Venus Theatre
Location: 21 C Street, Laurel MD 20707
Phone: 301.490.5300
Website: http://www.venustheatre.org/
Venus Theatre is committed to setting flight to the voices of women and children with theatre for a lifetime. Ten years of producing in temporary rental spaces in DC, NYC, Baltimore, and Pennsylvania has led to a new vision. In April of 2006 Venus secured a storefront in Laurel, MD. The Venus Theatre is home to the Company today.
Venus Theatre Play Shack runs a summer theatre camp.
Tunnel Vision at Venus Theatre, May 11-June 4
TUNNEL VISION
By Andrea Lepcio
May 11 – June 4, 2017
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8pm; Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm.
Location: Venus Theatre.
A multi-layered celebration of the Feminine, TUNNEL VISION is ultimately a journey of acceptance and redemption, played out in a non-traditional theatre space from which truth, purpose and love unexpectedly emerge. Key to the action is the live construction of a sculptural art installation. Two female characters enter an unidentified space. It is unfamiliar to them and they are unfamiliar with each other. Unsure how they got here, they quickly find themselves “stuck” in this liminal space. The two struggle to maintain their composure –anything to avoid confronting the circumstances that lie beneath their arrival at this “place” or admit their burgeoning attraction to each other. The play considers many of the daily challenges women face as well as those issues that are, typically, solely female: the struggle to balance motherhood with the desire to have a career, the stigma that comes with not choosing the traditional path assigned our gender, the hypercritical judgment we place on ourselves in comparison to our female peers, the difficulty we find in truly loving ourselves, and the fear that sometimes comes in loving each other. TUNNEL VISION is ultimately a journey of acceptance and redemption, from which truth, purpose and love unexpectedly emerge.
Tickets are $40 or $20 for Friend of Venus. Buy tickets here.
Tags: Venus Theatre, Laurel Maryland, Tunnel Vision, Andrea Lepcio
Aglaonike’s Tiger at Venus Theatre, Mar 16-Apr 9
AGLAONIKE’S TIGER by Claudia Barnett
September 7 – October 1, 2017
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8pm; Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm.
Location: Venus Theatre.
Aglaonike, the first female astronomer, could predict lunar eclipses, but her science was suspect because she was a woman. She therefore billed herself as a sorceress and claimed she could draw down the moon. Inspired by her unsung history, this coming-of-age play follows the protagonist through a series of challenges, both magical and scientific. Drawing on ancient Greek traditions and postmodern performance trends, Aglaonike’s Tiger is stylized and visual and uses puppets and masks to explore political, ecological, and scientific themes.
Tickets are $40 or $20 for Friend of Venus. Buy tickets here.
Tags: Venus Theatre, Laurel Maryland, Aglaonike’s Tiger, Claudia Barnett
The Ravens at Venus Theatre, Nov 2-26
THE RAVENS
By Alana Valentine
November 2 – 26, 2017
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8pm; Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm.
Location: Venus Theatre.
PARENTAL ADVISORY: Adult themes.
The Ravens is about Kira, a trying-to- be-ex sex worker in Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia. When she receives a large victim’s compensation payout, deciding what to do with the money becomes more of a problem than a relief. A friend from her former life feels that she is ‘owed’ by Kira, and moves back into her life and her flat. Then a chance meeting with Nina, a young social work student working at the local chocolate shop, seems like it might give Kira the courage and support she needs to finally get the violent Marg out of her life. An encounter with one of Nina’s old age clients at a nursing home focuses Kira’s determination but now she wants to help her friend Nancy, who is still working at a brothel but living in a dominating lesbian relationship. Finally Nina suggests that she might use the money for her and Nancy to put on a play – a version of Shakespeare’s poem The Phoenix and the Turtle. It’s a routine Kira and Nancy used to do as a striptease for an old client – can they learn to change themselves, phoenix like, into something other than they have been for so long? Can love – of life, of self, of friends – be resurrected and transformed by art? As an evocative radio play, The Ravens won the 2015 BBC International Radio Writing Award from the BBC World Service. Venus Theatre is delighted to be presenting the world premiere of the stage play – a visceral, provocative work of fierce insight and compassion for womens’ struggle out of violence.
Tickets are $40 or $20 for Friend of Venus. Buy tickets here.
Tags: Venus Theatre, Laurel Maryland, The Ravens, Alana Valentine
