Ché Navïn Arrington — a Black, gay, trans artist and writer born in DC — wrote The Hardest Words to Say in 2018 when they were a freshman in college. A one-time reading in the District Fringe festival proved it to be a deeply introspective and lyrically theatrical memory play whose imaginative and original storytelling absolutely warrants a full production.

The main character, a bisexual Black college student named Oprah, tries by revisiting her past in the hope of healing to process trauma from sexual abuse that began when she was 12 (“How did I get so broken?” “How did I become so alone?”).

Oprah (pointedly named after Oprah Winfrey, also a sexual abuse survivor) has two female friends from school, Will and Missy, both lesbian, with whom she tries to work out relationships that are by turns romantic and reminiscent of Mean Girls. There is also a Man in the cast who plays multiple male roles, including Oprah’s therapist, various dating app guys, a brief hookup, and a predator.

In a most promising stroke of dramaturgy, the character of Oprah is simultaneously portrayed by two female actors, named Heart and Mind.

MIND: Why do you think one man has such power over us?
HEART: One man can ruin a lot of lives.

The split within Oprah originates, Mind explains, in her experience of “One man. A predator. A beast. I became two people, so I could be more than one man…”

In the reading I attended, the actors appearing as Heart (Kayla Earl) and Mind (Cayla Hall), brought to the roles a touching vivacity and emotional translucence that hinted at how a full staging could clarify the dramatic impact of their connection and distinction.

Arrington’s dialog ranges from punchy to poignant, as when Mind responds to her therapist’s recommendation that she knit.

MIND: I’m sorry. I don’t understand how knitting will help me deal with my problems.
THERAPIST: It’s said to be very therapeutic.
MIND: So far it feels stupid and pointless.
THERAPIST: Look, there are people who knit and people who don’t. What do you do?
MIND: I unravel.

Arrington’s dialogue can also be sexually graphic, as when Oprah encounters a cartoonishly pro-sex woman next to whom she feels inferior.

MIND: For some people, thinking about sex can be triggering.
HEART: For some people, thinking about sex can be uncomfortable.

Among the scenes in the play are some marvelously comic set pieces, as when Heart, having “succumbed to peer pressure and started internet dating,” encounters a laughable succession of online guys whom she promptly swipes left or right.

In another, Mind imagines that her friends Will and Missy stick up for her in a scene staged as an over-the-top telenovela.

I was particularly impressed by how Arrington looks with a sharply satirical eye on the culpability of men, as in this exchange:

MAN ONLINE: Ya know this whole feminist movement thing and sexual misconduct awareness, it’s great, but I think one thing that’s not being talked about is how a bunch of guys—guys I hang out with and work with everyday—who don’t do this kind of thing and whose lives aren’t going to be affected by everyone talking about these bad dudes all day long. I’m sayin’ that all this shit being covered in the news is the bad dudes.
HEART: The rapists, pedophiles, and sexual predators?
MAN ONLINE: Yeah those guys. Everyone talks about them, but no one talks about the good guys like me.
HEART: Do you want some pats on the back for doing nothing? … Men like you make it so much easier for “bad dudes” to thrive.

Like a tenderly kept time capsule of one teenager’s remembered pain, acuity, and passion, The Hardest Words to Say cries out to be openly heard.

The Hardest Words to Say
Work-in-progress exploration of trauma and survival by Ché Navïn Arrington

Running Time: One hour and 45 minutes
Date and Time: Saturday, July 26, 3:45p

Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: The Hardest Words to Say

Genre: Drama

Directed by: Ché Navïn Arrington
Playwright: Ché Navïn Arrington
Performed by: HEART – Kayla Earl (She/they), MIND – Cayla Hall (She/her), WILL – Ché Navïn Arrington (They/he), MISSY – Mars Pyles (She/her), ONE MAN – Daniel Young (He/him), OPRAH/STAGE DIRECTIONS – Kayla Holloway (She/Her)

The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.

