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Shakespeare for the Young presents Adventures in Arden January 25

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Based on Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Adventures in Arden been created by Shakespeare For The Young as an interactive show for 3 to 10 year olds.

Children are introduced to a puppet of William Shakespeare, who helps start the story. Large bodied puppets, small hand-held puppets, and shadow puppets help tell the story of unkindness turned to love. Set in Africa, the story takes place in both city and country, in particular in the healing forest of Arden where love between two people blossoms and forgiveness between two sets of brothers takes place. Aided by interactive play with the audience, the actors engage children’s imaginations through Shakespeare’s words, using music of many African instruments as an additional medium. A short workshop for the children follows the play. Children use their bodies and voices to explore the rhythms and beats they heard in Shakespeare’s language during the play.

This is a free event open to the public.

January 25, 2020 @ 10:30 AM at Anacostia Playhouse

 

 

For more information on Shakespeare for the Young, click here. 

Ran’D Shine’s Stream of Illusion December 26 on Zoom

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Anacostia Playhouse and Ran’D Shine present
Stream of Illusion
December 26, 2:00 PM
On Zoom
Stream of Illusion is a 45-minute interactive virtual magic show right in your home. This unique and intimate show draws from magician Ran’D Shine’s playful relationship with his audience combined with psychological engaging illusions and sleight of hand.  There’s no smoke, no mirrors, no camera tricks, just pure magic that happens in your mind, hands, and home.
This event will take place on Zoom. Upon ticket confirmation, you will be sent a Zoom link prior to the event. You cannot share this link.
This is an interactive event. You will be asked to take part in the magic, and it is fun for the whole family! All ages invited.
For tickets click HERE.
Ran’D Shine
A two-time visitor to the Anacostia Playhouse, Ran’D has become one of the MOST sought after performers in the industry with a show that is highly entertaining and hilarious. Mr. Shine’s magical style draws from his playful interactive relationship with his audience combined with his psychological engaging illusions and sleight of hand.
A few of his accomplishments include: featured performer at the South African Arts Festival, two time A.P.C.A. College Magician of the year, selected to perform for the Military Month of the Child on Navy bases in Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Ran’D has appeared on the CW network’s Penn & Teller: Fool Us. and B.E.T. network “Man on the Street” segment.  As one audience member put it “He is so much more than a magician he’s CHARISMATIC, FUNNY; he is an ENTERTAINER!” He knows you want to see more and has already read your mind. Come find out how.

Silenced Voices New Works Festival, November 12 7:00 PM

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We had a contest. We had winners.
We were ready to present them. Then COVID hit.
But we were not deterred. We made a movie instead!
Now we are almost ready for you to see these five short plays that our five wonderful playwrights, ten actors, one hardworking director, one videographer and a fantastic production manager have worked through all kinds of obstacles to bring you.
First, a bit about all the moving parts. The Festival was the brainchild of Ebony Custis Rosemond, a former Anacostia Playhouse member, now chief protocol officer in Senegal. Ebony monitored everything from afar and even sent us a video to share here.
On November 12 you can tune in to watch all the plays and share your comments with other audience members.
6:30 Happy Hour on Zoom here.
7:00 p.m. the main event on Youtube here.
Then there are the plays:
Corner Store by Thaddeus Johnson 
View From the Porch by Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman
Bus Trip by Deidre CreativeSoul 
New Complex by Helen Claytor
The New Congress Heights by Kelvin Prather
The director:
Bryanda Minix
Bryanda Minix (Director) is a freelance director with a background in early childhood and arts education, acting, writing, photography, craft art, improv, and dance. She is a graduate of both The Honors Acting Conservatory at The Theatre Lab and The Life Stories Institute.
The players:
Agyeiwaa Asante
Agyeiwaa Asante is a Maryland-based Ghanaian-American playwright and performer. She assistant directed Anacostia Playhouse’s production of RAINBOW FISH under Sisi Reid in 2019.
James Nelson
James Nelson is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland. He has performed regionally in Crumb at the Highwood Theatre and in Welcome to Sis’s at Alley Theatre Company.
Delia Nicole
Delia Nicole has appeared on stage in the US and South Korea. She studied Theater Performance at the University of Maryland and has recently worked as a Teaching Artist with several area groups.
Mary May
Mary May is grateful to be back in the theater with other artists after months of virtual art and Zoom fatigue. She thanks everyone involved for creating a safe and healthy space to make art.
Larry Hull
Larry E. Hull is known for his roles on Homicide: Life on the Street, The Corner, The Wire, and Guns and Grams as well as many theater roles including RS/24 at Anacostia Playhouse.
Christine Wells
Christine Olivia Wells is a graduate of Theatre Lab’s Honors Acting Conservatory. Credits include the Fringe Festival, Keegan Theater, Who What Where Theater Collective, Cohesion Theatre Company.
Damión Perkins
Damión Perkins is an Arts Based Health Educator for Kaiser Permanente. She is a member of the Vanguard Women’s Ensemble and Sister Cipher writing circle of FRESHH Inc. in Washington, DC.
Len Breslow
Len studied acting at Theatre Lab’s Honors Conservatory and has appeared in several area plays and short films, as well as in the Laugh Index Theatre comedy club.
Charles Harris
Charles W. Harris, Jr., has performed on stages throughout the country. A classically trained actor, he is most proud of helping children fulfill their potential through his acting business 3CT Productions .
And the staff:
Jabari Jefferson, Mass Comm Guru Productions LLC, videography, editing
Natasha Preston, Production Manager

