23 Theater Books for Your Spring 2023 Reading List
Need a great book to spring into the new season? This spring, Broadway's best have put pen to paper to turn out theatre page-turners of every kind. From theatre biographies to theatre fiction; theatre books for kids to theatre history; check out our collection of 23 new Broadway books for every theatre lover's spring reading list.
BWW Review: Quotidian Theatre Company's THE DAY EMILY MARRIED a Beautiful Swan Song
Bethesda's own Quotidian Theatre, which has been a true labor of love and art, after nearly 25 years on the D.C. theatre scene, is making an appropriately subtle, and grand, exit. Horton Foote's intensely psychological drama, The Day Emily Married, is a piece that Artistic Director Jack Sbarbori famously brought to life, staging its world premiere and making Quotidian's reputation at the same time. His relationship with Foote has been a hallmark of Quotidian's work, and it's easy to see why.
Coming Soon To The Greenbelt Arts Center: ALMOST, MAINE
On a cold, clear, moonless night in the middle of winter, all is not quite what it seems in the remote, mythical town of Almost, Maine. As the northern lights hover in the star-filled sky above, Almost's residents find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected and often hilarious ways. In this whimsical approach to the joys and perils of romance, knees are bruised, hearts are broken. But the bruises heal, and the hearts mend - almost - in this delightful midwinter night's dream.
BWW Review: NIGHT SEASONS Embraces the Charmingly Quotidian at Quotidian Theatre Company
Horton Foote's NIGHT SEASONS, directed by Jack Sbarbori at the Quotidian Theatre Company, examines the nature of a life defined by money and greed, and the notion that perhaps living is the greatest punishment of all. Foote, best known for his 1962 screenplay for To Kill a Mockingbird, delivers a quiet critique of capitalist culture and asks us to consider what "home" means. NIGHT SEASONS places us in Harrison Texas, 1963 on Josie Weems' (Jane Squier Bruns) 93rd birthday, though the play deals in flashbacks and the setting easily slips back and forth through 1923-1963 and the years in between. Josie Weems (Jane Squier Bruns) is the manipulative glue that holds the rambling Weems family together by subtly managing finances and allowing and prohibiting marriages at her discretion.
BWW Review: COPENHAGEN at Perisphere Theater
Perisphere Theater's Copenhagen left me feeling uneasy. Maybe this was this was exactly what I should have been feeling; the script, examines the morality of two scientists who worked on the atomic bomb. But despite the strong performances, something is missing from this production.
BWW Reviews: LETTICE AND LOVAGE at Quotidian Theatre Co.
Why let the boring old truth stand in the way of a compelling story? Lettice Douffet lives her life by a code her flamboyant actress mother taught her: 'Enlarge! Enliven! Enlighten!' She eschews "the mere" - the regular, tedious, mundane, or mediocre in life. Lettice and Lovage contrasts dreamer and free spirit Lettice Douffet with bureaucrat Lotte Schoen, a rigid realist. Despite their differences the two find commonality and camaraderie.
Quotidian Theatre - theatre dedicated to the poetry of everyday life, no-frills storytelling, and realistic situations and dialogue - brings us Peter Shaffer's witty clash of opposites ultimately finding solidarity.
Quotidian Theatre Company to Present LETTICE AND LOVAGE
Quotidian Theatre Company regulars, Jane Squier Bruns (Lettice Douffet) and Leah Mazade (Lotte Schoen), will delight audiences in Peter Shaffer's comedy about the most eccentric tour guide ever to lead lackadaisical visitors through one of England's dullest stately homes.
BWW Reviews: Quotidian's Luminous, Haunting American Premiere of McPherson's THE VEIL
Nearly three years after its London opening, Washington's own Quotidian Theatre Company offers us the American premiere of a play that should soon find itself in regular rotation nationwide. Quotidian, with its reputation for understated yet compelling shows, has gone all-out with this production and done Mr. McPherson proud. With a solid, seasoned cast and brilliant period touches in set and costumes, 'The Veil' should be at the top of your list!
Photo Flash: First Look - Conor McPherson's THE VEIL at Quotidian Theatre Company, Now Through 8/17
Internationally-acclaimed playwright Conor McPherson's period drama The Veil is given its US premiere at Quotidian Theatre Company. The New York Times called McPherson 'the finest playwright of his generation'. The Veil made its world premiere at National Theatre in a production Evening Standard called 'atmospheric and haunting'. Quotidian has staged six prior productions of McPherson's work. The US premiere production runs through August 17 at The Writer's Center in downtown Bethesda.
Quotidian Theatre Company to Open 16th Season with THE ICEMAN COMETH
Following a season that included the best-selling ensemble musicalJames Joyce's The Dead, the critically-acclaimed two-man drama A Walk in the Woods, and the highly-successful area premiere of Conor McPherson's adaptation The Birds, Quotidian Theatre Company opens its 16th season with The Iceman Cometh, a rarely-performed masterpiece by Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene O'Neill that The New York Times calls a 'tough, loquacious, magnificent play'. Quotidian's production runs October 25 - November 24 at The Writer's Center in downtown Bethesda.
A Theatre Lover's Guide to DC/Capital Area Theatres - November 2011 Offerings
November has over 60 more openings in the professional, community, universities, and children's theaters in the DC/MD/VA area. A week has already passed in November and over 20 new productions have opened. To read reviews of these shows, go to Maryland Theatre Guide, where I am the Editor and a columnist. A recent back surgery kept me from posting this earlier, so we have some catching up to do.