I was talking to a friend the other day about the woeful DC Film Festival which has quietly come and gone once again - Potiche on opening night? Please! - and he commented: they didn't even have any films from Africa; there are so many great stories there. Luckily, theater in town has picked up where film (or one festival) has dropped off. Ruined, which just began a couple-month run at Arena Stage, takes you into places - geographically and of the heart - that you don't go very often. Playwright Lynn Nottage won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for this emotionally intense, lyrical and entertaining play about a brothel in the Congo during Civil War strife. She conducted numerous interviews with women there to see the toll war took on them. That she's able to dramatize this in such a realistic yet pleasing way is incredible.
The audience stood and cheered follow Sunday night's performance. Particularly brilliant in the cast are lead Jenny Jules, Rachael Holmes (who was also superb this season at Studio in "Marcus"), Jamairais Malone (from Rutgers, my alma mater!) and all the incredible musicians who add vibrancy to this amazing mix. Yes, there are scenes of pure music and joy that fit well into the evening That this play works so beautifully should be no surprise given the talent of director Charles Randolph-Wright. His Sophisticated Ladies soared at the Lincoln for Arena last year, as did his Guys and Dolls a few years before that.
(Side note: We are also very fortunate to have the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner, Clybourne Park, returning to the area this summer (Woolly Mammoth). Washington theater has certainly taken an upturn of late.)
Make your way to see Ruined.
** the crossroads of culture and community in the Washington DC area **
Monday, April 25, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
AU Katzen Reception and a Couple Interesting Films to Catch Before They Disappear
American University's Katzen Center may be the perfect place for a partly rainy day tomorrow evening as they hold their MFA Thesis Reception for Graduate Art Students. Join the American University Museum, Department of Art, and MFA Thesis Students in celebrating the opening of their Spring Thesis Exhibitions. This sounds like a good vibe to me. And with free underground parking, what's not to love?
As for films this weekend, the Cinema West End has brought back Certified Copy, a very interesting film from the great Iranian director Abbas Kiarastomi. Juliette Binoche gives one of her finest performances. Three excellent movies are playing at E Street: Win Win, Bill Cunningham New York (more on that one tomorrow) and Nostalgia for the Light. My meetup group saw Nostalgia a few weeks ago at the National Gallery and was blown away by the scenery in the Atacama Desert in Chile and the powerful stories of the Chilean people. The director is able to combine the astronomy taking place there with the horrific memories of the Pinochet era.
As for films this weekend, the Cinema West End has brought back Certified Copy, a very interesting film from the great Iranian director Abbas Kiarastomi. Juliette Binoche gives one of her finest performances. Three excellent movies are playing at E Street: Win Win, Bill Cunningham New York (more on that one tomorrow) and Nostalgia for the Light. My meetup group saw Nostalgia a few weeks ago at the National Gallery and was blown away by the scenery in the Atacama Desert in Chile and the powerful stories of the Chilean people. The director is able to combine the astronomy taking place there with the horrific memories of the Pinochet era.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Easing the Old Quarter Life Crisis
I don't usually go out at 9:30 pm on a school night. I may stay out past that time but usually once I'm home past 8 or so I'm home for good. Last Thursday night was an exception. I headed to the 10 pm showing of the film Happythankyoumoreplease at E Street because it was apparently the last time that this area will get to see this well-done film with a great soundtrack in a theater setting. Because now it seems to be gone - one can only hope that the Avalon's small upstairs theatre or Josh at West End might resurrect it. As I went to buy a ticket, the marquee said HTYMP or something like that, so that's what I asked the 20-something attendant for a ticket for. She looked at me funny and said it sounded like a porn thing or something. She laughed.
"Is it good?" I asked.
"Oh yes, very good. It portrays the quarter-life crisis in excellent detail."
"The what?" I asked.
"The quarter life crisis."
"There is such a thing?"
"I've been looking for a [full-time] job for six months now. Yes, there is one."
So the biggest problem with this movie might be the title. Who came up with that? I would guess the writer/director/star Josh Radnor, but someone should have got him to change it. Anyway, it's an intelligent movie about a group of quarter-life friends with one contrivance that it takes a little getting past. (He does a good deed by stepping in to help a 10-year-old boy who is lost and abandoned on the subway. But then he kind of keeps him as a Little Brother.)
