Category Archives: Drama

An Iliad at Clarice Smith, May 2-3

Lisa Peterson & ​Denis O’Hare/Homer’s Coat present An Iliad at Clarice Smith, May 2-3

May 2 & 3, 2014 . 8PM

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Kay Theatre. Reserved Seating.

Click Here to Buy Tickets:
Regular: $40
Subscriber: $32
Senior Citizen: $35
UMD Alumni Association: $35
UMD Faculty & Staff: $32
Students & Youth: $10

Fri, May 2, 2014 . 8:00PM
Sat, May 3, 2014 . 8:00PM

Description:

In An Iliad, actor Denis O’Hare and director Lisa Peterson telescope Homer’s great poem about the Trojan War into an intimate solo show illuminating both the heroism and the horror of warfare.

Set in a contemporary milieu, the one-man performance stars an ageless Greek singer and poet. The script is rendered in contemporary vernacular language with occasional snatches of verse and even a few bellowed lines in Homer’s original Greek. The play’s sole narrator, a battered-looking character who claims to have been recounting the yarn throughout the ages, combines the reverence and mystery of ancient Greek mythology with the dynamic urban rhythms of contemporary life.

O’Hare describes his character as “a ‘living book’ sitting on the shelf, and either he’s being pulled down off the shelf by willing participants or he’s willing himself off the shelf to fall open in a time when the culture needs him.”

The Colored Museum at Bowie State University, Apr 17-20

The Colored Museum at Bowie State University, Apr 17-20

Spring Arts Festival: BSU Theatre presents “The Colored Museum”
April 17 & 18 at 11:00am; April 17, 18, 19 at 7:30pm; April 20 at 2:30pm

Description: As a part of the university’s Spring Arts Festival, BSU Theatre presents “The Colored Museum,” directed by Professor Renee Charlow. The presentation includes many different interactive monologue style exhibits of African American experiences from the 1980’s.

Location: Main Stage Theatre, Fine and Performing Arts Center, Bowie State University.

Cost: $3 for children; $5 for BSU faculty, staff, students and senior citizens; $10 general admission

Box office opens 1 hour before performances. Call 301-860-3717 for ticket information.

Pig Iron Theatre Company presents Zero Cost House at Clarice Smith, Apr 4-5

Pig Iron Theatre Company presents Zero Cost House at Clarice Smith, Apr 4-5

By Toshiki Okada

April 4 & 5, 2014 . 8PM

Location: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Kogood Theatre. Reserved Seating.

Click Here to Buy Tickets:
Regular: $35
Subscriber: $28
Senior Citizen: $30
UMD Alumni Association: $30
UMD Faculty & Staff: $28
Students & Youth: $10

Fri, Apr 4, 2014 . 8:00PM
Sat, Apr 5, 2014 . 8:00PM

Description:

Zero Cost House was initially conceived as a meditation on how Henry David Thoreau’s Walden changed the playwright’s life. The Japanese tsunami of 2011 occurred while Toshiki Okada was writing the play, which left him reflecting even more deeply on the disruptions that come from natural disasters and the uneasy compromises between radical idealism and contemporary living.

Known for its raucous performance spirit, Pig Iron Theatre Company is the first English-language company to premiere Okada’s work and is making its Clarice Smith Center debut with Zero Cost House.

Founded in 1995 as an interdisciplinary ensemble, the company is dedicated to the creation of new and exuberant performance works that defy easy categorization. The company calls itself a “dance-clown-theatre ensemble” whose focus moves from character to space to contact with the audience. Individual pieces have been called “soundscape and spectacle,” “cabaret-ballet” and “avant-garde shadow puppet dessert-theatre.” As one company member put it, “We have a hard time sitting still.”

This project is partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a program developed and funded by The Heinz Endowments; the William Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and The Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

Seagirl at Clarice Smith, Mar 29-30

Seagirl at Clarice Smith, Mar 29-30

Director: Sam Mauceri

Saturday, March 29, 2014, 3:00pm
Saturday, March 29, 2014, 7:30pm
Sunday, March 30, 2014, 3:00pm

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Cafritz Foundation Theatre.

Free admission, no tickets required.

Description: How do you cope when everything you’ve learned begins falling apart? Sam Mauceri’s original work Seagirl utilizes theatre, dance and movement to explore a young woman’s attempts at unpacking her own prejudices in a world that wishes she wouldn’t. Feminist punk music and a longing for radical ideas invade a culture of conventionality in this partnership between The School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies and The Weekday Players.

Stop Kiss at the Charis Center, Mar 28-Apr 13

Stop Kiss at the Charis Center, Mar 28-Apr 13

Charis Center for the Arts

STOP KISS
By Diana Son
Directed by dr. emma hadley

Description: A poignant and funny play about the ways, both sudden and slow that lives can change irrevocably. Sara and Callie are walking through New York City’s West Village very late at night, when they share their first kiss. This leads to a vicious attack by an angry bystander, in which Sara is horribly injured. She falls into a coma, which becomes one of the major subjects of the play. George, Callie’s good friend, tries to help with the situation, but there is little he can do. Peter, Sara’s ex-boyfriend from St. Louis, comes to help nurse her back to health. Throughout Stop Kiss, relationships are explored, formed, and even ended. Diana Son elaborates on the depths of human emotion and compassion in this play. The story is told out of chronological order: alternating scenes take place respectively before and after the assault, which is not shown onstage.

“A sweet, sad, and enchantingly sincere play” The NY Times

Produced by Charis Center for the Arts.

March 28, 29, 30, April 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13.

Tickets $15 general admission.