Roger Catlin - Page 10

It was 40 years ago this week that the Ballet Nacional de Cuba made its historic U.S. debut at the Kennedy Center. There, the remarkable Alicia Alonso was not only artistic director but star performer, who became a ballet force at the American Ballet Theatre and elsewhere despite an eye condition she had since a teenager that caused partial blindness.

Spooky Action Theater is good about seeking out interesting works from unusual sources. Their latest is from Carole Frechette, an award-winning Canadian playwright whose work has only sporadically been produced in the states.

The kind of well-worn rock club set designer Matthew J. Keenan creates for the production of Laura Easton's 'The Undeniable Sound of Right Now' at the Keegan Theatre is so authentic, with its decades of rock posters, stickers and graffiti, you can almost smell the stale beer in the floorboards. The instincts not to visit the restroom rise to full force.

It was on a May evening 105 years ago when the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's ballet 'The Rite of Spring' caused booing, catcalls and near riots in Paris.

It seemed like a clever in-joke when the first lobby announcement at the Shakespeare Theatre Company began, 'We appreciate your patience...'

For being the centennial of Ingmar Bergman's birth, there seems to be very little evidence of the Swedish director's work around. It's hard to find even his best known films; his name is known to some generations only as a reference in the work of Woody Allen.

The four Mirabal sisters, who resisted the oppressive dictatorship of Gen. Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic in the mid 20th century, became folk heroes decades after three of them were murdered by the regime nearly 70 years ago.

Curator Damian Woetzel chooses dancers and choreographers presenting excerpts of new pieces, works in progress, or in the case of the event in conjunction with the inaugural Direct Current series, a world premiere.

The Kennedy Center kicked off its multidisciplinary contemporary cultural assault Tuesday with something thought to embody the approach, Taylor Macs 'A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (1776-2016).'

What if gospel music was taken out of church? What if its structure, soul and power were applied to some other ancient stories, such as, for example, Sophocles, where actors talk about gods plural?

There is something to be said about being present in historical plays. But when the characters in the Theater Alliance's powerful production 'The Raid,' begins with the characters sitting alongside the audience in the seats that ring the performance space and announce their impending demise, we realize we are in for a more visceral experience than history books often provide.

Of her dozens of books over a long career, just one title by the esteemed science fiction and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin has been adapted a couple of times -- her 1971 'The Lathe of Heaven,' the futuristic story about the power of dreams.

It will take biographer Robert Caro five volumes to complete his portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson, so it's no surprise that there's a second LBJ play from Robert Schenkkan.

While every theatrical performance these days is prefaced by a request to turn off cell phones (which somebody invariably ignores), few plays have really delved into how the devices have so rapidly changed everyday life.

It must be galling for many ballet companies that their very operation is dependent on extended holiday performances of 'The Nutcracker' year after year.

During the first Women's Voices Theatre Festival in 2015, the youngest playwright was Madison Middleton, then a sophomore in Silver Spring. Her new play, while apparently not part of the current festival, comes as a seasoned 18-year-old high school senior.

W. Allen Taylor's one man play 'In Search of My Father ... Walkin' Talkin' Bill Hawkins' is more than personal genealogy. His father, unknown to him most of his lifetime, was also a significant figure in black radio -- one of the first such DJs in the country, whose jive talking show show in Cleveland had legions of fans and likely influenced another DJ at his station, Allen Freed, in presenting the day's upbeat rhythm and blues as rock 'n' roll.

Of the two dozen stages participating in the Women's Voices Theater Festival this year, the one for the 4615 Theatre Company in Silver Spring must be the smallest.

Washington Stage Guild had a hit last year with the 1940s Americana romance 'Last Train to Nibroc,' so it's natural to want to stage the sequel by Arlene Hutton featuring the same pair of actors as the appealing couple, Lexi Langs and Wood Van Meter.

Individually, they might amuse the captive audience of a cruise ship. But combining five magicians in one show under the name The Illusionists has proven to be a popular attraction worldwide ever since it was first devised in Australia nearly six years ago. With its revolving casts of not quite household names in magic, the show gained a whole new cachet (ad name) when it briefly appeared on Broadway two years ago.