For Immediate Release
August 21, 2023
Press Contact: Michael Kyrioglou
michael.kyrioglou@gmail.com
Washington Stage Guild Season Opens With
E.M. Lewis’ Two-Hander DOROTHY’S DICTIONARY
Performances Begin September 28 and Feature Helen Hayes Award Recipient Deidra LaWan Starnes and Alexander Kim.
Washington, DC–-The Washington Stage Guild opens its 2023-2024 season, a “Season of Truths Revealed,” with the area premiere of Dorothy’s Dictionary by E.M. Lewis, directed by Stage Guild founding member Laura Giannarelli (The Good Doctor). Performances run September 28 to October 22, 2023, with four Pay-What-You-Can previews September 28 to 30 at the Washington Stage Guild’s home, The Undercroft Theatre in the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, 900 Massachusetts Avenue, NW. Opening/Press performance is Sunday, October 1 at 2:30pm.
ABOUT THE PLAY
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.
“a TOUCHING, CHARMING, FUNNY AND SAD new play… about the
value of unexpected human connections” – Palm Beach Arts Paper
“We are so pleased to begin our 14th season at The Undercroft Theatre,” says Artistic Director Bill Largess. “This marks a milestone, our longest tenure at one location. And to welcome Deidra LaWan Starnes and Alexander Kim for this production makes the achievement even more special to us.”
“I am tremendously excited to bring E. M. Lewis’ moving play to life at the Stage Guild,” says director Laura Giannarelli. “When I first read the play, I identified immediately with its warmth, its heart, and its humor. Lewis’ emphasis on human connection – in this case, between two generations – and the way a love for books can reveal so many worlds to a reader, made this feel like a quintessential “Stage Guild play.” I hope audiences agree and leave the theatre buoyed by a sense of hope that lives can be changed when we take a chance, open ourselves up, and listen to one another.”
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
E. M. Lewis is an award-winning playwright, musical theater writer, and opera librettist. Her work has been produced around the world. Her play How the Light Gets In (winner of the Steinberg Award from the American Theater Critics Association) was produced at 1st Stage last season. Other plays include Apple Hunters!, Strange Birds, Song of Extinction, Apple Season (a National New Play Network rolling world premiere), True Story, Magellanica, The Gun Show (which has had more than fifty productions across the country and was showcased at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland), and You Can See All the Stars (a play for college students commissioned by the Kennedy Center). This season, Lewis’ first musical In the Deep (with composer Clarence Roscoe McDonald) will premiere at Willamette University and her opera Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant (with composer Evan Meier) will premiere at Opera Modesto. E. M. Lewis is part of the Mellon Foundation’s National Playwright Residency Program, and calls Artists Repertory Theater home. She is a proud member of LineStorm Playwrights, Opera America, and the Dramatists Guild. She teaches in Lesley University’s low-residency Masters in Creative Writing Program in Boston, but she lives on her family’s farm in Oregon.
ABOUT THE TEAM
The cast of Dorothy’s Dictionary includes Helen Hayes Award Recipient Deidra LaWan Starnes, and newcomer Alexander Kim, both making their WSG debut. Deidra LaWan Starnes (Dorothy) was last seen in The Hula Hoopin Queen at Imagination Stage, and The Mamalogues and Mlima’s Tale at 1st Stage where she is the Associate Artistic Director. She has appeared at many regional theatres including Shakespeare Theatre Company, Folger Theatre, Olney Theatre Company, New Federal Theatre, 1st Stage, Studio Theatre, Everyman Theatre, and African Continuum Theatre Company, and productions such as Intimate Apparel (Helen Hayes Award-Outstanding Lead Performer), The Member of the Wedding, The Amen Corner, Much Ado about Nothing, Amadeus, Passing Strange, Radio Golf, Seven Guitars, A Raisin in the Sun, Two Trains Running, Spunk, Doubt, and Stuff Happens. Her numerous directing credits include The Rainmaker, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and ‘Night Mother, among others. Alexander Kim (Zan) makes his DMV debut with Dorothy’s Dictionary. He recently graduated from Washington University in St. Louis this year, where he appeared in Into the Woods, The Oresteia, and Fucking A.
Dorothy’s Dictionary is directed by Laura Giannarelli, a Stage Guild founding company member who has performed in more than 40 Guild productions and previously directed last year’s season opener The Good Doctor, as well as It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Widowers’ Houses, and Candida for the company.
The production team includes Megan Holden (Scenic Design), Marianne Meadows (Lighting Design), Danielle Scott (Costume Design), and Arthur Nordlie (Production Stage Manager).
DATES & TICKETS
Dorothy’s Dictionary by E. M. Lewis runs September 28 to October 22, 2023, with performances Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2:30pm & 8pm, and Sunday at 2:30pm. The run begins with four Pay-What-You-Can performances Thursday, September 28 at 7:30pm, Friday, September 29 at 8pm, and Saturday, September 30 at 2:30pm & 8pm (Pay What You Can tickets can be purchased for any cash price at the door beginning one hour prior to curtain). Opening/Press performance is Sunday, October 1 at 2:30pm.
All tickets are General Admission and are $50 Thursday & Saturday/Sunday matinees, $60 Friday & Saturday evenings. Student Admission is half-price with a valid Student ID. Senior Citizens 65 years and up get $10 OFF General Admission Prices. Groups of 10 or more get half-price tickets. Purchase at https://stageguild.org/buy-tickets.
ABOUT THE THEATRE
Founded in 1986 by a professional company of theatre artists dedicated to producing literate, challenging works in a collegial and supportive atmosphere, The Washington Stage Guild quickly established itself as an indispensable component of the D.C. area theatre scene; recognized as early as the end of the first season (1987) by The Washington Post. The ensemble theatre company’s acclaimed repertoire of neglected classics, unfamiliar works by familiar playwrights, and stimulating new plays from around the world is presented in a style that is the Guild’s own—direct and clear, with a strong commitment to adhering to the author’s intent.
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