Otherwise, the relationships that this movie draws up are very believable and sometimes even poignant as is the case with his friend Annie. His love interest is named Kate Mara, and she is everything that Gwyneth Paltrow used to be before she became what she is now. Mara sings the last song of a really cool soundtrack - it's a departure from the indie folk stuff that we've heard up until then. It's Sing Happy by Kander and Ebb of Cabaret fame and it knocked my cotton socks off.
I will let you know when this film is available to see either in a theater or on rental. And when the nice quarter-life woman at the boxc office gets a real job. As much as I like the film, I hope she comes first.
"Is it good?" I asked.
"Oh yes, very good. It portrays the quarter-life crisis in excellent detail."
"The what?" I asked.
"The quarter life crisis."
"There is such a thing?"
"I've been looking for a [full-time] job for six months now. Yes, there is one."
So the biggest problem with this movie might be the title. Who came up with that? I would guess the writer/director/star Josh Radnor, but someone should have got him to change it. Anyway, it's an intelligent movie about a group of quarter-life friends with one contrivance that it takes a little getting past. (He does a good deed by stepping in to help a 10-year-old boy who is lost and abandoned on the subway. But then he kind of keeps him as a Little Brother.)
Otherwise, the relationships that this movie draws up are very believable and sometimes even poignant as is the case with his friend Annie. His love interest is named Kate Mara, and she is everything that Gwyneth Paltrow used to be before she became what she is now. Mara sings the last song of a really cool soundtrack - it's a departure from the indie folk stuff that we've heard up until then. It's Sing Happy by Kander and Ebb of Cabaret fame and it knocked my cotton socks off.
I will let you know when this film is available to see either in a theater or on rental. And when the nice quarter-life woman at the boxc office gets a real job. As much as I like the film, I hope she comes first.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Look Outside Your Window: Phil Ochs Documentary Is a Must-See Film
"Anybody could be Dylan. Ochs' songs were for those who cared." That's one of the quotes describing Phil Ochs (pronounced Oaks) in Kenneth Bowser's terrific documentary, "Phil Ochs: There But for the Fortune" - currently playing at the Avalon after a nice run at the West End. (My apologies to Josh there for my not taking a group to see this.) Like the great documentary film "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29" which I also saw at the Avalon's upstairs theater, this film chronicles the '60s in all its war and tragic pieces. What a different world it was! I knew of Phil Ochs because of an older brother who played his music, especially the wonderfully evocative "Outside a Small Circle of Friends." Hear it in this clip.
But he was best known for his protest songs, beautifully written from stories in the newspapers. It's worth it to see this film just for the history lesson we get of the '60s. To go from the excitement of John Kennedy to his assassination and then to the start of the Vietnam War followed by the amazing passion and bravery of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy to their deaths. Oh my gosh! Even to see them fall today is heartbreaking; they were so young! And then ending the decade with Richard Nixon! Young people stood up for what they believed in - and foremost among these was Ochs.
We get interviews with the people who knew him, from family to Joan Baez, Christopher Hitchens, Pete Seegera and Tom Hayden, and finally to an admirer Sean Penn. With his music always playing in the background, we hear I Ain't Marching Anymore, The War Is Over, The Ringing of Revolution, What Are You Waiting For? They wouldn't give permits for protest concerts at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago but Ochs came anyway and just set up makeshift concerts on the street.
One poignant interview toward the end of the film with his daughter said that he would be pleased that his music is still relevant but not pleased that we're still fighting so many of the same battles (unnecessary wars). Unfortunately, Ochs started drinking, became very unstable and committed suicide at age 35. This film is riveting and should be seen by adults and teenagers alike.
But he was best known for his protest songs, beautifully written from stories in the newspapers. It's worth it to see this film just for the history lesson we get of the '60s. To go from the excitement of John Kennedy to his assassination and then to the start of the Vietnam War followed by the amazing passion and bravery of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy to their deaths. Oh my gosh! Even to see them fall today is heartbreaking; they were so young! And then ending the decade with Richard Nixon! Young people stood up for what they believed in - and foremost among these was Ochs.
We get interviews with the people who knew him, from family to Joan Baez, Christopher Hitchens, Pete Seegera and Tom Hayden, and finally to an admirer Sean Penn. With his music always playing in the background, we hear I Ain't Marching Anymore, The War Is Over, The Ringing of Revolution, What Are You Waiting For? They wouldn't give permits for protest concerts at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago but Ochs came anyway and just set up makeshift concerts on the street.
