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Brad Oscar & Diego Prieto To Host Kensington Arts Theatre's Gala

In a demonstration of support for community theater that is all too rare in the professional theater world, Tony Award nominee and frequent Arena Stage star Brad Oscar will join with Kensington Arts Theatre alumnus Diego Prieto to host this year's fundraising gala for the Maryland-based community theater that is known for its superb work on musicals. A native of Rockville, Oscar has been generous with his time in support of local theater in the Maryland suburbs of Washington - he hosted the re-opening of Adventure Theatre's home in Glen Echo Park which happens to be where he began his career in theater. Currently, Oscar is starring in The Mystery of Irma Vep at Arena Stage. Prieto, who has credits at Arena Stage, Signature Theatre and the Kennedy Center appeared in the Kensington Arts Theatre's 2006 production of Assassins and directed their 2004 production of Songs for a New World and was musical director as well as a cast member in their 2002 Side Show. The event will take place on Saturday, August 23. Tickets will be $45.

National Gallery of Art Screens Brando's Julius Caesar

The 1953 Joseph L. Mankiewicz film of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar will be shown in the auditorium of the East Building Concourse of the National Gallery of Art at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon. The film, presented in association with the Shakespeare Theatre Company during the run of the Roman plays of Shakespeare, features Marlon Brando as Mark Antony, James Mason as Brutus, John Gielgud as Cassius and Louis Calhern as Julius Caesar, with Deborah Kerr as Portia. Admission is free and seating is on a first come, first served basis.

Virginia's History Of Forced Sterilization Is Topic Of Local Play

Three Generations of Imbeciles, a play by Rick Hodges of Arlington, gets a two-night premiere in an unusual venue this weekend, playing in the Barcroft Community House which is thought to be Arlington's last remaining one-room school house. The play examines issues surrounding the State of Virginia's policy of forced sterilization of people with intellectual disabilities whom the Supreme Court referred to as "imbeciles" in the case of Carrie Buck who sought judicial protection from sterilization in the 1920s. The play will be performed at the community house, 800 South Buchanan Street. Tickets are $8 at the door. http://bscl.org/3gens.htm for more information.

Ford's Offers Actor-Led Walking Tour of Booth's Stops On Assassination Night

Ford's Theatre has established a scripted walking tour featuring an actor as a police detective who was on duty the night of April 14, 1865 when actor John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln in the Presidential box during a performance of Our American Cousin. The hour and a half walking tour visits the sites and explains the clues in what is termed "a first-hand look at the investigation into the Lincoln Assassination and the events of April 14 - 15, 1865." History on Foot will be offered on Fridays, June 27, July 11 and 18 and August 1, 8, 16 and 23 starting at 7 pm. Tickets are $12 ($10 per person for groups of 20 or more) and can be purchased in advance by calling 202 638-2367. Advance reservations are not required, however, and walk-ups with credit cards are welcome. Special tours for larger groups can be arranged.

California Playwright Wins 2008 Primus Prize For Emerging Woman Theatre Artist

The 2008 Francesca Primus Prize for an emerging woman artist in the theater has been awarded by the American Theatre Critics Association to E. M. Lewis of Los Angeles on the basis of her play Heads which is set in a prison in Iraq. Lewis traveled to Washington last week to attend a portion of the Association's annual conference which was held here. A formal presentation of the prize was made on Saturday morning during a meeting held at the GALA Hispanic Theatre at Tivoli on 14th Street NW. Lewis also joined the group for a performance of The Visit at Signature Theatre on Friday and Nixon's Nixon at Round House and The Mystery of Irma Vep at Arena Stage on Saturday. The prize, which carries a $10,000 award, was won two years ago by local playwright Karen Zacarías, author of Mariela in the Desert, which is currently playing at the Theater of the First Amendment.

Matt Conner One Of Three To Get New Musical Commissions From Signature

Signature Theatre's program to foster new works of musical theater, "The Next Generation" program, funded through grants from the Shen Family Foundation, has added three new recipients: Matt Conner, whose Nevermore premiered at Signature in 2006; Adam Gwon, who was born in Boston and raised in Baltimore but now teaches at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York; and, singer, composer and pianist Gabriel Kahane, whose compositions include song cycles Craigslistlieder and For The Union Dead. Each receives a $25,000 commission to write a new musical for production at Signature. The project has also given two $5,000 grants to honorees Peter Foley and Marisa Michelson to support development of their musical ideas prior to the next round of commissions. Previous recipients of commissions from "The Next Generation" are Ricky Ian Gordon, Michael John LaChiusa and Joseph Thalken. The first of the new musicals resulting from the program's commissions, Michael John LaChiusa's musicalization of Edna Ferber's Giant will receive its world premiere at Signature next April.

The Critics Are Coming ! - Potomac Stages Goes on Hiatus. Next News & Reviews June 23

Theater critics and journalists from around the country are coming to the Potomac Region for the annual conference of the American Theatre Critics Association, June 17 - 22. Brad Hathaway, of Potomac Stages, is the host critic for this year's conference and will take the week off from his Potomac Stages duties to concentrate on making sure the conference is a success. Billed as a "Bus & Truck Tour" of the local theater community, the conference's activities are all being held in theaters throughout the region. Critics will be attending shows at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, Arena Stage, Studio Theatre, Synetic Theatre, Round House, Olney Theatre Center and Woolly Mammoth. Additional performances will be available as "Critics Choice" options at Journeymen Theatre Ensemble, the Theater of the First Amendment, GALA Hispanic Theatre, the Atlas and Theater Alliance at the H Street Playhouse. There will also be panels and business meetings held in theater venues throughout the region including National Theatre, the Bethesda Theatre and the Gunston Arts Center and the group will tour the Kennedy Center. Clearly, it takes a full week just to sample the incredibly variety of theater in the region. Potomac Stages will resume daily publication of news and reviews on Monday, June 23.

