn’t fair.  It’s a painful lesson we learn as children and carry into adulthood.  We face injustice, but what we hoped would be a clear choice dissolves into a gray fog. It’s when the choices aren’t clear that we find out what we are made of, and what we really value. An Unbuilt Life tries to explore that, from the head and the heart.” — Elizabeth DeSchryver

more

Start typing and press Enter to search