One poignant interview toward the end of the film with his daughter said that he would be pleased that his music is still relevant but not pleased that we're still fighting so many of the same battles (unnecessary wars). Unfortunately, Ochs started drinking, became very unstable and committed suicide at age 35. This film is riveting and should be seen by adults and teenagers alike.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Photograph 51 at Theater J
A Rare 'Photo' at Theater J
Theater J's engaging and well-acted new play, Photograph 51, opened Monday night. It's a fine production about a relatively unknown subject. Rosalind Franklin was a famous scientist who lived too short and never got the attention she deserved. In 1953, she arranged a transfer to JD Bernal's crystallography laboratory at Birkbeck College in London. She focused on the structure of plant viruses, working with (and providing the key photograph for) a group of men, one of whom, Maurice Wilkins, went on to win a Nobel Prize. The play's 90 minutes move briskly as all performers stay on the stage and leave it to the lighting to give them the spotlight. Theater J is on quite a roll these days. I attended their production of The Chosen at Arena Stage on Sunday night and all 680 seats were sold! Head man Ari Roth is now a professor so students show up at many of his performances, and he's always a friendly presence - even the night I saw the play, when he had to speaking knowing that a close friend, playwright Lanford Wilson, had died earlier that day.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Edward Albee's Talk at Georgetown University Last Night Delivers as He Recalls a Breakfast at Tiffany's Musical and the Fourth Great American Playwright
"Anything that isn't filled with ambiguity is missing something."
- Edward Albee, March 24, 2011
Seeing and hearing the great playwright Edward Albee speak at Georgetown University's glorious Gaston Hall yesterday evening was a rare pleasure. The occasion was the opening of this weekend's long-time-in-the-planning Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival. Albee and NPR's Susan Stamberg spoke for a little more than an hour, about Albee's classic creation "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (currently enjoying a fine production at Arena Stage - 1/2-price tickets at Goldstar), other Albee plays and the works of Williams, whom Albee said he met a couple times at a cocktail party here and there (probably around Central Park in New York, he said). He said he especially recalled meeting Williams' sister Rose whom he recalled as quite nice. Blanche in Streetcar is supposed to be based partly on Rose, though Albee did speak about how every plawright must become the character he or she is writing. That's part of the process - so when he was young he would imagine old, "and now I try to remember being young." Asked by Stamberg if any actor has surprised him in one of his plays, he paused and looked at the audience as if, "Yes, I have something important to say on this." He then specifically complimented Amy Morton (though he needed the audience to prompt his name), who is playing Martha in Virginia Woolf at Arena. He said she read the character of Tobias in the Pulitzer-winning "A Delicate Balance" during Arena's current Festival where every one of his plays is being read. He then begged her to play Tobias in a production somewhere, quite a compliment to a part that has featured actors such as Hume Cronyn and George Grizzard (whom I saw on Broadway). Interestingly, Albee was asked how many of these readings he has seen in person and he mentioned just one other play, "The Man Who Had Three Arms," which opened and closed quickly on Broadway but he has a special place for. (I was at Arena that night seeing Virginia Woolf and was told Albee was in the house.)
Stamberg asked about Elizabeth Taylor who died this week and famously played Martha in Mike Nichols' film version of Virginia Woolf (with Richard Burton). Albee said she was a "hoot" and did a good job in the film, trying to look and act "middle-aged" as she was only 32 at the time and the part was written for a 52-year-old woman. George is supposed to be younger than Martha and was played by Burton, who was 52 at the time. Albee recalled his initial conversation with producer Jack Warner in Hollywood, when he was told that James Mason and Bette Davis would be playing the lead characters. Albee was more than fine with this casting - which would have been age appropriate - riffing that he would have especially wanted to see Davis playing Martha imitating Bette Davis early in the first act, with the well-known line, "What a dump." He also commented on seeing Kathleen Turner read Martha at a recent benefit. She played the character in a Broadway and Kennedy Center run about five years ago with the great Bill Irwin. (Did anyone see his "Fool Moon"? What a delight!) Albee could not help but say that Turner makes a slight mistake in her Martha. "Funny, she did the same thing on Broadway," he recalled.
