Inauguration a resonant backdrop for Folger’s ‘Henry V’

When the brothers were in high school, they joined the teen ensemble Young Americans of Washington.

Wait. The teen ensemble was called “Young Americans of Washington”? Seriously? It sounds like an extra-nerdy debate club.

(Julia Robey Christian) - The H Street Playhouse is vacating its Northeast venue, above, but not without a last hurrah.

“They found out later that there was a young Republicans group with that name,” Gardiner said.

That’s . . . not at all surprising.

“Now they’re the Singular Sensations,” he said. Change has come to America!

In “Winnie the Pooh,” Gardiner spends half the show as Eeyore, the original Debbie Downer, and the other half as Kanga, the maternal kangaroo.

“Eeyore is such a hard role,” said Gardiner. He “is so slow in his speech patterns, and he’s very sad all the time. It sort of takes the energy out of a lot of scenes. So I’m trying to find an interesting balance between bringing the character to life and keeping the show moving forward.”

As for the other character, well, “I basically get to be a kangaroo in drag.”

Jan. 19 to Feb. 24, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo, 301-634-2270,
adventuretheatre-mtc.org.

Playhouse’s goodbye party

The last hurrah for the H Street Playhouse is an official farewell celebration at the theater this Saturday. There will be drinking, snacking and dancing to the live performance of the Jaynettes, a doo-wop group that includes Adele Robey, the former owner of H Street Playhouse and chief executive of Anacostia Playhouse, and her daughter Julia Robey Christian, who was the managing director of H Street Playhouse and will be the chief operations officer of the Anacostia Playhouse. Derecho, a rock cover band (which includes Christian) will provide entertainment, as well.

“It’s meant to be something that will appeal to all of the people that this place has touched,” Christian said. All are welcome at the open house bash, but RSVPs are required.

Construction at the Anacostia Playhouse, where Robey and Christian will spearhead their new theater venture at 2020 Shannon Pl., is progressing according to schedule; they hope to open for business in the spring. As excited as they are for the big move across the river, the goodbye to H Street is a bittersweet one. Robey announced the relocation in July, explaining that escalating rent had forced her to leave the Northeast neighborhood the H Street theater had been a crucial part of reviving.

“We were moving the risers into configuration [at H Street] the other night,” Christian said. “And I just stopped what I was doing, looked around and realized: This is the last time we’re doing this, in this building, ever again.”

Saturday at 7 p.m., 1365 H St. NE, RSVP to julia@hstreetplayhouse.com.