What's on Stage in July

A look at some of Washington's major theater debuts

In the middle of summer, local theater offers sweet escape with hundreds of performances. This month welcomes several Picasso-related productions, a single artist with the enthusiasm and endurance of an entire trilogy and the inaugural presentation of the Capital Fringe Festival.

Good grief! The cast of characters from the "Peanuts" comic strip go haywire in "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead" on Stage 4 at Studio Theatre. With a rabid Snoopy, druggy friends and the problems of puberty, this award-winning parody presents Charlie Brown as he's never been seen. (July 12-Aug. 6)

Keegan Theatre joins forces with New Island Theatre to present Steve Martin's "Picasso at the Lapin Agile." This outlandish comedy, staged at the Gunston Arts Center Theater II, conjures a meeting between Picasso and Albert Einstein. (July 27-Aug. 19)

Olney Theatre Center hosts the Potomac Theatre Festival. This year, the shows include "Hedda Gabler" (through July 23), a look at the tribulations of the artistic mind in "No End of Blame: Scenes of Overcoming" (through July 23), a musical revue with "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris" (July 5-30), an interwoven period piece about science in "An Experiment With an Air Pump" (July 5-23) and Henrik Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People" about water contamination and the corruption of power. (July 20-Aug. 27)

July also welcomes the inaugural Capital Fringe Festival. From July 20-30, the area will host over 400 performances of theater, puppetry, dance and music in 18 venues. The following are theatrical highlights:

Rorschach Theatre steams up the stage at Casa del Pueblo with "The Arabian Night. This German adult thriller weaves together the fantasies and desires of five people trapped in an apartment building on the hottest night in history. (July 1-30)

1409 Playbill Cafe hosts "Desire Caught by the Tail," a surrealist play written by Pablo Picasso. The rarely performed play, which was panned by Picasso's friend Gertrude Stein, is produced by banished? productions. (July 20-23)

Wit's End Productions invites audiences to navigate the emotional waters of depression in "4.48 Psychosis" at Flashpoint's Mead Theatre Lab. (July 21-29)

A dancer and musician team up for improvised and uninhibited performances every hour, on the hour, for 24 hours. Daniel Burkholder and Jonathan Matis push themselves into a new realm of performance for "unmapped" at the Warehouse Theater. (July 21-22)

The Management takes audiences to the middle of the desert in "Self-Obsession in Blue." This existentialist tale at the Warehouse Theater features aspects of "Thelma and Louise": death, explosions and an all-female cast. (July 22-30)

Travel across the country as Madcap Players presents the coming-of-age tale  "Pretty Theft" at the Canadian Embassy. This award-winning one-act mixes whimsy with the story of a young woman's psychological maturation. (July 22-27)

"The Cassandra Project" traces the progression of the creative voice over time and across different cultures at Sixth and I Historic Synagogue. (July 23-30)

Cubicle life tortures the eponymous lead of "Bartleby" in a show presented by Journeymen Theatre Ensemble at  Sixth and I Synagogue. (July 24-27)

Puppets tell creation myths that run from uproariously funny to somber in the family-friendly "Beginnings" at Flashpoint. This dramatic journey is presented by Meat and Potato Theatre. (July 24-30)

Woolly Mammoth Theatre hopes that you'll put down your saber and rush at light speed to see Charles Ross's "One-Man Star Wars Trilogy." Ross performs every role, recreating sound effects, music and battle scenes in this energetic 75-minute show. (July 26-30)

A boat of French concubines en route to entertain Nazi soldiers sinks in Solas Nua's World War II-era "La Corbiere." This aquatic theatrical performance takes place in and around the cascading fountain at Meridian Hill Park. (July 27-30)

One painting changes the lives of countless people over the course of its existence in "Abstract Nude" at Flashpoint's Mead Theatre Lab. (July 29)

There's still time to see Signature Theatre's bang-up production of Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins" and travel to a '60s-era ashram with "Love's Labors Lost" at the Shakespeare Theatre (both through July 30).