This kind of spontanaeity is what makes the just-turned 83-year-old such a delight. He also told a story about being called by the legendary producer David Merrick in the mid '60s to come to Boston and try to fix the pre-Broadway musical version of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" called "Holly Go-Lightly." For real. "I liked Truman's [Capote] novel," Albee said, "and had no idea what I was doing so I decided to give it a shot." He said that, fortunately, it never opened on Broadway so he could not be taken apart by the critics - although "if I had two more weeks, I think I could have saved it." Reading a TBD piece this week by Maura Judkis, I see that Mary Tyler Moore was the star of that production - Albee did not mention that yesterday. (To quote Judkis's piece: “He transformed our lighthearted musical into a dark and rather gloomy semiopera,” actor Richard Chamberlain, who starred opposite Moore as the writer Jeff, wrote of Albee...“I had never known professional failure before and I was stunned and heartbroken... The audience yelled back at the stage during performances, before walking out.” He continued: “In theater, there is something called magic. Sometimes it arrives, sometimes it doesn’t. It definitely didn’t arrive at Tiffany’s.” Wow, she even links to Chamberlain's website where he has actual video of the production!)
Lastly, Albee had some great words when asked if he ever worked with the famous director Elia Kazan (who testified to Congress against artists during the Communist era), who was known for adding his own words to plays: Albee said no and yelled what he would have said if he had, "Write your own f***in' play, Elia!" Albee said that his copyrights say that nothing can be changed in his texts and he is adamant on this. Asked if he ever goes back to change anything, he said no. "I was a different person when I wrote that [a play from 20 years ago]. And as I said, no one should change the works." Unprompted, he also said that when the inevitable lists of the great dead American playwrights come up - O'Neill, Williams and Miller - there is a glaring omission: Thornton Wilder. He called "Our Town" and "Skin or Our Teeth" masterpieces and mentioned last year's memorable Off Broadway production of Our Town and bringing the play back to its deserved place. (This is one reason that I cringe when I hear of Washingtonians going up to New York and only seeing the much-publicized Broadway productions. Much of the great stuff happening is Off Broadway - Part of this problem is that the Post's Peter Marks loves to go to Broadway - today again is a review of a new Broadway musical when there is SO MUCH here in Washington. I will try to give notices of Off Broadway stuff in the future. That Our Town production did indeed make you feel that you were watching a great theatrical event, down to the smell of bacon wafting up in the last act.) "I don't think they [O'Neill, Miller and Williams] would mind us talking about them," Albee said with a wink that I could see even from the balcony. Oh, I didn't event mention that three short performances were interspersed with Albee's interview. The incredible Albee actress Kathleen Chalfant read from Williams' Camino Real, students did a more than credible job with a scene from Williams' Suddenly Last Summer, and my favorite Washington actor, Rick Foucheux, teamed with Susan Lynskey in a beautiful and haunting scene between Mitch and Blanche in Streetcar. What poetry! I do not recall magic in that scene in last season's Cate Blanchett Streetcar at KenCen.
Try to get to Virginia Woolf at Arena and certainly one of the productions at Georgetown this weekend - many of which are free (including an interview with Christopher Durang Sunday). We are very privileged to be at the center of all this amazing theater!
- Edward Albee, March 24, 2011
Seeing and hearing the great playwright Edward Albee speak at Georgetown University's glorious Gaston Hall yesterday evening was a rare pleasure. The occasion was the opening of this weekend's long-time-in-the-planning Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival. Albee and NPR's Susan Stamberg spoke for a little more than an hour, about Albee's classic creation "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (currently enjoying a fine production at Arena Stage - 1/2-price tickets at Goldstar), other Albee plays and the works of Williams, whom Albee said he met a couple times at a cocktail party here and there (probably around Central Park in New York, he said). He said he especially recalled meeting Williams' sister Rose whom he recalled as quite nice. Blanche in Streetcar is supposed to be based partly on Rose, though Albee did speak about how every plawright must become the character he or she is writing. That's part of the process - so when he was young he would imagine old, "and now I try to remember being young." Asked by Stamberg if any actor has surprised him in one of his plays, he paused and looked at the audience as if, "Yes, I have something important to say on this." He then specifically complimented Amy Morton (though he needed the audience to prompt his name), who is playing Martha in Virginia Woolf at Arena. He said she read the character of Tobias in the Pulitzer-winning "A Delicate Balance" during Arena's current Festival where every one of his plays is being read. He then begged her to play Tobias in a production somewhere, quite a compliment to a part that has featured actors such as Hume Cronyn and George Grizzard (whom I saw on Broadway). Interestingly, Albee was asked how many of these readings he has seen in person and he mentioned just one other play, "The Man Who Had Three Arms," which opened and closed quickly on Broadway but he has a special place for. (I was at Arena that night seeing Virginia Woolf and was told Albee was in the house.)