Gero Voices Roles For Ford's/Portrait Gallery Lincoln Program

Taking a break from his superb performance as Richard Nixon at Round House, Ed Gero will appear at the National Portrait Gallery next Monday evening to read the words of Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, freed slaves and others in the Gallery's joint production with Ford's Theatre, APRIL: 1965: Days of Hope, Days of Sorrow. With Gero reading from documents from the time, Historian Jay Winik will survey the events of the fateful month when the Civil War seemed to come to an end but which saw an unexpected fatality when John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln during a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's. The performance, Monday June 16 at 7 o'clock is free but reservations are required. Call 202 633-8520.

Indian Head's Stageworks Festival Includes Ragtime And Porgy & Bess In Concert

The Stageworks Festival of Young Artists on the Village Green in Indian Head MD includes major works of the musical stage as well as grand opera, cabaret and choral works between June 13 and 20. The opening night concert includes highlights from George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess under conductor Eric Conway. Then, on June 20, 21 and 22, Robert Page conducts the last great musical of the twentieth century, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens' Ragtime in a staging by Charles Regole with choreography by Rebecca Chick. Tickets to the outdoor performances are $10. For information, call 800-918-0420.

Memorial Service For Bill Hamlin Set for Monday, June 16

The February death of veteran actor Bill Hamlin at age 64 saddened many in the Potomac Region. His colleagues at Theater J and the DC Jewish Community Center have arranged a memorial service to be held in the Center's Aaron and Cecile Goldman Theatre where he challenged, intrigued and pleased audiences so many times. It will be held at 7:30 pm on Monday, June 16. A reception with refreshments will follow.

Source Festival Tickets Go On Sale - $15 A Night

Tickets to the various programs of the Source Festival that Jeremy Skidmore is mounting to re-open Source on 14th Street between June 21 and July 13 have gone on sale. After a $125 a seat Grand Opening Pastiche on the 21st, the first week (June 23 - 29) will be devoted to three collections of ten minute plays, each collection being performed four times. The next week begins with the performance of a group of 24-hour plays on June 30 and then a series of interdisciplinary projects. The final week, July 9 - 13, will see two sets of one-act plays, each set presented three times. Tickets to any one of the festival events other than the Grand Opening Pastiche are $15 and can be purchased at Source (1835 14th Street NW) or by calling 866-811-4111. Click here to see the full listing of ten-minute and one-act plays.

Signature's Witches of Eastwick Wins 2007 Annual Ushers' Favorite Show Award, The Visit Earns Monthly Award for May

Signature Theatre continues its dominance of the competition for the Ushers' Favorite Show Awards in which the theater lovers who usher in the area's theaters and who see a great deal of theater throughout the region pick a favorite show each month and then designate a favorite show for the year. This month's selection is the Signature Theatre production of The Visit staring Chita Rivera and George Hearn, the final production of Signature's Kander and Ebb Celebration. The musical, which is slated to run through June 22, becomes the twelfth production at Signature Theatre to earn the honor in the four and a half years since the program was begun. In that time Signature productions have won the annual award for three of the four years, winning again in 2007 with The Witches of Eastwick.

Spring Awakening Star Is ArtSpeak! Guest Tomorrow Night

ArtSpeak!, the program that brings major celebrities from the local theater community and from Broadway to discuss their careers, respond to questions and perform for students, families and the general public at Poe Middle School in Annandale, will have its final event of the season tomorrow night. The  guest will be Lea Michele, who has just completed a year and a half starring on Broadway in the rock musical which won last year's Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book, Spring Awakening. Michele originated the role of Tateh's daughter in Ragtime on Broadway where she also played Young Cosette in Les Misérables when she was eight years old. The program begins at 7:30 and admission is free.

Savoyards' Pirates Ship Out To Maryland For Benefit Event

The Washington Savoyard's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, which played the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE in February and March, will be revived for two performances this weekend at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on the College Park campus of the University of Maryland. Saturday's 7:30 pm performance will be a benefit to support scholarships for University of Maryland students in music, theatre and dance. A second performance will be given at 3 o'clock Sunday afternoon. Click here to read our review of the production from its run at the Atlas.

American Century Slates Premiere Musical For June Concert Staging

Stunt Girl, a bio-musical on the life of famed female reporter Nelly Bly, will receive a concert staging as this year's free offering in The American Century Theater's "Reflections" series. Larry Kaye (who directed Musical of Musicals: The Musical at MetroStage last year) will have a cast including Peggy Yates as Nelly Bly and Andy Clemence as Joseph Pulitzer. This will be the premiere of the musical by Peter Kellogg and David Friedman, and it will receive two free performances on the stage of Theatre One at the Gunston Arts Center. After the June 27th first performance, the cast will rehearse changes based on the lessons learned at that premiere and a second performance will be given on the 29th. Reservations are recommended.

Hoffman's Music Accompanies Silent Movie The Golem Tuesday Night In Theater J's Goldman

Daniel Hoffman, whose fiddling enlivened the klezmer musical Shlemiel the First and who wrote the score for the musical David in Shadow and Light which is currently receiving its world premiere at Theater J, has written a score to accompany the 1920 German silent horror movie, The Golem. The group Davka, with Hoffman on violin, will perform that score during a screening of the movie in the Goldman Theater at the DC Jewish Community Center tomorrow night at 8 o'clock. Tickets are $12 when purchased in advance or $15 at the door.