Everything is Go-Go's right now over at Monumental Theatre Company as their production of the jukebox musical Head Over Heels opens in previews on Thursday, March 5. The show is based on Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia and follows a royal family at risk of losing their "beat" and their journey to save their kingdom and find true love. Directed by Jimmy Mavrikes, the show features the music of Belinda Carlisle's all-girl pop group, with songs including "We Got the Beat" and "Vacation" brought to the stage by Monumental's music supervisor, MARIKA COUNTOURIS.
19th century math whiz Ada Lovelace is known as the first programmer for her work with her mentor and friend Charles Babbage and his “Analytical Engine,” considered the first computer. She was also the only legitimate child of the womanizing English poet Lord Byron. Playwright Lauren Gunderson’s telling of her story, Ada and the Engine, is currently onstage at Avant Bard Theatre. DC native JESSICA LEFKOW plays both Ada’s mother, Anabelle Byron, a jilted wife who tries to push her daughter into an advantageous marriage, and the Scottish mathematician and astronomer Mary Somerville, who helped Lovelace in her career.
We've all been there, applauding at curtain call and the cast gestures their thanks to the orchestra, the director, and... who are we clapping for now? It's likely the show's stage manager, the person who does a bit of everything, from handling all the backstage duties during a performance, to assisting the director while rehearsals are going on, to admin duties, and everything in between! 2020 is the Year of the Stage Manager, so this week, Take Ten from theatreWashington's guest is KAREN CURRIE, production stage manager for Signature Theatre's Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes.
Regina Taylor's gospel musical Crowns was inspired by a collection of photographs of African-American women in their elaborate church hats. 17-year-old Yolanda has been sent from Brooklyn to stay with her grandmother in the South after the shooting death of her brother.
Cuban-American playwright, and Pulitzer Prize-winner) Nilo Cruz's (Anna in the Tropics) most recent play, Exquisita Agonía (Exquisite Agony) starts tonight at GALA Hispanic Theatre. The play features LUZ NICOLÁS, who plays a middle-aged woman seeking a relationship with the young man who was the recipient of her dead husband's heart, and follows the drama and familial clashes that result.