1st Stage Announces Season Updates and Programming Additions

Keeping in mind the health and safety of their staff, performers, and patrons, 1st Stage has decided to begin its next season in February of 2021. Join 1st Stage in February, April, and May for three fantastic full-length productions, and in July 2021 for the return of the groundbreaking Logan Festival of Solo Performance.

In the meantime, 1st Stage has announced the launch of its brand-new Virtual Classroom, beginning with six theatre education courses taught by experts in the field. Register today at www.1ststage.org.

About the Virtual Classroom:

1st Stage Artistic Director, Alex Levy will be teaching "A Director Prepares." This course will introduce students to the process of directing. It will focus on production, preparation, and conceptualization. It will also touch on concepts such as casting, talking to designers, and working with actors.

1st Stage Literary Manager, Laura Esti Miller will lead "Approaches to Script Analysis." This course will introduce students to both classic and modern techniques to understanding characters, conflict, and action.

Deidra LaWan Starnes, a performer, teacher, and 1st Stage's Associate Artistic Director will teach "Beginning Scene Study." This course will introduce students to performing scripted scenes. They will analyze the scene text to create and develop believable characters in a real relationship using Given Circumstances, Setting (Time and Place), History, Objectives, Tactics, and Obstacles.

1st Stage Casting Director and long-time vocal coach, Jane Margulies Kalbfeld will be teaching "Beginning Voice Training." This course will introduce students to healthy singing techniques, including warm-ups and cool downs, using vocal exercises, the importance of proper vocal hygiene, and simple songs.

Trained performer, teaching artist, and 1st Stage Director of Engagement, Heidi Fortune Picker will be teaching "Introduction to Improvisation." This course will introduce students to basic principles of improvisation. It will focus on concepts such as "Yes, and..." and building on a story, as well as on activities to help students let go of their inner critic and rediscover play.

Playwright and 1st Stage family member, Bob Bartlett (playwright, Swimming with Whales) will be teaching "Introduction to Playwriting." This course will introduce students to the basic principles of playwriting - dramatic action, character, and structure.

For more information about Virtual Classroom Instructors, visit www.1stStage.org.

About Season 13 Productions:

In February, Alex Levy will direct The Waverly Gallery, written by Kenneth Lonergan. In this 2019 Tony Award nominee for Best Revival of a Play, Gladys, the elderly matriarch of the Green family is always irascible but now increasingly erratic, Gladys becomes a cause for concern to her family. "Deeply theatrical and often deeply funny," raved The New York Times.

In April, Nick Olcott will direct The Nance, by Douglas Carter Beane. This witty, Tony Award-Nominated play, filled with music, dance, and comedy sketches, introduces us to Chauncey Miles, a gay burlesque performer at the Irving Place Theater. Chauncy specializes in playing the stock character of "the nance," an extremely effeminate, blatantly homosexual staple of the 1930s stage. As New York's Mayor LaGuardia cracks down on any kind of deviant or scandalous behavior onstage, Chauncey and the cast of The Irving Place Theater have to decide what they are willing to stand up for.

May-June will feature Mlima's Tale, by Lynn Nottage, directed by José Carrasquillo. Pulitzer Prize Winner and Macarthur Genius Grant Winner, Nottage gives us the story of Mlima, an elderly "big tusker" elephant from a protected reserve in Kenya. When Mlima is poached for his glorious ivory tusks, those tusks begin a journey across the world, introducing us to a string of characters, each with their own goals and struggles surrounding the ivory trade. In every scene, Mlima's own magnificent presence hovers in the background, lending the weight of his history to this beautiful story.

1st Stage will conclude its exciting 13th Season in July with The Logan Festival of Solo Performance, a festival of solo performances featuring national, award-winning performers.

Tickets and Flex Passes can be purchased online at www.1stStage.org or by calling the 1st Stage box office at 703-854-1856.

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