In that case, you could see “Bust,” a one-woman show by and starring Lauren Weedman opening Thursday at Studio Theatre. Weedman, a film and theater actress, memoirist and former correspondent for “The Daily Show,” spent a year and a half volunteering in the Los Angeles County women’s jail. The play integrates characters based on inmates Weedman met with her experiences as an actress in L.A. Commissioned for the Empty Space Theatre in Seattle five years ago, “Bust” has since been performed all over the country. Thursday night will mark the show’s first stint in Washington.
“It’s sort of about bad women,” Weedman explained. “Me included.”
“It’s interesting to look at how easily women can be stereotyped into becoming ‘bad’ women,” director Allison Narver said, “whether it’s the way Hollywood stereotypes women, or the way the world stereotypes women who are in jail. . . . Because there are complicated stories behind every woman in jail. Every human experience is a complex, complicated, sometimes extremely contradictory one. And no matter what the story is, it deserves to be heard.”
The title, Weedman said, “came from a combination of the feminine bust, ‘busting out of jail’ and ‘getting busted.’ ”
“I have high expectations for what people are going to get from it” in Washington, Weedman said. “It’s a town that discusses and analyzes things.”
Thursday to Dec. 18, 1501 14th St. NW. www.studiotheatre.org. 202-332-3300.
Make ’em laugh
Washington, D.C., doesn’t exactly have a reputation for its fantastic sense of humor. Politically savvy? Obviously. Well-educated? Sure. But funny? As in, intentionally funny? Funny is New York. Funny is Chicago. Funny is L.A.
And, apparently, funny is D.C.
“It’s like this underground, unspoken scene. But it’s filled with D.C. lawyers and bankers and wonks, and one of the reasons they get up in the morning is because improv is awesome,” said Rachel Grossman, Washington Improv Theater’s managing director.
For evidence of this homegrown hilarity, see one of 35 performances in “Seasonal Disorder,” WIT’s run of shows that begins Thursday and continues through New Year’s Eve. All in, more than 100 performers will appear on WIT’s stage. The schedule is “an ongoing, shifting repertory model,” said Mark Chalfant, the artistic/executive director of WIT. “It’s like a festival model.”
Chalfant says this is the time of year when audiences need improv comedy the most. “It’s a season where everyone is feeling so much pressure to plan and plan and be perfect, and execute everything to be perfect,” he said. “And they can come see an improv show that really embraces the frenetic energy and the chaos, and the fun people can have when they don’t plan.”
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