The post 2025 District Fringe Review: ‘The Hardest Words to Say’ by Ché Navïn Arrington (5 stars) appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

You can learn a lot about a character by how they enter a room. In “Be Good” with Paulette, now playing at DC’s District Fringe Festival, the title character’s entrance is utterly ridiculous. The mustachioed man, Paulette (brilliantly performed by the show’s playwright, Daniel Maseda), knocks on the door of the theater, setting up the audience for a knock-knock joke. However, Paulette can’t help himself, interrupting the audience and guiding us to then ask “Whom?” and then “Whomsoever it may be today?” This interaction is the entire character: fastidiously presented and completely sincere, but technically incorrect and hilarious to watch.

What follows is a cavalcade of increasingly silly audience interactions. Paulette asks if he’s overstayed his welcome, curious as to how this room is not the Notebook Society. He asks audience members their jobs — when one person responded that she was a “fundraiser,” he responded loudly, “Ah! An arsonist!” Soon, we come to know his idiosyncratic approach to language: malapropisms, non sequiturs, and playful (if labored) turns of phrase. By the time Paulette asks someone, “Can I make profound eye witness to your eyes for just three seconds?” you realize this isn’t the preamble to the show, this is the show.

Maseda has created a fascinating theatrical space, brimming with details while formally abstract. The show is not plot-heavy: Paulette’s attempt to get onto the stage is its own odyssey, and taking off his sweater becomes a nearly bureaucratic process. Maseda also doesn’t burden Paulette with some tragic backstory or psychoanalysis. All we have is Paulette’s interactions with the audience, which start as simple crowd work but soar into laugh-out-loud delirium. Once we understand that Paulette will never give a straightforward answer to our questions, the audience starts asking increasingly absurd questions — until our mutual ridiculousness forms a bond of respect, but also a simmering sense of loss.

It’s hard to track when, exactly, this sense of loss arrives. Without indulging in the analysis that Maseda resists, it’s clear that Paulette is obsessed with always behaving correctly in every social interaction — but that obsession is the very thing making him awkward, turning him into both a comic fool and a tragic hero. There are moments when Maseda’s freewheeling action coheres into pure physicality, whether it be somersaulting comedy or horrifying stares. It felt like I was watching a confused child in a grown man’s outfit, which is how so many of us feel every day.

Maseda’s working in a tradition of comedians confronting polite society but also society itself, including Oscar Wilde and Nathan Fielder. Occasionally, I wished “Be Good!” was more upfront about the society it was confronting. Paulette seems trapped in a mid-Atlantic world (his clothing feels distinctly mid-20th century, and he speaks in an enunciated American accent with some British phrases thrown in), so it’s hard to know exactly what world Paulette seeks to assimilate.

Still, this choice allows Paulette to become the unfettered id of all our conformist impulses. Everyone has an impulse to smooth ourselves into acceptable forms. But Paulette’s actions, if not his words, offer an alternate lifestyle: his jagged edges, oddball quirks, and sometimes quiet desperation make him (and us) infinitely more compelling. Long after the show’s “plot” has petered out, you’ll remember Maseda’s impressive performance. You’ll laugh at his absurdity, but you might want to emulate his commitment to trying again and again.

“Be Good” with Paulette
Solo character comedy by Daniel Maseda

Running Time: 45 minutes
Dates and Times:

• Saturday, July 19, 8:45p
• Friday, July 25, 6:15p

Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: “Be Good” with Paulette

Genre: Solo performance, character comedy

Written and performed by Daniel Maseda

The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.

The post 2025 District Fringe Review: ‘ “Be Good!” with Paulette’ by Daniel Maseda (4 ½ stars) appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Now to Ashes, which played at the 2025 District Fringe Festival, is tour-de-force theater-making that breathes life into pivotal white and Black figures at the vanguard and intersection of abolitionist and feminist activism. Written and directed by Renae Erichsen-Teal and Sarah Pultz, it is at once riveting, poignant, and profound.