Anacostia Playhouse presents Black Nativity December 14- January 5

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Anacostia Playhouse presents Black Nativity by Langston Hughes

Directed by Stephawn Stephens

Music Direction by William Knowles

Tickets HERE

 

Black Nativity

Langston Hughes’ song-play is a retelling of the Christmas story from an Afrocentric perspective, infused with rich gospel, blues, funk, jazz music and dance, with griot-style storytelling from an ensemble cast. Using the sounds, energy and the enthusiasm of Gospel music to tell the Nativity story. The original title of the play was Wasn’t That a Mighty Day, but was changed to Black Nativity before the show’s opening. On December 11, 1961 the show was first performed Off-Broadway, and then performed at President Kennedy’s International Jazz Festival. Later the show had tours through Europe including in Spoleto, Italy, where it performed at the Festival of Two Worlds. The show then toured London, Oslo, Brussels, Copenhagen and Rotterdam before returning to America. Since the sixties, the show has been performed annually at several theaters around the holiday season, and was performed annually at the Kennedy Center before moving to perform with H Street Playhouse and Theater Alliance.

 

About Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist who was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes began his writing career in the 1920s and lived in Washington DC for a few years in that decade. In one of Hughes’ most famous works, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” he called for confident, uniquely black literature. He travelled through the American South to decry cases of racial injustice, and then later travelled to the Soviet Union, Haiti, and Japan and worked as a newspaper correspondent. His first play Mulatto premiered on Broadway in 1935, and he later founded theater companies in Harlem and Los Angeles. Hughes served as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War in 1937.

In 1961 Black Nativity premiered Off-Broadway, and in 2013 the filmed version was produced. Hughes also wrote for newspaper columns including the Chicago Defender and the New York Post. He often wrote fiction vignettes of his renowned comic column character Jesse B. Semple, who became a symbol of the day to day troubles of a poor black man living in a racist society. Hughes won several awards and fellowships, among them the Guggenheim Fellowship, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the NAACP Spingarn Medal, National Institute of Arts and Letters, and received honorary degrees from Lincoln University, Howard University, and Western Reserve University. In 2012 he was inducted into the Chicago Hall of Fame. Hughes died in 1967 from complications of prostate cancer.

About Stephawn Stephens

Stephawn P. Stephens has become a recognizable presence, as a local actor, singer, and director in the Metropolitan area theater scene.  He is a native of Cleveland, Ohio and received his formal training at the Karamu House, Cleveland State University, majoring in English and Music Education and Bowie State University completing his studies in Musical Theater/Acting.

Mr. Stephens has performed at several local and well-known venues such as Arena Stage, African Continuum Theater Company, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Ford’s Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Round House Theatre, Theater Alliance, Theater J, Signature Theatre and Woolly Mammoth.  He has been a member of Actors Equity Association since 2004. He most recently directed A Nite at the Dew Drop Inn at Anacostia Playhouse.

Throughout his career, Mr. Stephens has developed his craft, gained invaluable knowledge and experience in theater and education. He believes in cultivating an atmosphere where undiscovered talent is trained and perfected.  While building partnerships within the community through volunteering and his faithfulness to his church, Mr. Stephens has been touted by his peers as a “game changer”.  He strives to help build and motivate cross-functional teams that exceed worldly expectations and marries passion to purpose.

 

About William Knowles

William Knowles is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended Howard University and the University of Massachusetts and now lives in Washington, DC. As a composer, arranger, music director and pianist, he has worked at regional theaters around the country, including Dallas Theater Center, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Northlight (Chicago), CenterStage (Baltimore), Indiana Repertory Theater, and the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, where he has performed in eight different productions. He has received five Helen Hayes nominations for Musical Direction, winning twice.

Offstage he has released seven jazz CDs with music partner Mark Saltman. Their latest release is titled Almost (SaltmanKnowles.com).

