Play readings and workshops offer a chance to see exciting new work at various stages of development. Want to see the next big thing while it’s still being crafted? Get in on the ground level and see the creative process in action. Featuring new plays and musicals by local and national artists, here are the upcoming play readings and workshops in the DMV. APRIL Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company will present a live benefit reading of Sarah Ruhl’s Dear Elizabeth: A Play in Letters from Elizabeth Bishop to Robert Lowell and Back Again. The reading is directe ..read more

Chicks in Heaven, a new musical by author, professor, and performance artist Carol Lee Campbell, centers on a 30-year reunion in southwestern Virginia of friends who once shared a deep bond fueled by feminist ideals. In their youth, the women experimented with magic as a means to challenge societal norms and fight against the oppressive forces of patriarchy. Now, as they come together again, they hope that the magical activism that once united them can prevail in the face of present-day challenges. The premise is fine enough, but the show itself unfortunately has a number of weaknesses ..read more

If like me you remember songwriter Marvin Hamlisch but have no real recollection of lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, you’re not alone, and it’s further testament that lyricists don’t get the acclaim they deserve. They’re Playing Our Song is a playful look at how Hamlisch and Sager evolved from a successful songwriter partnership into a real-life romantic relationship for several years despite on and off again bumps, near-complete incompatibility, and an ex-boyfriend who stayed in the picture for months. It all starts off innocently enough. Song lyricist Sonia blusters in to audition for Vernon, w ..read more

A Jumping-Off Point, written by Inda Craig-Galván and directed by Jade King Carroll, centers Black writer Leslie Wallace, played by Nikkole Salter, who has just landed her first deal with HBO to run her own show. Just as she begins celebrating, an old face from her grad school days — a white man named Andrew, played by Danny Gavigan — knocks on her apartment door one day to accuse her of plagiarizing his script. And — it turns out that she actually did. This setup provokes questions: When each of us exists in a world where economic potential and social power are heavily influenced — and somet ..read more

Michael Russotto, who plays the lead Chauncey Miles in 1st Stage’s current production of Douglas Carter Beane’s The Nance, has an eclectic and extraordinary résumé in his 40-plus years on the stage. From mid-1980s productions at Studio Theatre (where he studied under the legendary Joy Zinoman) to numerous performances at Woolly Mammoth Theatre (such as Will in the acclaimed 2011 run of Samuel D. Hunter’s A Bright New Boise) and dozens of other shows across the area and nationally (including a recent national tour of Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie), this veteran actor is a reliably memorab ..read more

Largely overlooked in the annals of art history and forgotten over time, Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980) was active in France and the US in the period spanning the two World Wars and beyond, creating stylized portraits of wealthy patrons and aristocrats, still lifes, and abstracted nudes in the Art Deco era, combining elements of the Cubist and Neo-Classical styles. As much as for her work, Lempicka was known for her social life in the artistic and literary circles of Paris, her enjoyment of alcohol, cocaine, and cigarettes, and her then scandalous sexual exploits with both men ..read more

Families share so much from generation to generation. Some hand-me-downs are immediately on view, such as eye colors, facial features, and habits. Others, like hopes, dreams, and traumas, only appear over time. These invisible inheritances and their effects are at the heart of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. The same is true of NOVA Nightsky Theater’s commendable production, running Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays now through April 27. Adam Ressa as Tom in ‘The Glass Menagerie.’ Photo by Heather Regan. Framed as a “memory play,” The Glass Menagerie shows the final fraying of the Wi ..read more

By Lucille Rieke Though Pippin has been done thousands of times at thousands of colleges, what is significant about this production is that it is entirely student-run. From the director to the designers, the cast, and even a live orchestra of only students, this show is put on under the supervision and execution of Georgetown University students. Impressively, to say the least, these students have taken a complex show and put it on its feet with the support of each other. Pippin, featuring students across majors, schools, and grades, is put on in collaboration with two of the student the ..read more

As a student in the Master’s program at NYU’s Steinhardt School, singer extraordinaire Jenna Pastuszek was given an assignment to listen to Barbra Streisand’s first three albums, released in 1963-64, to decide which number was her favorite and to write an essay about it. It was an introduction to the superstar of the stage, screen, and recording studio that inspired her, at about the same age in her own young career, and evolved into her signature concert Me, Myself & Barbra – a tribute to the life and songs of the legendary singer (who, she noted, will turn 82 next week), presented for o ..read more

From the press report: “Theater Alliance is heartbroken to announce that after 12 years as the professional company in residence, we have been forced out of the Anacostia Playhouse. In February, Theater Alliance discovered, through a posted eviction notice on the door, that the Anacostia Playhouse had not paid any rent to the property owner from October 2023 to January 2024. During this time, Theater Alliance had continued paying our monthly rent—which constitutes the majority of the monthly rent payment for the building—to the DC Theatre Arts Collaborative, d.b.a. The Anacostia Playhouse. Th ..read more