Four women are at the heart of the play. At the center of it all are abolitionist sisters Sarah “Sally” Moore Grimké and Angelina “Nina” Grimké, telling their origin story as defiant daughters in a white slaveholding family in the 17th and 18th centuries. Alongside them is Black abolitionist Sarah Mapps Douglas, instrumental in the creation and development of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. After Douglas met the Grimkés, she pushed for them to support women’s equality and changes to the Quakers’ original view that opposition to slavery should not be political. Anchoring the abolitionist past with the early civil rights movement is Angelina “Nana” Weld Grimke (the Grimkés’ niece), the Black poet, playwright, teacher, and writer of the early 20th century. Fascinating and complex characters all.

The play opens in the year 1956 with Angelina “Nana” Weld Grimke wondering when things will ever change. (We also see her throughout in youth.) It then hopscotches through time, each shift presenting a new vignette highlighting other characters or a significant event of the time, such as Douglas and the Grimkés’ meeting with William Lloyd Garrison, publisher of the Liberator magazine. It ends with Nana (in the present) as well, when she solemnly states, “I don’t think I can do it anymore.”

Hearing historical figures voice impassioned arguments defending and decrying slaveholding was eye-opening. The dramatized personal and political conversations laid bare the movement’s fissures that are not unlike contemporary disagreements about the direction of a cause. Moreover, the adamant demands from activists claiming their way forward was the only way through will resonate with anyone even remotely connected to direct action organizing around any issue and social justice advocacy. These vignettes also added action and momentum to more reflective parts of the production created by interspersing the readings of letters, speeches, and poems. (The poetry is Nana’s.)

Now to Ashes’ overall historical blueprint leads to three takeaways: revolution is always messy; freedom must never be taken for granted; and the path of progress is never a straight line. It also reveals the fault lines in any movement for change from the status quo. The inevitable fights over leadership. The tensions over the speed of actions or tactics to employ. The issue of money. The question of what to do when. And the ultimate: who’s inside the umbrella of care right now and who isn’t? The abolitionists fought over all of it.

Renae Erichsen-Teal and Sarah Pultz clearly conducted prodigious research to develop the play. For fun a few weeks ago, I started reading The Grimkes, by Kerri K. Greenidge. I’m still wading through it. One book is just a fraction of the material available to the playwrights. Their sculpting and sifting to present these key moments and turning points in abolitionism is an undeniable feat.

Speaking of fun, yes, this is a serious production, but it’s not a downer. It’s also entertaining with lighter moments too, like the marriage proposal scene.

Which brings me finally to mention the cast. If space permitted, I would want to call out individual appreciations for each of the cast of ten — many in multiple roles — but suffice it to say they were all spectacular.

Though some of the specific characters were imprecisely identified in the beginning (complicated by dual casting), I was sold on this show from start to finish. Now to Ashes is amazing and true to the 2025 District Fringe Festival motto. It’s uninhibited. It’s unafraid. And — I hope it’s unstoppable.

For more information about Now to Ashes, visit the website.

Now to Ashes
Historical drama by Renae Erichsen-Teal and Sarah Pultz

Running Time: Two hours and 30 minutes
Date and Time: Saturday, July 19, 2:00p

Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: Now to Ashes

Genre: Drama

Directed by: Renae Erichsen-Teal and Sarah Pultz
Playwright: Renae Erichsen-Teal and Sarah Pultz
Performed by:
Jam Donaldson as Angelina Weld Grimké (Present) and Grace Douglass
Madison Norwood as Young Angelina Weld Grimké and Margaretta Forten
Mikaela Fenn as Sarah Moore Grimké (Sally)
Alexandria Grigsby as Angelina Emily Grimké (Nina)
Amber Patrice Coleman as Sarah Mapps Douglass
Paul Brewster as John Grimké, Jonathan Evans, and William Lloyd Garrison
Allison Turkel as Polly Grimké and Catharine Beecher
Paulette Grady as Charlotte Forten
Ari Post as Israel Morris and Lewis Tappan
Max Johnson as Theodore Weld

The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online website
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.

The post 2025 District Fringe Review: ‘Now to Ashes’ by Renae Erichsen-Teal and Sarah Pultz (4 ½ stars) appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Get ready to be charmed by the warm and witty cabaret-style duo of Oren Levine and Barbara Papendorp in their American-standard-style set, Are You Out of Your Mind?

