Washington Stage Guild takes its kitchen act to Walter Reed

Since early 2008, members and friends of the Washington Stage Guild theater company have been cooking and serving monthly dinners to wounded members of the U.S. military. The meals are served at Fisher House, a facility at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where recuperating vets able to live outside a hospital room can stay with their families. (There are Fisher Houses at many U.S. military installations and VA medical centers.)

Stage Guild Artistic Director Bill Largess, the son of a Navy commander, was thinking of offering theatrical services to the vets. So he talked with a volunteer group called Comfort for America's Uniformed Services, a.k.a. Cause, which offers relaxation and recreational programming to wounded military personnel.

Largess was told they had plenty of live entertainment and was steered toward the dinner idea. Since the troupe was founded in 1986, he said, Stage Guild members have enjoyed cooking hot meals between shows on two-performance days.

Largess and company members Lynn Steinmetz, Laura Gianarelli and Helen Hedman became the core group of volunteer chefs, although many others rotate in and out of the monthly project. Some find the sight of seriously wounded veterans too upsetting and contribute food or special treats but don't go to the meals.

Stage Guild folks recently served grilled bluefish, salmon and London broil, plus hot dogs for the veterans' kids and homemade ice cream.

"We serve it up and try to make it a big, festive event, and stick around and interact with the guys and their families. . . . It's often a very moving experience and sometimes a little difficult, but it's very gratifying to do it," Largess says.

Stage Guild and Largess have received the Department of the Army's Award for Patriotic Civilian Service and the Presidential Bronze Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service. Largess likes to note that the theater company's citation from the Army "even mentions the fact that we clean up afterwards!"

"They just do a fantastic job," says Cause program coordinator Sarah Svigals. Stage Guild took note that the vets and their families would like to eat healthier. "They really have taken the time to know their audience," Svigals says. "They have such a passion for what they do. They don't just phone it in."

Return to form

Synetic Theater's Paata Tsikurishvili will get back onstage for one show this coming season, after focusing for years on directing and building his company. Performance-related injuries also sidelined him from engaging directly in Synetic's dance-and-acrobatics-infused style.

Tsikurishvili will play the Master in "The Master and Margarita," a reimagining of the company's 2004 adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's magic-realist/absurdist novel about Jesus, the Devil and life in the Soviet Union.

"I decided to just go back and test myself, and there are new audiences who've never seen me," Tsikurishvili says. And, he adds, "I miss my wife on the stage." Irina Tsikurishvili has steadily performed in and choreographed Synetic's shows, but in recent years she has acted with other leading men. Her husband still directs all of the shows, and she choreographs them.

Synetic's 2010-11 season will open with the world premiere of "Arthur" (Sept. 30-Oct. 31), a wordless take on the Arthurian legend, to be performed on Synetic's new main stage at Crystal City, which Arena Stage used (along with the Lincoln Theatre) while its home was renovated. King Arthur is "the most iconic, legendary figure in the Western, English-speaking world," Tsikurishvili says, and although it's a detour from Synetic's "Silent Shakespeare" productions, he says it "has the same feel, almost. . . . It feels like Shakespeare." Ben Cunis will play the lead.