D.C. Arts Center, founded in 1989, is a nonprofit arts space dedicated to promoting the freshest, most under-recognized artists in the Washington metropolitan area. We encourage an ongoing dialogue between new artists and the greater art community, and assist artists in the business of production. Comprised of a theater, gallery, and administrative offices, DCAC is located in the heart of Adams Morgan, or deeper still, DCAC is your mothership connection to the arts.
Facts and Fictions
June 18 - July 18
Opening Reception: June 18, 7-9pm
Artists Talk: July 11, 5pm
Curated by Blair Murphy
Featuring work by Rob Chester, Chajana denHarder, Todd Gardener, Joseph Hale, Chandi Kelley, Matt Smith and Dafna Steinberg
Featuring work by the seven new members of DCAC's Sparkplug artist collective, Facts and Fictions highlights the tension between the real and the constructed, between the production of elaborate fictions and the documentation of a seemingly concrete reality. Working in painting, photography and mixed media, the artists in the exhibition blur the boundaries between documentation and creation. Fictional narratives and imagined characters inhabit fantastical worlds that nonetheless speak to everyday experiences and anxieties. In other instances, work created with an eye towards everyday human experience transforms otherwise ordinary moments into unfamiliar and surprising visions.
In the Theatre:
Dark Horse Theatre Company presents Oleanna
By David Mamet
June 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 and 19 at 7:30
$15/ $10 DCAC Members, students and seniors
For reservations call DCAC at 202-462-7833
A college student, Carol, drops by her professor's office in an effort to gain his help to do better in class. John, the professor, in the midst of buying a house to celebrate his nomination for tenure, at first seems distant. As the first meeting progresses the two discuss the nature of understanding and judgment in society, as well as their very own natures and places in our society. It seems as if a bond has been made. When next they meet we find that a report has been filed to the tenure committee. Carol has joined a "group" and has decided that John sexually harassed her during their first meeting. Their second meeting dissects the first; every word, every nuance of the first meeting has been twisted into something else. Or has it? John's unsuccessful attempts to convince Carol To retract her accusation escalate to a more dangerous level. The third meeting, one the court officers warned against, climaxes violently, leaving John and Carol both physically and emotionally devastated.
Read a profile of Dark Horse Theatre in the Reston Connection
DC's Own Entertainment Group presents The Airport Piece
June 13 and 27 at 3pm and 7:30
$10/ $7 DCAC Members
Buy tickets through eventbrite.com
The Airport Piece is the story of a group of women on their way home to DC after attending a wedding in Iowa. Upon landing in Chicago, for their transfer, they are told all flights are delayed due to a worsening snow storm. They are stuck in the airport, indefinitely. Friendships are tested. Secrets and lies are revealed. And each of the women is forever changed by the conversations that take place in the airport.
Cult of the Stage Monkey DC presents
Improv with microCosm
June 24 - July 3
Thursdays at 7:30, Fridays and Saturdays at 10:00
$12/ $10 DCAC Members
For reservations call DCAC at 202-462-7833
Cult of the Stage Monkey Improv brings together troupes from across DC for an evening of improv comedy.
SeeNoSun OnStage presents
Terre Haute
July 8 - 25
by Edmund White
directed by Michael Wright
Thursday - Sunday at 7:30
$15
Part of the Capital Fringe Festival
Tickets available through www.seenosun.org
Inspired by the essays Gore Vidal wrote for Vanity Fair about his correspondence with Timothy McVeigh. This drama imagines a series of death row encounters between characters firmly based on the acclaimed novelist and the man convicted and executed for bombing the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The clock ticks as a weirdly flirtatious connection between these diverse men evolves when they discover a common belief that the Federal Government is trampling freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.
SeeNoSun OnStage presents the Washington DC premier of this play for the 2010 Capital Fringe Festival.
Swamp City Stage presents Beyond Therapy
by Christopher Durang
July 16 & 17 at 9:30
$15
Part of the Capital Fringe Festival
Tickets available starting June 21 at capfringe.org
The lives of Prudence and Bruce, two Manhattanites seeking happiness or at least contentment, collide with absurd and farcical results. Acting on the suggestion of their therapists, both characters place personal ads which result in an initial meeting and instant dislike. When Charlotte places a second ad, only to attract Bruce again, they decide they might actually like each other. At the same time, both cope with therapists who often seem more troubled than their patients. With witty writing and references that range from Dostoyevsky to People magazine, Beyond Therapy, constructs comedy out of the everyday angst of life in contemporary America.
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