Mainly featuring the original lyrics of Levine, a jazz pianist, the songs speak to relationships between men and women in the bright, toe-tapping phrases of Cole Porter, Kander and Ebb, or even at the brightest moments, Stephen Sondheim. While I wished that there was a more cohesive narrative arc to the set (an early song relating to COVID and being able to see one another in person felt awkwardly dated), there is a snappy range of solos, duets, and patter. Papendorp’s bubbly renditions hit all the right notes, especially on the comic moments.

High points of the revue were the duets, notably “How Do You Have a Conversation?,” which showcased the smooth and engaging chemistry between the two, who have performed together across the DMV for over 15 years. Levine’s solo performance of “The Last Banana,” confessing to just that fact, was punchy, fun, and showcased this veteran cabaret performer’s charm, topped off by a porkpie hat and gravelly voice. “No Ducks,” for Papendorp, provided a poignant solo moment to highlight her dramatic range as she sang about aging and carrying on.

If you’re looking for a show with edge, angst, or profound insight into the human condition, this is not it. Are You Out of Your Mind? is more of a funny retort, not a question for our anxious times.

If you are looking for a delightful, upbeat revue, this is it. At just under an hour, it’s an easy-listening aperitif for any evening.

Are You Out of Your Mind?
A cabaret by Oren Levine and Barbara Papendorp

Running Time: 60 minutes
Dates and Times:

• Thursday, July 17, 6:00p
• Friday, July 18, 7:45p
• Saturday, July 19, 7:15p
• Sunday, July 20, 1:00p
• Friday, July 25, 10:00p

Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: Are You Out of Your Mind?

Genre: Cabaret, Circus

Written and performed by Oren Levine and Barbara Papendorp

The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.

The post 2025 District Fringe Review: ‘Are You Out of Your Mind?’ by Oren Levine and Barbara Papendorp (4 stars) appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

If you were having a conversation with yourself, what would you ask — and how would this other version of you respond? This is a classic playwriting prompt, one that’s inspired media about confronting your younger self, or resolving conflicting emotions. It’s also inspired journalist, playwright, and performer Pamela H. Leahigh to create Hey Pamela? Yes Pamela? now showing at DC’s District Fringe Festival. In this 50-minute show, Leahigh stages an inner dialogue that’s sometimes humorous, sometimes humiliating, but always conflicted.

The show opens with Leahigh introducing herself to the audience, letting us know that it feels like “there’s two of me up here, on a good day.” There’s the confident, abrasive version of herself she calls “Too” (as in “too much”), and there’s also the shy, anxious version of herself she calls “Pamela.” Writing down conversations between these two selves inspired the unique format of the show: she invites a friend to read a prewritten script, and randomly act out either Too or Pamela. At my performance, theater creator Chris Sullivan arrived onstage and read as Too, while Leahigh read as Pamela.

The show’s many Too/Pamela conversations tackle standard material for standup comedy: dating, loneliness, unhealthy habits, everyday inconveniences, and struggles with self-confidence. Leahigh is an astute observer of culture, but she doesn’t sharpen her observations quite into observational comedy. Her stories elicit some laughs, but mostly moments of recognition.

Some topics Leahigh brings up also feel opaquely written. She references bad-faith criticisms of her role as a television journalist, but with no context about her workplace, the script feels drained of politics and specificity. At one point, the character Pamela also states that “we are selfish and blind and stupid” —  and the “we” she’s using could refer to Too/Pamela, or DC audiences, or all of America. While these multiplicities feel exciting, the dialogue feels too vague to pierce with true clarity.

The best part of the show is the strained relationship between Too and Pamela: the two characters act as each other’s bullies, cheerleaders, pests, and friends. This dynamic reminded me of the musical A Strange Loop, where a chorus of “Thoughts” transform into different versions of a protagonist’s self-loathing. That musical’s ensemble could become deranged and even emblematic of systemic oppression. But the performances of Hey Pamela? Yes Pamela? maintain the calm geniality of two colleagues. And though Leahigh acknowledges that many people deal with similar issues, she never explicitly calls out the systems or institutions that frame her personal struggles.

