Robert Pike

Commedia dell’Arte was a theatrical style that developed in Italy more than 450 years ago. Intended for the lower classes, with exuberant physical movement, improvisation, lots of masks and stock characters like the Harlequin and Pulcinella, it was a celebratory perfect for the carnivale circuit.

An intriguing venture into oft-visited territory.

 Imagination Stage, the metro DC region’s largest professional theatre for young audiences and leader in positive youth development through the arts, starts its ‘Greatest Hits' season with the return of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, running September 22-October 22. 

Helen Hayes Nominated We Happy Few begins its 2021-2022 season with a return of their acclaimed horror audio dramas, featuring another story from horror master Edgar Allan Poe and, for the first time, an adaptation from another author, the hugely influential Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Helen Hayes Nominated We Happy Few  branches into the resurgent Radio Play art form in our new normal of social isolation with new and reimagined adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe.

This year's Magic in Rough Spaces New Play Lab (MIRS) is going virtual!

Fresh off receiving the 2019 John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company, Ally will open its third season with the regional premiere of Naomi Wallace's The War Boys. First produced in London in 1993, The War Boys is more relevant than ever. Set on the TexasMexico border, David, George, and Greg, three childhood friends turned vigilante border patrol, spend their nights antagonizing both themselves and those they catch trying to cross the border.

Imagination Stage's Performance Ensemble will perform The Secret in the Wings, by Mary Zimmerman, March 29-31, 2019 in the Annette M. and Theodore N. Lerner Family Theatre.

Noel Coward's charming and witty Fallen Angels, first performed in 1925, had a bit of a sordid beginning. Prominently featuring two women who admit to premarital sex and contemplate adultery, it very nearly didn't make it past the censors. The Lord Chamberlain allowed it - with small edits - considering it an unrealistic, harmless farce. The reviews were horrified by the subject matter; naturally, it became a hit. Surprisingly, NextStop Theatre Company's production, now running through April 7th, is the first time Fallen Angels has been performed in the DC metro area.

Actors Lily Odekirk and Chris Talley star in this production in Perseverance Theatre's Black Box Series.

Come and see the culmination of our Classics-in-Action horror trilogy and our first-ever performance in repertory! Just in time for Halloween, take your pick from our adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker's Dracula, or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. With our customary fidelity to the text, immersive staging, high-energy tone-shifting performances, and custom cocktail pairings, join us as we explore Poe's lonesome paranoia, Stoker's deadly seductive hunt, and Shelley's arrogant despair in this unique theatrical event. The productions contain some scary content, but are appropriate for all ages. Each ticket includes a custom drink for our 21+ guests. Running time for each show is approximately an hour. The Horror Rep runs from October 18th to November 10th at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop.

Imagination Stage's IStage Performance Ensemble will perform Antigone, adapted by Don Taylor, March 16 - 18, 2018 in the Annette M. and Theodore N. Lerner Family Theatre.

Brave Spirits Theatre again provides a fresh, immediate take on a Shakespearean classic, this time with a hard-hitting production of CORIOLANUS, directed by Charlene V. Smith. Underappreciated compared to many of Shakespeare's other plays, it's particularly timely in 2018 as it explores a power struggle among great men and the masses they're supposed to serve.

BST's 2018 repertory explores war and winning from opposite perspectives. As civil unrest threatens political upheaval, the war hero Coriolanus is driven to defend and then destroy his own country. Shakespeare's last tragedy takes a piercing look at men who cannot leave war behind. Performed as part of the Women's Voices Theater Festival, The Trojan Women Project explores the timeless story of The Trojan Women to illuminate modern women's relationships to sexuality, politics, and violence. This intersectional look at American women asks why our gender isn't enough to unite us and whether we are the losers in the American Dream.

We Happy Few will present Bram Stoker's DRACULA as the next installment of its Classics in Action series.

We Happy Few will present Bram Stoker's DRACULA as the next installment of its Classics in Action series.

Rorschach Theatre announces the cast and designers for its revival of NEVERWHERE (2013), Robert Kauzlaric's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's modern cult classic about a man who stumbles upon adventure in a dangerous and magical world that exists below the streets of London. The ensemble cast will include returning cast members Sarah Taurchini as Door and Daniel Corey as Richard Mayhew. The design team will include cutting-edge set and projections design collective Pixelumen Lab.

Shakespeare's HENRY V gains new perspective with a retelling by We Happy Few Productions that takes a closer look at the stories and stakes of the everyday foot soldiers. It is a fascinating, resonant, and important new take on a known work that's only around for another week, so make plans now to take it in.

Adventurous theatre-goers, take note: a short drive beyond the Beltway, just off the Dulles Access Road, sits Next Stop Theatre Company, a troupe with a growing reputation for solid acting; their current production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is an excellent introduction to the growing theatre scene in Herndon, Reston and beyond-a scene which will become much closer as the Silver Line makes its progress to Dulles Airport.

As the 2017 inauguration arrived, leaving many in the Washington, D.C.-area fleeing the city to avoid crowds, NextStop Theatre opened their first two performances of 2017 to packed houses of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing", now appearing through February 12, 2017. Inside a 114-seat black box theatre, just 20 miles west of the nation's capital, in Herndon, Virginia, "the original romantic comedy", whisks audiences off to the sun-drenched sandy beaches of Messina, Italy.