Mosaic Theater Company’s Dear Mapel Invites Audiences and Critics to Consider a Work-in-Progress

Playwright and performer Psalmayene 24 breaks down his relationship with his father, Mapel, in a series of performed letters.

Enter the access code provided in an email by Mosaic Theater Company and after a few on-screen opening remarks, playwright/actor Psalmayene 24 begins to read stage directions: Welcome to theater in the year 2020. He describes a setting familiar to those who have seen the work of Spaulding Gray or Mike Daisy: A “sturdy and […]

by Ian Thal

Human Resources Turns a Phone Call Into a Work of Art

The production crafted by seven theatermakers opens Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's first digital season.

How much of your (perhaps no longer scarce) unoccupied time would you give up to navigate an automated phone tree? How willingly would you embrace this infuriating reminder of the insignificance of our problems and of ourselves if there were no tangible prize—a refund, the restoration of your internet service, a brusque chat with your […]

by Chris Klimek

Solas Nua’s Emoji Play Turns a Video Call Into a Confessional Classroom

Come prepared to participate with devices running WhatsApp and Zoom.

Somewhere between the grimacing teeth and the rosy-cheeked smile on the emoji ranking scale sits a little semi-happy yellow face that sums up The Emoji Play, an amusing, watch-in-real time virtual play from local Irish arts organization Solas Nua.  The title is also represented by the black man at a computer emoji, the white man […]

by Rebecca J. Ritzel

Olney Theatre Center’s The Humans Is Full of Little Heartbreaks

It's the first previously scheduled local production to get a virtual presentation.

To Zoom or not to Zoom? Six months into the pandemic, that is theater’s great ontological question.  With few signs of indoor, in-person theater returning to Maryland, Virginia, or the District any time soon, should theaters find a way to make actors appear as little squares on a laptop screen, like your colleagues on an […]

by Rebecca J. Ritzel

Adjusting to a New Reality, Theaters Ponder Their Futures in the Pandemic Era

“I have no doubt that some theaters aren’t going to make it,” says Mark Shugoll, “and that makes me very sad, but that’s just the fact of the matter.”

Taffety Punk Theatre Company’s spring production of In The Belly of The Whale closed before it could open. The coronavirus pandemic forced the show to shut down, just as it has caused theaters in D.C. and around the world to suspend in-person performances indefinitely. Now, the company’s artistic director, Marcus Kyd, wonders what’s next. “How long are we going […]

by James Jarvis

Synetic Theater Tells a Series of Stories in The Decameron

The Crystal City-based theater company presents a series of web vignettes inspired by Boccaccio's stories.

The Decameron, a series of 14th century Italian novellas about surviving the Black Death, is enjoying a surprising renaissance during the current coronavirus crisis. On July 7, the New York Times Magazine released “The Decameron Project,” a series of 29 short stories that contemporary authors wrote in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For New York’s […]

by Rebecca J. Ritzel

Women Who Experienced Harassing Behavior Respond to the Actions of Flying V Theatre’s Former Artistic Director

Jason Schlafstein has a history of sexual harassment stretching back more than a decade, multiple people who know and have worked with him say.

Jason Schlafstein, the founder and artistic director of Flying V Theatre, a small, nearly 10-year-old theater company based in Montgomery County, has a history of sexual harassment stretching back more than a decade, multiple people who know and have worked with him say. Although Flying V previously investigated his behavior, Schlafstein was not fired and […]

by Emma Sarappo

Reopened Theater Lobbies Become Rest Areas for Protesting Community Members

Protesters can visit the theater lobbies to use restrooms, charge their phones, and pick up a snack.

Theaters were among the many cultural and community organizations that halted operations in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Productions were cut short or canceled, and staff were left wondering how they could use their physical spaces and other resources now that meetings, rehearsals, and performances were paused for the foreseeable future. Now, as many […]

by Ian Thal

Globe Online Brings The Trojan Women Into the Zoom Era

A nearly 2,500-year-old drama remains relevant, even when presented online.

The theater invites audiences to explore that which makes us most human. Originally produced in 415 B.C., Euripides’ The Trojan Women paints a world of pain and heartache, where the women of Troy must face the terrors of a lost war. It is thanks to director and founder of the newly established Globe Online, Arielle […]

by John D’Angelo IV

Performance Interface Lab is Spicing Things Up for Virtual Theatergoers During Quarantine

The lab's experimentations toy with the bounds of theater.

With theaters closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both venues and individual artists are attempting to reach out to their audiences. Some theater companies are streaming archival video of past performances, and others are moving into the realm of podcasts. Some individual performers have taken to streaming monologues and dialogues from home, via Facebook or […]

by Ian Thal

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