Hey Pamela? Yes Pamela? is a hybrid show, merging stand-up, dialogue, and improv. I appreciate that it defies categorization, but the show (like its characters) feels at war with itself. By switching quickly between genres, Hey Pamela? can’t quite deliver the methodical storytelling of standup, or the dramatic arcs of a play, or the unfiltered abandon of improv. The show is billing itself as a comedy, but given the show’s emphasis on scripted conversation, it’s clear to me that this show would function best as a true drama. If Leahigh focused on crafting character journeys for Too and Pamela, she’d surpass her sometimes disappointing jokes and launch us deeper into her fractured mind.

Hey Pamela? Yes Pamela?
A two-person show where the second person changes every night, by Pamela H. Leahigh

Running Time: 50 minutes
Dates and Times:

• Sunday, July 13, 9:45p
• Saturday, July 19, 5:30p

Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: Hey Pamela? Yes Pamela?

Genre: Comedy, solo performance

Written and performed by Pamela H. Leahigh

The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.

The post 2025 District Fringe Review: ‘Hey Pamela? Yes Pamela?’ by Pamela H. Leahigh (2 ½ stars) appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Growing up as a triplet, I felt like I didn’t own my identity. Everyone would compare and contrast my body and personality against my siblings — I existed against them, despite wanting to be like them. This is the same confusing coming-of-age faced by the sister protagonists of The H Twins, Hope Campbell Gundlah’s harrowing new play now at DC’s District Fringe Festival. But unlike me, the sisters are trapped in 1940s Germany, with horrors imminent and unescapable.

The show starts in an abstract space, before historical details give context. Hilda and Helga (portrayed by the playwright and her real-life twin sister Tess Cameron Gundlah, respectively) enjoy their highly routine lives. Uncle M (John Elmendorf) gives them both psychological evaluations and treats, instilling in them that they’re “biologically valuable children.” Two nurses (Lisette Gabrielle and Rebecca Husk) secretly provide the sisters access to American media, inadvertently inspiring them to become vaudeville stars. But the patronage of adult characters is confining, and references to “Aryan” values abound. As the sisters reach adolescence, the pressure to perform to perfection soon becomes crushing.

The H Twins is structured on a cruel dramatic irony: we know they’re imprisoned in Nazi Germany, even though the sisters don’t. Hope Campbell Gundlah based this play on Dr. Josef Mengele’s terrifying experiments on twin siblings, along with Lebensborn homes that attempted to raise children with idealized “Aryan” bodies and values.

The combination of two related-but-different histories makes the show feel more speculative than real (the show’s marketing explicitly asks “What if?”). But if the premise strains credulity, The H Twins succeeds mostly because of the committed performances of its two leads. Hope’s Hilda obsesses over rules, while Tess’ Helga becomes disillusioned — and both actresses convincingly trace a stunted but intense maturation in a short time frame. The other actors mostly perform in silhouette behind a sheet. This makes sense dramaturgically (the theatrical space feels cold and isolated), but as an audience member I grew frustrated that I couldn’t watch their great performances or see their reactions.

When an artist dramatizes the Holocaust, they face an ethical dilemma: how do you stage a historical genocide without turning it into a generic allegory? The Holocaust resonates with current-day atrocities, but in storytelling, it can often feel like a legend and not a historically specific event. This is the danger with The H Twins, and with so many recent narratives following young Nazi children: the journey from sheltered German childhood to socially-conscious awakening might just be a blunt metaphor for growing up.

As a playwright and performer, Hope Campbell Gundlah mostly avoids this trap by grounding the show’s revelations in specific but often unknown histories. Still, the greatest insight The H Twins provides isn’t into Nazi Germany, but into the overwhelming emotional lives of twins. Hilda and Helga see themselves in each other, but it’s a gross kind of mirror: each reflection is an ideal the other can never achieve. That’s a horror story that doesn’t need to be set against the backdrop of real-life horrors to feel startling. Yet if you’re able to suspend your disbelief on the show’s strained set-up, The H Twins still lands with potent drama.

