Fall Arts Preview

Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks was online Monday, Sept. 10 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the Fall Arts Preview and take your questions about the shows appearing on area stages in the coming months.

A transcript follows.

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Peter Marks: Morning all. The culture scene is revving up for the fall in Washington once again, and one of the big stories is the opening of Shakespeare Theatre Company's new 775-seat Harman Hall on F Street, across from the Verizon Center. It's a beautiful space, from a theatergoer's POV. We'll see what kinds of things the company does with it. I'm happy to talk about that or anything else of a theater bent that's on your minds...

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Washington, D.C.: What productions do you think will be the must-sees this season? I can't afford to go all-out with tickets, but I want a few (maybe 3) special shows.

Peter Marks: My list for the fall preview section yesterday included 82 shows-- the most I think I've ever had to write up. So it's incredibly busy. I'm looking forward to a bunch of things, among them: Beckett's "Happy Days" with Fiona Shaw at the Kennedy Center; Christopher D'Amboise new dance play, "The Studio," at Signature; "Shining City," a play by Conor McPherson, at Studio. I like "Avenue Q" a lot, and it's coming to the National, at last. Also, Arena Stage is producing an original music, based on "The Women of Brewster Place." A new musical is always a crap shoot--and fun to experience.

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Washington, D.C.: Dying for a trip to New York! Any must-see shows coming to the Big Apple soon?

Peter Marks:"Rock 'N Roll," Tom Stoppard's latest play, got great reviews in London and opens in early November. "Young Frankenstein," the new Mel Brooks musical, based on his movie--so completely faithful to the movie, in fact, that audiences were reciting the lines along with the actors in its out of town tryout this summer out west. Aaron Sorkin ("The West Wing") has a new play -- "The Farnsworth Invetion" in November, too. And there's a play that got great reviews in Chicago: "August: Osage County" by Tracy Letts that's getting a limited run on Broadway too in Nov-Dec.

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Washington, D.C.: How will the Mark O'Rowe production be by Solas Nua? I've heard good things about his plays, actually once from a recent story in the Post. Also, do you know where it is being staged since this production company does not have its own theater? Thanks.

Peter Marks: That's "Made in China." O'Rowe is a hot commodity with a play called "Terminus" in Dublin. Studio did his verbally acrobatic "Crestfall" last year--three interwoven monologues (a favorite format for Irish writers these days). Since solas nua -- a relative newcomer and a very worthy one, to the DC theater scene -- doesn't have its own space, it's looking at the moment for one for this play, which starts Oct. 18.

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Anonymous: So it's hard to keep up with every tiny theater company (rorschach, meat and potatoes, keegan), so do you have any direction for which I should follow?

Peter Marks: That's a great question. There are a bunch of small companies doing really interesting things. I keep my eye especially on Catalyst Theatre, which operates out of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop -- they're doing a new adaptation of Kafka's "The Trial"; solas nua (see above); rorschach, in Columbia Heights, synetic, at the Kennedy Center and at the Rosslyn Spectrum. Washington Shakespeare in Arlington often does good stuff, too. Any others you have in mind?

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The District: Can you tell me about this Cirque Dreams show? Is it Cirque de Soleil?

Peter Marks: It's not in any way affiliated with Cirque du Soleil.. It's apparently a new group, that performs its acts on a stage rather than in a big top. I think the word "Cirque" is not copyright-able....!

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Arlington, Va.: Do we have any shows with big stars coming to town?

Peter Marks: Big stars...hmmm...The answer to that question is no. Not a one. (How big is big to you btw?) We rarely get stars of any magnitude on the stage in DC.

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Alexandria, Va.: How was the reception to this year's Fringe Festival versus last year? The Post did a great job of covering it, but it seemed not to be as big as last year. None of the shows got as much buzz.

Peter Marks: The Fringe sold 19,000 tickets in its sophomore year, according to its organizers. That's a bit of an uptick from the first year. I don't know that there was a breakout hit this summer, but that's the nature of fringe, too. Some years the festival doesn't generate anything of must-see magnitude. It's also sort of natural that the novelty would wear off-- and things you see in year 2 might have seemed more exciting just because they were part of the first festival. The Cap Fringe does not jury its offerings -- it's essentially first come first serve for presenters -- which probably means the quality will vary greatly from year to year...

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Frederick, Md.: I noticed that this season the Capitol Hill Chorale is pairing Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky with Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes? Could any two works be further apart in style?

Peter Marks: I'm your go-to guy in this forum for Mamet and Moliere and not unfortunately, Brahms and Prokofiev.

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Washington, D.C.: What are the chances of the RSC signing another contract with the KC?

Peter Marks: The RSC had a five-year agreement, expired this past season, to provide a show a year. I think the quality of what the company brought varied greatly, from the low of a sluggish "As You Like It" to the middle-range and overlong "Canterbury Tales" to an interesting "Taming of the Shrew" and "Tamer Tamed" to an exceptional "Coriolanus." Ken Cen officials tell me that the RSC will be back, but probably not on a yearly basis -- when they've got something that both think worthy....

