Poe’s Birthday Bash at the Greenbelt Arts Center, Jan 16-18

Poe’s Birthday Bash at the Greenbelt Arts Center, Jan 16-18, 2015

Poe’s Birthday Bash
A guest production from The Renaissance Man

Location: Greenbelt Arts Center

Friday and Saturday, January 16 and 17, 2015 at 8:00
Sunday, January 18, 2015 at 2:00

Poe’s greatest detractor (Rufus W. Griswold) invites the public to join him for a delightful evening making light of the Master of the Macabre. An interactive performance in which audience volunteers play characters from The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, The Raven, and more.

Ticket prices: $20 General Admission, $16 Students/Seniors/Military, $12 Youth (12 and under with adult)

The Giant Turnip at College Park Arts Exchange, Jan 11 at 3pm

The Giant Turnip at College Park Arts Exchange, Jan 11, 2015 at 3pm

Beechtree Puppets present
The Giant Turnip, a Ukrainian folk tale
Sunday, January 11, 2015 at 3 pm

Location: College Park Arts Exchange

This whimsical and humorous telling of a Ukrainian folk tale celebrates community and caring for the earth. An old man and his wife who, after lovingly preparing and tending their garden, grow a vegetable that is so large that they can’t pull it up by themselves. The story is told with hand- crafted rod-puppets, and much singing. There is a shadow puppet element that reveals what happens under the ground, including a helpful and jolly root gnome.

Ingrid Cowan Hass and Ole Hass have been performing as singers and actors for a long time, both with Masters degrees in Opera Performance from the North Carolina School of the Arts, and Ole also a Doctor of Musical Arts from UMD in College Park. Their shows are inspired by the magical puppet shows at Acorn Hill Waldorf Kindergarten in Silver Spring, but also by their own performing experience. In crafting the puppets and stage, Ingrid draws on her visual arts expertise (she majored in studio art at Smith College) and her experience with wool and fabric, dyeing, spinning and felting her own wool. The woodwork and mechanical aspects are mostly left to Ole, who likes to dabble in woodworking and construction.

A Shot in the Dark by Prince George’s Little Theatre at the Bowie Playhouse, Jan 9-25

A Shot in the Dark by Prince George’s Little Theatre at the Bowie Playhouse, Jan 9-25, 2015

A Shot in the Dark, by Marcel Achard
Directed by Keith Brown

Prince George’s Little Theatre at the Bowie Playhouse

Performances are three weekends, January 9 – January 25, 2015

Description: A good hearted, guileless child of nature is hauled before the magistrate on a charge of murder, having been found unconscious, nude, and clutching a gun, with her lover dead beside her. What is most shocking to the magistrate is the complete frankness with which she describes her life as a parlor maid and her affairs with both the dead chauffeur and her aristocratic employer. She is so ingenious that the magistrate, at the risk of his juridical neck, decides that she could not have committed the murder. “A bubbling, saucy comedy… A light, tasty soufflé” ~ N.Y. Times.

Julius Caesar at the Greenbelt Arts Center, Jan 9-11

Julius Caesar at the Greenbelt Arts Center, Jan 9-11, 2015

Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare
A guest production from The Rude Mechanicals
Directed by Jaki Demarest

Location: Greenbelt Arts Center

Friday, January 9, 2015 at 8:00
Saturday, January 10, 2015 at 8:00
Sunday, January 11, 2015 at 2:00

“There are no morals in politics, there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel,” – Vladimir Lenin

“In a serious struggle, there is no worse cruelty than to be magnanimous at an inopportune time.” – Leon Trotsky

“Death is the solution to all problems. No man – no problem.” – Joseph Stalin

Welcome, Comrade, to the eve of the glorious revolution. They say that Caesar is ambitious, and sure, they are all honorable men. Men who gather in darkened corners and talk in whispers of righteous murder. Brutus, whose political survival instincts are continually subverted by his intellect and convoluted moral sense, is the Trotsky to Octavius’ surer, more relentless Stalin. And Brutus’ revolution will take the bloody and disastrous course of too many others, ending with a worse tyrant than the one Brutus set himself against.

Ticket prices: $20 General Admission, $16 Students/Seniors/Military, $12 Youth (12 and under with adult). Buy tickets here.

The Comedy of Errors at Laurel Mill Playhouse, Jan 16-Feb 1

The Comedy of Errors at Laurel Mill Playhouse, Jan 16-Feb 1, 2015

Friday January 16, 2015 through Sunday February 1, 2015
William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Joshua McKerrow
Produced by Maureen Rogers

Location: Laurel Mill Playhouse

Shakespeare’s hilarious comedy comes to life in a colorful, lush production from Joshua McKerrow, director of the WATCH award-winning Lieutenant of Inishmore.

Improbable circumstances bring together a lively cast of characters in this early English farce. Mistaken identities… long-lost twins… long-lost parents… plus a hearty dose of slapstick comedy and witty wordplay. All set against the panoply of a glorious, exotic world.

Performances run weekends from Friday January 16, 2015 through Sunday February 1, 2015 with Friday and Saturday evening performances at 8 p.m, and Sunday matinees on January 25 and February 1 at 2:00 PM. Tickets are $20 for general admission. Admission for students (12 and under), active duty military and seniors (65 and over) is $15. For reservations, please call 301-617-9906 and press 2. For further information visit the web site at http://www.laurelmillplayhouse.org or contact Maureen Rogers at maureencrogers@gmail.com or 301-452-2557.