The H Twins
A dark comedy by Hope Campbell Gundlah

Running Time: 90 minutes
Dates and Times:

• Saturday, July 12, 2:45p
• Sunday, July 13, 5:30p
• Sunday, July 20, 7:45p
• Friday, July 25, 7:45p
• Saturday, July 26, 1:30p

Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: experiments on twin siblings

Genre: Dark comedy
Content Warnings: Discussion of self-harm, physical violence, and torture

Playwright: Hope Campbell Gundlah
Performed by: Hope Campbell Gundlah, Tess Cameron Gundlah, John Elmendorf, Rebecca Husk, Lisette Gabrielle

The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.

The post 2025 District Fringe Review: ‘The H Twins’ by Hope Campbell Gundlah (4 stars) appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Improvisers should never predetermine their show too much: plotting can confine comedians’ freewheeling creativity. Still, improv shows thrive on structure. The best ones use some kind of device (like a theme, game, or storyline) to frame a night of comedy for both the audience and performers.

Out of My Wheelhouse, a 45-minute improv show now playing at DC’s District Fringe Festival, thrives on its framing device: a surprise theme for each night. The show is written, directed, hosted, and even co-presented (alongside OOMW Productions) by Nora Dell — and Dell has crafted a dramaturgically extravagant show that still allows plenty of room for play.

At the night I attended, the theme was nautical — replete with bubbles, ocean streamers, and Dell in a sailor hat. Holding a microphone, Dell provides a humorous (but surreally poetic) monologue before revealing a game show wheel, which she uses to cycle through improv games for an eight-person ensemble.

The games are classic improv fare (from a Mad Libs-like game to “freeze” scenarios), and sometimes performers lean on very conventional comedy tropes. But when the nautical theme was woven into the improv scenes, performers could embrace their silliness and slowly encourage audiences to do the same. Improvisers Eva Lewis and Gaby Corcoran were highlights, developing a warm rapport onstage. I was also impressed with improviser Peter Bird, who added some low-key, funny details to his scenes that added verisimilitude to the proceedings.

As host for the night, Dell had a great sense of when to let scenes keep expanding and when to move on. On my night, the climax of the show seemed more frenetic than madcap. But the finale ended on a strong note as Dell guided the entire cast to act out increasingly dramatic situations. Out of My Wheelhouse also embraces an element of camp: the game show wheel just does not spin properly, leading Dell to joke, “I think this thing is rigged!”

There’s part of me that wishes the wheel did spin, that the randomness and chance played a larger role in this improv show. But most of me appreciates being led on a wild journey by Dell. When the captain of a ship is this funny, you’re happy with her leading you on an adventure.

Out of My Wheelhouse
Theatrical improv in drag by OOMW Productions/Nora Dell

Running Time: 60 minutes
Dates and Times: 

• Saturday, July 12, 1:30p
• Wednesday, July 23, 7:00p
• Thursday, July 24, 6:00p
• Saturday, July 26, 7:30p

Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: Out of My Wheelhouse

Genre: Drag, comedy

Directed by: Nora Dell
Playwright: Nora Dell
Performed by: Nora Dell, Erick Acuña, Daniel Barrera Ortega, Peter Bird, Gaby Corcoran, Lauren Gabel, Carly Kraybill, Eva Lewis, Catherine Mullins

The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.

The post 2025 District Fringe Review: ‘Out of My Wheelhouse’ by OOMW Productions/Nora Dell (4 stars) appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

With endearing whimsy, Rodin Alcerro and Pablo Guillén, two talented physical-theater performers (and partners in real life), take a tickled District Fringe audience on a clown travelogue in mime. Imaginatively evoking a journey together by air, sea, and land on a bare black stage with but a few props, they intend literally only the imperative verb that’s their show’s title, GO. All else in their abstract excursion is a fanciful and delightful trip.

The two players meet, perhaps by chance — or maybe they already know each other, it’s not clear. We are left to puzzle out who they are, where they are, and why; they could as well be two folks en route in wide-eyed wonder to somewhere for no reason. Guillén wears an airline pilot jacket accented with bright red socks; Alcerro wears baggy slacks and a magenta kerchief around his neck. They’ll put on bulbous red clown noses in a bit.

