Category Archives: Drama

Flyin’ West by the Bowie Community Theatre at the Bowie Playhouse, Apr 10-25

Flyin’ West by the Bowie Community Theatre at the Bowie Playhouse, Apr 10-25

Flyin’ West
by Pearl Cleage

Location: Bowie Community Theatre at the Bowie Playhouse

Performances: April 10 to 25, 2015.
Friday, April 10, 2015 8PM
Saturday, April 11, 2015 8PM
Sunday, April 12, 2015 2PM
Friday, April 17, 2015 8PM
Saturday, April 18, 2015 2PM
Saturday, April 18, 2015 8PM
Sunday, April 19, 2015 2PM
Friday, April 24, 2015 8PM
Saturday, April 25, 2015 8PM

Description: Following the end of the Civil War, many former slaves, anxious to leave the South and the increasing disappointments and dangers of Reconstruction, took advantage of The Homestead Act and went West to build new lives for themselves and their families. Many of these homesteaders were black women who overcame tremendous odds to work their own land and make a place for themselves in an often harsh and forbidding environment. Set in 1898, FLYIN’ WEST is the story of some of these African-American female pioneers who settled, together, in the all-black town of Nicodemus, Kansas. “Pearl Cleage’s FLYIN’ WEST…[is] a real crowd pleaser, and its characters have humor and vitality…Cleage [is] a natural-born storyteller…” —Washington Post.

Tickets: Adults – $20.00, Seniors/Students – $15.00. Buy tickets on-line. Group rates available.

Aladdin and the Jinn at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Mar 30-Apr 1

Aladdin and the Jinn at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Mar 30-Apr 1

ERHS Drama presents:
Aladdin and the Jinn

Location: Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt.

March 30 – April 1, 2015

ERHS Drama is thrilled to present ALADDIN AND THE JINN.

This is a unique presentation, never attempted in the history of the school. The Drama 3 (advanced acting) class has spent a full year creating an original play. They selected the fairytale of Aladdin, and decided to use an aesthetic setting of the Modern Middle East. Working as an ensemble, the students had projects incorporating advanced techniques. They then combined these projects to form an entirely original script. ALADDIN AND THE JINN is an original ensemble production, written and performed by students. Can the Palestinian Aladdin find love with the Israeli Sarai? Will the wish-granting Jinn ensnare them both?

This production is also the first performance in the brand-new Sally Wagner Performing Arts Space, a new black box theatre. The space is not finished, but is an exciting and versatile new performance venue, which will highlight the burgeoning arts department of ERHS. The space is the new home of ERHS Drama, and will be a continuing home for many future performances.

ALADDIN AND THE JINN performances are March 30, 31, and April 1st (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) at 7pm. Tickets are 5 dollars in advance (sold in school the week before) or 8 dollars at the door. The show is one hour.

Wake Up! at Clarice Smith, Mar 27-28

Wake Up! at Clarice Smith, Mar 27-28

Wake Up!
March 27 & 28, 2015
Conceived by Meghan Bowden and Vaughn Midder

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

Fri, Mar 27, 2015 . 7:30PM
Sat, Mar 28, 2015 . 3:00PM
Sat, Mar 28, 2015 . 7:30PM

Tickets: Free, no tickets required. Dance Theatre, General Admission.

Description: You’re invited to a UMD House Party, inspired by Spike Lee’s film, School Daze (1988), the musically-driven film that chronicled the ins and outs of a fictitious historically black college.

An original site-specific, dance theatre work co-conceived by School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies artists’ Meghan Bowden and Vaughn Midder, this performance challenges current UMD students to engage in topics around race, gender, class, and sexuality, as seen through the lens of contemporary African American experience.

A TDPS Second Season Production.

Dematha High School presents Dead Man Walking at the Bowie CPA, Mar 20-22

Dematha High School presents Dead Man Walking at the Bowie CPA, Mar 20-22

Presented by: DeMatha Catholic High School
Location: Bowie Center for the Performing Arts

Friday, March 20, 2015 at 8pm.
Saturday, March 21, 2015 8pm.
Sunday, March 22, 2015 at 1pm and 5pm.

Parental advisory: Mature themes.

Dead Man Walking is a 2002 play written by Tim Robbins based on Dead Man Walking, a book by Sister Helen Prejean about her experiences as a chaplain on death row.

“Dead Man Walking” will be presented by the DeMatha Players on March 20 – March 22, at the Bowie Center for Performing Arts. Tickets are $5 and will be available in the Stag Store beginning on Monday, March 16. This play is for mature audiences only. It is a student/faculty production. The show is likely to sell out.

Sr. Helen Prejean, C.S.J., will be presenting a program at DeMatha on her ministry against the death penalty.

God Don’ Like Ugly at Venus Theatre, Mar 19-Apr 12

God Don’ Like Ugly at Venus Theatre, Mar 19-Apr 12

God Don’ Like Ugly at the Venus Theatre Play Shack, March 19 to April 12, 2015
by Doc Andersen Bloomfield
Venus Theatre World Premiere

Location: Venus Theatre Play Shack.

Opens March 19, 2015
Closes April 12, 2015
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm; Saturdays and Sundays at 3:00pm.

Issues/themes: love; living with a mentally disabled child (the carer and the cared for); domestic violence; magic.

Parental Advisory: Adult themes.

Description: Esme loves to sing and dance, dressing up in costumes, performing her ‘Golden Oldies’ to an imaginary audience. Today is Esme’s 36th birthday and because she has the mental age of a seven year old, she still lives with her tired and overwhelmed mother, Bessie, (a Tarot reader) in a dilapidated old crumbling home, set in the rural South. Esme has a twin, not seen for quite awhile. Heartsick Bessie yearns for the twin, who’s ‘the okay one’ to come home to celebrate. This will never happen and only Esme seems to understand this. A stranger, on the run, named SJ, enters their small lives, seeking to hide from a violent partner. She encounters the extraordinary, both in the human beings who live there as well as their magic of simply ‘being’.

A realistic (but magical) tragicomedy set in America’s rural south, with intermittent Physical Theatre Scenes.

About the playwright: Doc currently writes with Oxford Playwrights and for Oxford Actors’ Network. Other past works in progress/rehearsed readings include: Women’s ‘Theatre Workshop (Oval; Finborough; Drill Hall; Soho in London). Doc is an American who has lived and written in Oxford, England, the last 28 years. She was one of the founding mothers of Women In Theatre, in Los Angeles.

Tickets $20. Buy here.