Not about Trumpsky!
Today Joanne and I spent the whole day at the "Page to Stage" Festival at Washington's always-wonderful Kennedy Center. It'll also be on tomorrow and Monday, with a vast calendar of offerings by over 60 smaller theater companies in our region. It's mainly new productions they will show in the coming season, sometimes simple script read-throughs by the tentative cast -- but often the whole production, minus costumes and sets. Often three or more offerings are going simultaneously, so all you can do is guess which will be most interesting.
We've faithfully attended ALL the annual extravaganzas in the past 15 years, thrilled at the sheer quality of the pieces we've seen. Often they are new plays by well-known writers, perhaps on their way to Broadway. This weekend there's no shortage of musicals -- like one today called "Into the Sun," based on several British college friends sucked into the horrid trench warfare in WWI. Some of the lyrics are from influential poetry of Rupert Brook, who was killed, and Siegfried ("Freddy") Sassoon, who never recovered from severe "shell-shock" (what we now call PTSD).
Not a promising subject for a musical, you say? Well, it was the BEST piece of theater I've seen in years, and I won't be surprised if it winds up a huge hit in a future engaement. The playwright, Michael Gubser, led a terrific post-show discussion of its recent genesis; this is the third full iteration (meaning a cast of some 20 and a fully scored production, in this case well done by the Theater Department of James Madison University). He expects to continue revamping it in further iterations in other venues -- and, who knows, by that point B'way talent scouts may grab it.
My other favorite today was "Blight" by John Bavose, done by the charmingly named Pinky Swear Productions -- about a lesbian couple buying a home in a small Delaware town. Alas, it had been the residence of a teenaged mass murderer... and the townfolk see it as a blight, needing to be torn down. Now, the tricky part is that the play's a comedy, and it stands up as such -- even the flashbacks showing the killer's spiral into insanity are handled deftly.
And I have to mention "The Raid," about white abolitionist John Brown preparing to attack the U.S. Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, WV, a precursor to the Civil War. It also was superbly cast. It takes a few historical liberties, including major roles for black leaders like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman -- trying to dissuade Brown from taking 20 men to their deaths (including by hanging after a notorious trial for treason).
Also seeing two lesser (but fascinating) plays, we were there from 11:00am to 9:30pm. Just to show how crowded the day was, there were no less than 35 productions we couldn't attend. There's a lighter schedule tomorrow, but Monday's 36 offerings will again challenge us.
Did I mention it's all FREE?
We've faithfully attended ALL the annual extravaganzas in the past 15 years, thrilled at the sheer quality of the pieces we've seen. Often they are new plays by well-known writers, perhaps on their way to Broadway. This weekend there's no shortage of musicals -- like one today called "Into the Sun," based on several British college friends sucked into the horrid trench warfare in WWI. Some of the lyrics are from influential poetry of Rupert Brook, who was killed, and Siegfried ("Freddy") Sassoon, who never recovered from severe "shell-shock" (what we now call PTSD).
Not a promising subject for a musical, you say? Well, it was the BEST piece of theater I've seen in years, and I won't be surprised if it winds up a huge hit in a future engaement. The playwright, Michael Gubser, led a terrific post-show discussion of its recent genesis; this is the third full iteration (meaning a cast of some 20 and a fully scored production, in this case well done by the Theater Department of James Madison University). He expects to continue revamping it in further iterations in other venues -- and, who knows, by that point B'way talent scouts may grab it.
My other favorite today was "Blight" by John Bavose, done by the charmingly named Pinky Swear Productions -- about a lesbian couple buying a home in a small Delaware town. Alas, it had been the residence of a teenaged mass murderer... and the townfolk see it as a blight, needing to be torn down. Now, the tricky part is that the play's a comedy, and it stands up as such -- even the flashbacks showing the killer's spiral into insanity are handled deftly.
And I have to mention "The Raid," about white abolitionist John Brown preparing to attack the U.S. Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, WV, a precursor to the Civil War. It also was superbly cast. It takes a few historical liberties, including major roles for black leaders like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman -- trying to dissuade Brown from taking 20 men to their deaths (including by hanging after a notorious trial for treason).
Also seeing two lesser (but fascinating) plays, we were there from 11:00am to 9:30pm. Just to show how crowded the day was, there were no less than 35 productions we couldn't attend. There's a lighter schedule tomorrow, but Monday's 36 offerings will again challenge us.
Did I mention it's all FREE?