Stamberg asked about Elizabeth Taylor who died this week and famously played Martha in Mike Nichols' film version of Virginia Woolf (with Richard Burton). Albee said she was a "hoot" and did a good job in the film, trying to look and act "middle-aged" as she was only 32 at the time and the part was written for a 52-year-old woman. George is supposed to be younger than Martha and was played by Burton, who was 52 at the time. Albee recalled his initial conversation with producer Jack Warner in Hollywood, when he was told that James Mason and Bette Davis would be playing the lead characters. Albee was more than fine with this casting - which would have been age appropriate - riffing that he would have especially wanted to see Davis playing Martha imitating Bette Davis early in the first act, with the well-known line, "What a dump." He also commented on seeing Kathleen Turner read Martha at a recent benefit. She played the character in a Broadway and Kennedy Center run about five years ago with the great Bill Irwin. (Did anyone see his "Fool Moon"? What a delight!) Albee could not help but say that Turner makes a slight mistake in her Martha. "Funny, she did the same thing on Broadway," he recalled.
This kind of spontanaeity is what makes the just-turned 83-year-old such a delight. He also told a story about being called by the legendary producer David Merrick in the mid '60s to come to Boston and try to fix the pre-Broadway musical version of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" called "Holly Go-Lightly." For real. "I liked Truman's [Capote] novel," Albee said, "and had no idea what I was doing so I decided to give it a shot." He said that, fortunately, it never opened on Broadway so he could not be taken apart by the critics - although "if I had two more weeks, I think I could have saved it." Reading a TBD piece this week by Maura Judkis, I see that Mary Tyler Moore was the star of that production - Albee did not mention that yesterday. (To quote Judkis's piece: “He transformed our lighthearted musical into a dark and rather gloomy semiopera,” actor Richard Chamberlain, who starred opposite Moore as the writer Jeff, wrote of Albee...“I had never known professional failure before and I was stunned and heartbroken... The audience yelled back at the stage during performances, before walking out.” He continued: “In theater, there is something called magic. Sometimes it arrives, sometimes it doesn’t. It definitely didn’t arrive at Tiffany’s.” Wow, she even links to Chamberlain's website where he has actual video of the production!)
Lastly, Albee had some great words when asked if he ever worked with the famous director Elia Kazan (who testified to Congress against artists during the Communist era), who was known for adding his own words to plays: Albee said no and yelled what he would have said if he had, "Write your own f***in' play, Elia!" Albee said that his copyrights say that nothing can be changed in his texts and he is adamant on this. Asked if he ever goes back to change anything, he said no. "I was a different person when I wrote that [a play from 20 years ago]. And as I said, no one should change the works." Unprompted, he also said that when the inevitable lists of the great dead American playwrights come up - O'Neill, Williams and Miller - there is a glaring omission: Thornton Wilder. He called "Our Town" and "Skin or Our Teeth" masterpieces and mentioned last year's memorable Off Broadway production of Our Town and bringing the play back to its deserved place. (This is one reason that I cringe when I hear of Washingtonians going up to New York and only seeing the much-publicized Broadway productions. Much of the great stuff happening is Off Broadway - Part of this problem is that the Post's Peter Marks loves to go to Broadway - today again is a review of a new Broadway musical when there is SO MUCH here in Washington. I will try to give notices of Off Broadway stuff in the future. That Our Town production did indeed make you feel that you were watching a great theatrical event, down to the smell of bacon wafting up in the last act.) "I don't think they [O'Neill, Miller and Williams] would mind us talking about them," Albee said with a wink that I could see even from the balcony. Oh, I didn't event mention that three short performances were interspersed with Albee's interview. The incredible Albee actress Kathleen Chalfant read from Williams' Camino Real, students did a more than credible job with a scene from Williams' Suddenly Last Summer, and my favorite Washington actor, Rick Foucheux, teamed with Susan Lynskey in a beautiful and haunting scene between Mitch and Blanche in Streetcar. What poetry! I do not recall magic in that scene in last season's Cate Blanchett Streetcar at KenCen.