 

ON STAGE

Kendall Claxton

Marcel Miller

LaSharon Johnson

Tre’mon Mills

Michael Nesbitt-Gaines

Fashad Tyler

David Hammett

Catrina Brenae

Sherice Payne

Jacquelyn Hawkins

André McKamey

Shawna William

 

DESIGN AND PRODUCTION TEAM                   

Set Design: Leah Mazur

Lighting Design: Jonathan Alexander

Costume Design: Alison Johnson

Choreography: Rodni Williams

Properties: Andrew Reilly

Stage Manager: Jen Bryant

 

MEDIA

To engage with Anacostia Playhouse and follow Black Nativity please visit, follow and like:

www.anacostiaplayhouse.org

Facebook: /AnacostiaPlayhouse

Twitter: /AnacostiaPHouse

Instagram:  @anacostiaphouse

Performances:

Preview: December  12

Gala Fundraiser: December 13

Saturday, December 14, 2pm (PRESS)

Saturday December 14, 2019 7:30pm OPENING (PRESS)

Sunday, December 15, 2019 3pm (PRESS)

Continues

Wednesday-Saturday 7:30

Saturdays at 2pm

Sundays at 3pm

Extra performances

December 26, 11:00 AM

Through Sunday January 5, 2020

PLUS Industry Night, Monday, December 23 at 7:30pm

 

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets HERE

Group Tickets: $30 tickets for groups of 10 or more. For group tickets, please call 202-290-2328

 

Silenced Voices: Anacostia Playhouse New Works Festival 2019 Submission

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Silenced Voices

EXTENDED DEADLINE: November 15

The Anacostia Playhouse is seeking new and non-produced 10-minute plays for its annual new works series. Selected playwrights will have the opportunity to work with a professional director and actors to prepare for the final staged reading or performance.

Play submissions should address the prompt: What happens when a city loses its soul?

We ask playwrights to ponder the themes of displacement and its effect on the residents of Anacostia and neighborhoods East of the River. As residents are displaced, what does a city lose? What voices are at a threat of being silenced today?

Shine a spotlight on the silenced voices. What has made this neighborhood? Maybe it’s Go-Go Music; maybe it’s the special cuisine that was once sold at a neighborhood cornerstone; and maybe it’s the people themselves who built an amazing culture and city. Or maybe it’s something else entirely.

 

The guidelines:

 

The play should be short: 10-15 minutes

The play should have no more than 4 characters

The play should focus on neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River

 

EXTENDED DEADLINE: November 15

 

Submit online at

Anacostia Playhouse New Works Festival 2019

AUDITIONS: Black Nativity October 17-19, 2019

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Anacostia Playhouse NON-UNION Auditions October 17-19, 2019
BLACK NATIVITY
directed by Stephawn Stevens
Black Nativity is the Afro-centric retelling of the birth of Christ through exuberant Gospel music and Modern dance. Singers should be familiar with traditional and contemporary styles of Gospel Music.
Anacostia Playhouse seeks an ensemble of singers that move well and have acting experience. We are looking for performers that can blend and harmonize with others plus hold their own as a soloist. The piece is very ensemble in nature.
Also seeking dancers with technique in classical ballet and modern dance.
You should also be able to sing.
If you would like to be seen please submit your preferred audition time and date, as well as your headshot and resume in pdf format to natasha.anacostiaplayhouse@gmail.com. In the subject line please put BLACK NATIVITY – SUBMISSION.
Anacostia Playhouse compensates all employees with a stipend for the rehearsal and run.
NON-UNION LOCAL HIRES ONLY.
Auditions will be:
October 17th from 5pm-9pm Dancers/Singers call
October 18th from 5pm-9pm Dancers/Singers call
October 19th from 10am-2pm Singers only
Call backs October 25-26
Location of auditions/callbacks TBD
Singers prepare:
A one-minute contemporary monologue.
An Up-tempo Gospel selection.
A standard Gospel selection.
There will be a pianist to accompany.
Dancers prepare:
A combination highlighting your skill set in ballet and modern no longer than 3 minutes. Music should be prerecorded. You will be asked to sing 32 measures of a Gospel song.
A CD player will be available.
First Rehearsal: November 4, 2019
First Preview: December 11, 2019
Opening: December 14, 2019
Closing: January 5, 2020

 

A Nite at the Dew Drop Inn August 31- September 21

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Anacostia Playhouse presents A Nite at the Dew Drop Inn

Directed by Stephawn Stephens

Music Direction by William Knowles

August 31- September 21

For tickets click here.

