Stage Banter: The Arena Stage Blog

Citizen Review: The Women of Brewster Place

[Editors' Note: We'll be featuring "Citizen Reviews" of our productions all season. We want to illuminate the experience of people who are not professional critics, creating a dialogue between the 'pros' and the 'regular joes.' We invite you to share your own reviews with us through the Comments feature at the end of this posting.]

posted by Susan Williams

When I truly experience a good play or musical, writing a review or even putting my thoughts on paper become more difficult. I learned years ago that if you really experience something in life on a visceral level, you don't fully remember it.

Having not read the novel or seen the movie of this story, I only knew what I'd read about it in the media. Sometimes the story in a musical gets lost in the music or other aspects of the production. This is not the case here. I was instantly caught up in the story and stayed there through most of the play. (At the preview I attended, there were a few slow moments but overall it moved forward nicely.)

The Buzz Begins All Over Again

The women of Brewster Place are in the house and word is spreading rapidly. Over 700 people showed up for the concert version at Strathmore on Friday the 12th. Over two thousand people have already viewed the video trailer. Many thousands more already have their seats for the show. The previews this weekend are already sold out. We're braced for a party! 

And how fitting that this show, which features the show-stopping "Tear Down the Wall" is the last in the Kreeger before our renovations begin in January—when we will literally be tearing down the theater's back wall. 

Media coverage is starting to roll in on the show as well. Here's a broadcast of a great interview with Tina Fabrique and Molly Smith on NPR. And here's a podcast on DC Theatre Scene featuring local favorites Eleasha Gamble and Monique Midgette, who grew up in Gaithersburg. A shout out to Monique's parents Carolyn Young and Roger Midgette who hosted the cast and crew for a great after-party following the Strathmore concert.

Blog Contest Winner: Charlene V. Smith

Congratulations! There were many of you who correctly answered the blog contest questions so we randomly chose Charlene V. Smith among the winning entries. Charlene wins a pair of tickets to The Women of Brewster Place!

Here are her answers:

1) Our "Race on Stage" conversation on Thursday, October 11th will be attended by Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Tracey Scott Wilson and cast members from The Women of Brewster Place. Who will moderate?
Arena's Associate Executive Director Desirée Urquhart

2) Who published the online panoramic photo of the Fichandler Stage that Vijay Mathew says "plays like a video game?"
The Washington Post

3) There are a number of ways to see plays at Arena Stage at a discount. Which discount programs described on Stage Banter do you qualify for?
$10 for people under 30, HOTTIX - rushing for half price, Goldstar Events

To find out about our future blog contests sign up for Arena Stage's A-list.

WELL: Emily Ackerman on 'Life Imitating Art'

posted by Emily Ackerman (the actress playing Lisa Kron in Well)

Talk about art imitating life—I knew there was a reason I wanted to do this play. This is a picture of me at ten years old in a dress that my mother made for me. At my request, it was very specifically modeled after a dress that Laura Ingalls wore on Little House on the Prairie. Please note that there is a bonnet tied around my neck. I often wore it in public.

This is all of the neighbor kids dressed up for a 4th of July parade. Again, Laura Ingalls had a very strong influence in our costuming choices. I am the one in the middle mugging for the camera and wearing a red bandanna on my head. I was also hogging that basket which was full of candy.

Dressing up was a very large part of my childhood, and if I could wear a costume over regular clothes, I would always wear a costume. Here I am wearing what I called my "princess dress." This dress was always worn with that green towel around my neck as a cape. In my opinion, it matched the dress, and was the only towel/cape that would do.

See It Live for the Price of a Movie?

by David Dower

Sunday morning, October 7th. There are two major articles this morning about discounting theater tickets to try to attract younger audiences: Washington Post & New York Times. I wonder what Stage Banter readers think: is price the primary barrier to a wider popularity for live theater? Is it especially a barrier for younger culture consumers?

Arena Stage is cited in the Post's article for our $10 tickets for the 30-and-under set.  They didn't quite get the details of the program right, but you can find those here.

In an earlier post, I listed other discount options for tickets to our shows.

So, many people can see Arena performances for under $30 now, and for as little as $10.  Or see the final dress rehearsal for free. So will they?

Race on Stage: A Conversation with the Actors

by David Dower

Emily Ackerman as Lisa Kron and Donnetta Lavinia Grays as Lori Jones in Well

On Thursday, October 11th, we'll host an interesting discussion following the performance of Well. Arena's Associate Executive Director Desirée Urquhart will moderate a conversation with Donnetta Lavinia Grays ("Lori Jones" in Well), Tracey Scott Wilson (author of the play The Good Negro which we'll be reading in our Downstairs Series on October 22nd), and Harriett D. Foy ("Lorraine" in The Women of Brewster Place). 

Our topic: Race on Stage

There are a couple of convergent events that make this a great moment to stop and discuss, with our audiences, where we are as a community around the issues of race as played out on the stage of Arena Stage, in the local, national, and global context of our Washington, D.C. location.

Edward Albee on Lisa Kron's WELL

by David Dower

We got this wonderful note about Lisa Kron's Well the other day from one of America's greatest playwrights.

Edward Albee wrote: "Lisa Kron's Well is a splendid play—very funny and deeply serious. If an audience will give itself to it without preconceptions of how a play should behave, then they will have a deeply satisfying time."

He's right on about this. The play does seem to make a demand of the audience that folks meet it on its own terms. I've seen it with many audiences at this point and I've talked to many people afterwards. If you've seen it, I'm curious how you felt about it. If you haven't yet, you'll have to hurry now to experience what Mr. Albee is talking about. But you'll know where to find me to let me know if you agree with him.

Video: "The Women of Brewster Place" & Invitation to our Open Rehearsal

posted by Vijay Mathew

Throughout the season we are going to be inviting you to join us for the final dress rehearsal of our plays, as our guest. This means that you will have an opportunity to watch and cheer on the actors and crew as they careen through the full production for the first time, with all the elements of tech in place. Each Open Dress Rehearsal will be announced here at Stage Banter.

This video offers a glimpse of what you'll see if you join us on Thursday, October 18 at 8pm in the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage for our open dress rehearsal before public performances start the next evening. Come help us complete the rehearsal process for this major world premiere event. Theater doesn't exist without a live audience: that's you!

Admission is free, no reservations. Seating is subject to availability. A word of caution on this one—there's an in-house event that night for which there may be as many as 200 seats committed for the rehearsal. That still leaves us with 300 seats, but don't be surprised if there's a big crowd when you get here.

This footage was shot during the dress rehearsal in Atlanta. It's of a few songs from the world premiere musical The Women of Brewster Place. These were taken at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in September.

Feel free to spread it around.  Click here and then click on the "share video" button to send it to a friend. Tell your friends and check back with our blog to get any updates on this invitation.

Blog Contest Winner: Ruth Worman

Congratulations! Ruth Worman did some blog sleuthing and correctly answered the three contest questions. Here are her answers:

1) Fire on the Mountain
2) Killing Me Softly
3) The Strathmore

She will be awarded a cast autographed copy of the Well script.

Ask your question here! Post-show talk-back with the "Well" cast

After today's matinee performance of "Well", Janine Sobeck from Arena's dramaturgy department moderated a lively post-show discussion with the cast.  There were several of you that did not get to ask your questions because we ran out of time.

Ask your questions now by clicking on the comments link at the end of this entry and we'll get the cast to respond to you here. For those of you that weren't here today, you can still go ahead and ask the cast a question anyway.

To find out when post-show talk-backs occur, look for the starred dates on the season calendar.