Try to get to Virginia Woolf at Arena and certainly one of the productions at Georgetown this weekend - many of which are free (including an interview with Christopher Durang Sunday). We are very privileged to be at the center of all this amazing theater!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
We're back! Daisey Dukes It Out With Jobs - and Other Upcoming Events in the Week!
There seems no better time to get back to this blog than another Mike Daisey show at Woolly Mammoth. Got back last night from the second preview performance of The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, a near-two-hour monologue created and performed by Daisey. Go see it. I'm not a techie but I could easily identify with his takes on our digitalized, world-in-our-pockets, Steve-Jobs-ruled world. Just his take on PowerPoint alone - I don't want to spoil it - made me laugh enough to make an awful day seem better. (Or perhaps getting hacked in the morning made me appreciate this more.)
What makes Daisey so good at this is good writing and good acting. The character onstage may come out of himself, but it is still a character: he talks a bit like Kramer (the shouting), looks a bit like Newman (absolutely part of the persona), and has the wit of Seinfeld himself, the cynicism of George and the willingness to push back hard like Elaine. And he weaves quite a story, three parts a trip to China and three parts the rise, fall and rise of guess who. Reviews will soon come out and then the engagement through April 17 will quickly sell out. (They do sell nicely priced standing room when they sell out a show.) Enjoy.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
I will always give try to coming attractions in this space, and anyone who is part of The Art House meetup knows that we post some good events. But I can't post everything there.
- The wondrous Environmental Film Festival has a few days to go. Some highlights - tonight, my bike club friend and excellent writer/director Laura Seltzer's The Last Boat Out; Into the Cold has a free reception after (no reservations needed); and I saw Olmstead and America's Urban Park on PBS recently and it is very interesting and well done. On Thursday see the U.S. premiere of Planeat, preceded by Truck Farm. On Friday check out Sun Come Up, a 2011 Academy Award nominee in documentary short film, it follows the relocation of some of earth's first climate refugees, the Cartaret Islanders of the South Pacific, whose home is threatened by rising seas, with filmmaker Jennifer Redfearn.
- The Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival starts in full force at Georgetown University on Thursday with an onstage conversation with one of the world's great playwrights, Edward Albee. It's free but you need to reserve tickets. The catch is this events begins at 5. I will be there. (I believe a free reception follows.) Check out the whole Festival here; about half the events are free. I recommend Sunday's free talk with the very funny playwright Christopher Durang and Saturday afternoon's theater piece (it's part of their Glass Menagerie Project).
- On Monday, the Synagogue at 6th and I is hosting an Irish/Israeli music group called Evergreen. Also free (but requires reservations) and it sounds exciting. See you there!
What makes Daisey so good at this is good writing and good acting. The character onstage may come out of himself, but it is still a character: he talks a bit like Kramer (the shouting), looks a bit like Newman (absolutely part of the persona), and has the wit of Seinfeld himself, the cynicism of George and the willingness to push back hard like Elaine. And he weaves quite a story, three parts a trip to China and three parts the rise, fall and rise of guess who. Reviews will soon come out and then the engagement through April 17 will quickly sell out. (They do sell nicely priced standing room when they sell out a show.) Enjoy.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
I will always give try to coming attractions in this space, and anyone who is part of The Art House meetup knows that we post some good events. But I can't post everything there.
- The wondrous Environmental Film Festival has a few days to go. Some highlights - tonight, my bike club friend and excellent writer/director Laura Seltzer's The Last Boat Out; Into the Cold has a free reception after (no reservations needed); and I saw Olmstead and America's Urban Park on PBS recently and it is very interesting and well done. On Thursday see the U.S. premiere of Planeat, preceded by Truck Farm. On Friday check out Sun Come Up, a 2011 Academy Award nominee in documentary short film, it follows the relocation of some of earth's first climate refugees, the Cartaret Islanders of the South Pacific, whose home is threatened by rising seas, with filmmaker Jennifer Redfearn.
- The Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival starts in full force at Georgetown University on Thursday with an onstage conversation with one of the world's great playwrights, Edward Albee. It's free but you need to reserve tickets. The catch is this events begins at 5. I will be there. (I believe a free reception follows.) Check out the whole Festival here; about half the events are free. I recommend Sunday's free talk with the very funny playwright Christopher Durang and Saturday afternoon's theater piece (it's part of their Glass Menagerie Project).
- On Monday, the Synagogue at 6th and I is hosting an Irish/Israeli music group called Evergreen. Also free (but requires reservations) and it sounds exciting. See you there!
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