DC Theatre Scene Interview with Stephawn Stephens on working with castmate Jacquelyn Hawkins

DC Theatre Scene Reivew: “The blues take center stage during Anacostia Playhouse’s relentlessly engaging revue, A Nite at the Dew Drop Inn. For one all-too-brief night (the show flies by in about 75 minutes), six talented performers assemble, under the direction of Stephawn Stephens, to bring back to life a swanky historical New Orleans nightclub, known locally as “The Drop,” which welcomed all, catered particularly to African-American audiences during segregated times and, in its heyday, hosted everyone from Otis Redding to Ray Charles (Little Richard even wrote a song about the place)”

 

 

Let the good times roll as you experience a raunchy, raucous night of song filled with laughter, high jinks, and tears of joy. This fun-filled musical journey will take you on a ride of those Unforgettable moments of that first date, first kiss, the one that got away, or maybe the one you kicked to the curb!  A Nite at the Dew Drop Inn is a musical celebration and tribute to the Juke Joint, to those iconic nightspots that were known for good food, music and maybe a little trouble (if you weren’t careful). This cabaret-style presentation highlights themes of love found, love lost and love renewed. It features songs made famous by Big Mama Thorton, Fats Waller, Etta James, and Dinah Washington, just to name a few.

 

About Stephawn Stephens

Stephawn P. Stephens has become a recognizable presence, as a local actor, singer, and director in the Metropolitan area theater scene.  He is a native of Cleveland, Ohio and received his formal training at the Karamu House, Cleveland State University, majoring in English and Music Education and Bowie State University completing his studies in Musical Theater/Acting.

In his professional endeavors, Mr. Stephens has performed at several local and well-known venues such as Arena Stage, African Continuum Theater Company, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Ford’s Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Round House Theatre, Theater Alliance, Theater J, Signature Theatre and Woolly Mammoth.  He has been a member of Actors Equity Association since 2004. He is currently the Lower School Music Teacher at Creative Minds International PCS.

Throughout his career, Mr. Stephens has developed his craft, gained invaluable knowledge and experience in theater and education. He believes in cultivating an atmosphere where undiscovered talent is trained and perfected.  While building partnerships within the community through volunteering and his faithfulness to his church, Mr. Stephens has been touted by his peers as a “game changer”.  He strives to help build and motivate cross-functional teams that exceed worldly expectations and marries passion to purpose

 

About William Knowles

William Knowles is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended Howard University and the

University of Massachusetts and now lives in Washington, DC. As a composer, arranger, music director

and pianist, he has worked at regional theaters around the country, including Dallas Theater Center,

Philadelphia Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Northlight (Chicago), CenterStage (Baltimore), Indiana

Repertory Theater, and the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, where he has performed in eight different

productions. He has received five Helen Hayes nominations for Musical Direction, winning twice.

Offstage he has released seven jazz CDs with music partner Mark Saltman. Their latest release is titled

Almost (SaltmanKnowles.com).

 

ON STAGE

Sherice Payne

Yvette Spears

Jacquelyn Hawkins

Marcel Worrell Miller

Robert Person

Rodni Williams

 

DESIGN AND PRODUCTION STAFF                         

Set Design: Megan Holden

Lighting Design: Willie J. Blakeney, Jr

Costume Design: Alison Johnson

Choreography: Rodni Williams

 

Stage Manager: Monica Cook

Production Manager: Rachel Walsh

Pianist: DeAndre Shaifer

Take Our Survey!

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Our team has been at work researching and planning for safety measures once the theater does open. We are following any CDC guidance and our set designer has come up with a half dozen terrific seating arrangements to make sure our audiences are able to enjoy theater as safely as possible. We’ve also worked out our plan for the lobby and we’re investigating ticketing scenarios, again, with everyone’s safety in mind. Hand sanitizer will be in abundance throughout the space, safety barriers hung, temperature readers on hand, and there will be new ways of checking in.
In other words, opening will happen when it is absolutely safe to do so.
But we want to know what you are thinking, too. Below is a link to a very brief survey about returning to the theater and what content you’d like to see when we do open. Our community is such an integral part of the Playhouse, and we want you to have a say.
To fill out our survey, click HERE.

The Welders present: the earth, that is sufficient

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November 2019

Part theatre, part ritual, and part epic journey, the earth, that is sufficient is a contemplative inquiry into the precarity of human relationships to extraction, consumption, and power. the earth, that is sufficient is an iterative performance project that conceptualizes theatre-making as an ecology, and asks audiences to consider the braided legacy of our past and the infinite possibilities we might stitch into a shared future.

The iterative performance project is told through the eyes of Lucy, the australopithecus, the 3.2 million year old hominid fossil. She speaks of the earth’s vast history and her relationship to lands, place, and time. With her, we wonder, “when a body has been turned into an object, where does it find rest?”

Learn more about the project’s history, the creative team,  and upcoming performances at www.sufficientearth.com. 
the earth, that is sufficient is a collaborative, emergent process.
Process design by Annalisa Dias and mia susan amir, with contributions by Eric Swartz
Original content created by Annalisa Dias, mia susan amir, Nina Budabin McQuown, Cecilia Cackley, Sanam Emami, DeLesslin George-Warren, Kara Turner, Melissa Strova Valencia.
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