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Washington, D.C.: So, of Harman, Signature, Woolly...which newtheater space has most impressed you?

Peter Marks: love this question, I spend so much time in these spaces, they each feel like an extension of my office! Woolly's courtyard-style space is a great place to see plays -- large enough for event-like productions and still intimate enough for small pieces...Signature's mainstage is very wide, at least the way they've configured it for most of their recent stuff, and I'm not totally comfortable in that space yet. I think the Shakespeare's new space has the potential to be the grandest of all the new spaces, given its scale and flexibility...

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Bethesda, Md. : Anything good at Olney? I love the company, but I'm not sure what to go for this season?

Peter Marks: Olney, which veers toward conventional fare, has one I definitely want to see: "Fiddler on the Roof," with the terrific Rick Foucheux as Tevye.

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Anonymous: Is the Shakespeare Theatre one of the venues in the Harmon Center, or is the ST the Harmon Center?

Peter Marks: I know, it's a little confusing. Here's how I understand it: The new space is called Sidney Harman Hall. That space, and the Shakespeare's existing one, the Lansburgh, BOTH comprise the Harman Center for the Performing Arts. And the Shakespeare Theatre will be the principal occupant of both. Confused yet? The Shakespeare Theatre will also rent out both spaces to other companies when it is not using them. I think. kidding.

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Washington, D.C.: Peter, I've heard that Washington is as good a city for working actors as New York. What are your thoughts? This can't be true, can it?

Peter Marks: Depends on what you mean by a good city. I don't know, for instance, how many actors can make a full time living on an actor's wage in DC. Then again, few people make a living as a stage actor in any city. That said, this is a great place for a talented actor -- because audiences here really care about stage talent, and a good actor can not only acquire a following, but also garner juicy roles repeatedly. (I've seen some actors in big parts 3 or 4 times a season.) The down side for actors here is that, obviously, there are few tv or movie opportunities locally. But actors here develop impressive stage muscles.

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Annandale, Va.: More of a comment. It seems like a huge waste of money for the Shakespeare Theater to build a new stage only a few blocks away. Was there that much of a demand for more seats?

Peter Marks: Another good question, and certainly suggests a legit concern: are there enough fannies for all the new seats being built? The problem for the Shakespeare Theatre was that it's a victim of its success. It's really outgrown the Lansburgh. You can only generate so much in ticket sales from 451 seats during a say, 2 month or so run. And it's so expensive to put on the kinds of lavish productions the Shakespeare does--large casts, elaborate sets, costly costumes, etc.-- that the economies of scale no longer really work for them very well in the Lansburgh.

They needed a bigger space. Whether they can support two spaces -- a total of 1,200 seats -- is another question.

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Biloxi, Miss.: Of DC area theaters currently building new spaces, which are you most excited about? How are some of these coming along (Arena, etc)?

Peter Marks: I compiled a list for sunday's paper of at least 14 companies that have built or moved into new spaces since 2002! That's absolutely extraordinary. The ones that have yet to come online are the Washington Stage Guild's new theater in a building in Penn Quarter and Arena's. Arena's project, at over 100 mill, is the biggest, a wholesale renovation of their campus, and the building of a third space, called the Cradle, for new work. That's very exciting. But it seems as if they're already way behind schedule, and there's no shovel in the ground yet. Based on the renderings of Bing Thom's (sp?) designs, it could be aesthetically spectacular....

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Washington, D.C.: Do you believe there would be any interest in a permanent exhibition of Shakespeare memorabilia in the Harman Hall complex? The pieces would be from the collection of one of the world's most renowned Shakespeare scholars. If so who would one contact, Harmon or Hahn? If not, is there any site in the Washington cultural community for such an exhibit?

Peter Marks: Goodness -- the Folger Shakespeare Library is one of the world's great repositories for original Shakespeare manuscripts, as well as theatrical artifacts revolving around the Bard. It's on Capitol Hill; check their website www.folger.edu. As for whom to contact at the Shakespeare Theatre: on a tour of the new Harman Hall, i saw display cases for just this sort of thing. I'd get in touch with Kahn's associates. His head of communications is the very able Liza Lorenz.

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Bethesda: What about the new Nederlander off-broadway theater at the site of the old Bethesda draft house? Any thoughts on how that will add to the region? Will they be interesting shows, or more things that could have gone to the Warner?

Peter Marks: that's a perceptive question... what they've booked thus far is sort of family entertainment that indeed might have gone to the Warner. It's a more intimate setting and the shows are a little smaller than what you'd get at the Warner: a revue called "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change"; a revival of "Smokey Joe's Cafe." They're trying to book longer runs, so that's an innovation -- the idea that a show could build a head of steam and actually run for a while (I know--Shear Madness, ugh!) is a relative rarity here...

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Peter Marks: Thanks for spending a few minutes here with me. I'm off to the theater tonight, for a show with an apt title: Merrily We Roll Along....

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