“Teatro,” intones Alcerro to the audience in Spanish, one of only two words spoken in the show.

Lively vignettes from their virtual voyage follow: Wielding a black-and-white umbrella, they become airborne as pretend gusts of wind thrust them this way and that, their dancerly synchronicity on eloquent display. Then, opening a crinkly gray plastic tarp, they turn it into the ocean and appear to sail upon it, at one point almost going under. Later, as Rodin holds a color painting of a locomotive and we hear the loud sound of a train passing by, the two traverse the stage as though on a choo-choo. We are even treated to Alcerro’s mimed upchuck from motion sickness.

Using that prop plastic tarp again, the two huddle under it and become, aided by a demonic mask, a massive, mysterious, malevolent puppet. I’m not sure how the devil this figured into the two travelers’ journey, but it sure was a wowza effect.

The show is well served by Hailey LaRoe’s lighting design, which lends the aforementioned monster a ghastly green hue. And the sound design by Brandon Cook underscores with lovely resonance two especially touching passages, one with Ravelle’s “Bolero” and another with “Moon River.”

“Theater,” intones Alcerro to the audience in English, the other word spoken in the show.

Enjoyable sight gags are sufficient to prompt scattered chuckles, but comedy per se seems not the piece’s pursuit. Rather, we seem to be invited to accompany two charming chums on a venture whose point becomes clear only near the end in their tender mutual regard: One pounds the other’s chest in the rhythm of a heartbeat, then the other exactly reciprocates.

Though this show’s plot may be perplexing, its story not fully developed dramaturgically, there’s no doubt these two players have an appealing pulse together. And you should GO.

GO
A wordless tale of two clowns by Rodin Alcerro and Pablo Guillén

Running Time: 50 minutes
Dates and Times:

• Sunday, July 13, 2:00p
• Thursday, July 17, 7:30p
• Wednesday, July 23, 8:15p
• Thursday, July 24, 9:15p
• Sunday, July 27, 1:45p

Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: GO

Genre: Physical theater, clown

Written and performed by Rodin Alcerro and Pablo Guillén.

The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.

The post 2025 District Fringe Review: ‘GO’ by Rodin Alcerro and Pablo Guillén (4 stars) appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

It’s Saturday night in DC, and the lights are low at the UDC Phoenix Theater. The room is buzzing — sold out, every seat filled. Erick Acuña, the creator, director, and producer of Meet Cute: Live Blind Date Comedy Show, steps onstage with a grin and calls out: “Who’s ready for a Friday night date?”

“It’s Saturday!” people shout back, laughing.

“Even better,” he replies, without missing a beat.

This is Meet Cute, the live blind date comedy show that’s traveled from Capital Fringe to Edinburgh Fringe and now lands squarely in the heart of the very first District Fringe Festival. It’s part theater, part improv, part reality dating experiment — and 100 percent chaos (the good kind).

The premise is simple: Two strangers go on a real blind date. Onstage. In front of everyone. And a team of improv comedians listens closely, waiting to turn every awkward pause and flirtatious stumble into full-on improv sketches.

Tonight’s date: Josh and Jivanji. Josh is already sitting on stage when we walk in — a quiet guy in marketing who once wrote a national museum tagline: “History Moves Us Forward.” Jivanji joins him moments later — poised, warm, a tech worker who grew up in India and New York. Neither has done anything like this before.

Their chemistry? Casual. Cordial. Not fireworks, but enough spark to keep the audience leaning in. They trade stories: he loves darts and ping pong; she’s into bachata and true crime. He lives in Bethesda; she’s in Rosslyn. She once went hiking in Montana, got a flat bike tire, accidentally maced a stranger while trying to hitchhike, and later spotted what she thought was a severed hand sticking out of a pickup truck. (She stayed calm. Sort of.)

