by Les Gutman

Washington summers are governed by the three H's -- hazy, hot and humid. Perhaps this is not a particularly auspicious climate in which to start a new project, much less to produce theater, but we begin nonetheless, with the hope theater in Washington will be hot but never hazy. The humidity is beyond the control of even the immortals of the theater. DC Reports Mission Statement



This first report, like future DC Reports, will cover productions in each of the following three categories:

1. Significant new plays that have not been reviewed in New York
2. Shows which may be on their way to New York
3. Shows which, for one reason or another, have attracted attention outside the Beltway.

DC will serve as a broad umbrella to include productions in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs--and even in Baltimore, a city that tries hard to be considered a place quite apart from Washington. DC Report will also try to pass along other items likely to be interesting, amusing or helpful.

The Summer '97 Centerpiece



The theatrical centerpiece of the Washington summer is the Source Theatre's 17th Annual Washington Theatre Festival. The Festival opened July 9, and continues through August 10. During that period, it promises to present 60 new scripts, including the 12th Annual 10 Minute Play Competition. If the past is prologue, shows will range from absolute disasters to diamonds in the rough. Part of the Festival fun is finding out which is which.

The opening play in the Festival, Soft Click of a Switch, is a new one by Carter W. Lewis. Lewis is literary manager and playwright in residence at New York's GeVa Theatre in New York, which staged his Golf with Alan Shepard this past season. His An Asian Jockey in Our Midst has been honored and produced in several venues.

Soft Click, workshopped in New York at New Dramatists' Theatre and in London at the Royal Court Theatre, is described as "a sinister new comedy of urban terrorism with a wild streak of vaudeville".  It appears in the Festival as a preview of sorts for Source's 1997-1998 season, when it will be produced as a part of the "Aftershocks" series of late-night productions. Watch for a CurtainUp review.

Aside from the opener, most of the Festival consists of a series of eight "showcase" productions -- workshops of a group of one-acts, each with a cleverly-titled theme, or a full-length play. In addition, there are staged readings, a Junior Festival (the youngest playwright produced in this year's showcases is an 18 year old who sharpened her skills in last year's Junior Festival) and other special events, as well as the 10 Minute Play Competition mentioned above.

Each year, the Festival awards a literary prize. This year, for the first time, two plays by one playwright, Joseph Gulack, received the award. Gulack is a lawyer at the Securities and Exchange Commission, who detoured into the law after getting his MFA from Yale's Drama School. Twenty years ago, he wrote a comedy for his friend, Mark Linn-Baker (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum). His Festival entries (both are short plays included in Showcases) are not comedies, however. Joe [as in Papp] and Tony is about reconciliation between a dying father and his son with AIDS; One Thousand and One involves a modern-day Scheherazade, who intrigues a television audience with his examimination of morality and the death penalty as he sits on death row awaiting execution.

By Jeeves: Bye Bye D.C. Hello Broadway?

This month's other play lets us kill two birds with one stone. It is Andrew Lloyd Webber's wandering By Jeeves, hardly new but maybe headed to New York (bird #1). Rethought, rewritten and  restaged last year at Goodspeed Opera House, largely by its director, Alan Ayckbourne, it has attracted attention (and thus the second bird). Armed with not-so-hot New York reviews of the Connecticut production, Jeeves headed west. It is now back on the east coast, having taken up summer residence at the Kennedy Center's smallish Terrace Theatre. After a fairly upbeat review in the Washington Post, which was generally credited with the dismemberment of Webber's highly anticipated Whistle Down the Wind earlier this year, By Jeeves might still be alive. The question is: does it have the train fare to get to New York? One recent report in the press suggests yes; another suggests no. CurtainUp weighs in with yet another view. (By Jeeves Review) break the tie.
  © July 1997, Elyse Sommer, CurtainUp.
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