From the moment they start chatting, the audience becomes a third wheel — the harmless, giggling kind. Every time Josh or Jivanji reveals something new, four improv actors waiting in the wings later leap into action. One moment, they’re acting out a woman who can’t stop macing her friend in a bar and in his apartment; the next, a tourist in Death Valley looking for corpses and police tape and a ranger serving OOTD’ed vibes (you had to be there to get it). Later, a man invents heartfelt taglines while his wife is in labor. “Doctors. Thank you.”

We return to the date. This time, with cue cards. The questions get more revealing. “If you were reincarnated, what would you be?” Josh says a terrier. “They don’t do anything, and people pick up their poop.” Jivanji raises an eyebrow. “Sounds like someone avoiding responsibility.” He grins. “Not in this life. Next one.”

She says she lives like this is her only life, and earlier she shared that her dad already passed away. It’s a small moment. The room gets a little quieter.

The rest of the questions keep it playful — pet peeves, hidden talents (Josh can speak phrases backward), favorite household items (his: a bobblehead collection that becomes a future HR violation in the improv sketch). She can’t stand people who chew with their mouth open. He hates when people mix up “your” and “you’re.” She jokes she won’t text him. He recommends Grammarly.

Each answer gets absorbed and reborn onstage in the final round of improv. Josh’s grammar obsession triggers texting-induced sweat attacks among his friends. His bobbleheads? Part of a civil rights slogan recital — in multiple languages, including Spanish. His “unfunny” friends almost cancel him and defend their comedic honor.

Was it polished? Not always. There were mic issues in the beginning — but they got fixed quickly, and the audience stayed with it. That’s the spirit of Fringe, after all: a little scrappy, a lot spontaneous, and totally unforgettable.

Meet Cute isn’t really about finding love (or is it? We need the blind-date-to-marriage stats on its veteran participants — where are they now?). It’s about the tiny, human details that make us laugh, cringe, and maybe, just maybe, feel a little less alone in the messiness of dating. Whether you’re single, partnered, or just here for the punchlines, it’s one of those shows that reminds you why live theater matters — because anything can happen.

And sometimes? It starts with a blind date.

Meet Cute: Live Blind Date Comedy Show
Improv by Erick Acuña Productions

Running Time: 60 minutes
Date and Time: Saturday, July 12, 8:30p

Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: Meet Cute Blind Date Comedy Show

Genre: Improv

Performed by: Erick Acuña, Jordana Mishory, Eva Lewis, Jhon Carrol, Mia Bloomfield

The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.

The post 2025 District Fringe Review: ‘Meet Cute: Live Blind Date Comedy Show’ by Erick Acuña Productions (4 stars) appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Lotus, a college senior slogging through her third semester of COVID university, feels like she is slowly losing her mind. Whether staring down virtual med school entrance exams or the endlessness of the same day, every day, the walls of her small bedroom are closing in. A one-woman show written, directed, and performed by Gigi Cammaroto, Lotus: A Quarantine Story at this year’s District Fringe Festival gives audiences a lot to think about and even more to perceive.

From the perfectly on-theme seats of University of DC, the audience takes on the part of classroom witness and sometime

s lecture participant as Lotus struggles to keep up with the intellectual demands of her course load and the mental toll of the quarantine living treadmill — one where life was so repetitive and the future so just out of reach. A combination of spoken word, movement, and song, this short one-act play delivers a captivating performance. Cammaroto’s storytelling creates a rhythm of life that draws you in, layering the audio from her professors’ lectures with the music from her alarm clock and the spinning monologues of her mind.

For Lotus, the forced isolation is a blessing and a curse. It gives her distance from her future of medical school and graduation, but also from her mother and her social network, including her boyfriend. As the story unfolds, all good and bad seem to slip further and further from her grasp, even as she learns more — taking notes on a large whiteboard and even predicting the lessons of her teachers.

An interesting, intimate retrospective on the isolation and borderline insanity of our collective but separate COVID experience, Lotus: A Quarantine Story is a multi-sensory experience. Asking the audience to look, to see, and to perceive, this small but mighty one-act leaves you considering what you brought with yourself when we were all able to walk out the door again.

Lotus: A Quarantine Story
A solo performance by Gigi Cammaroto

Running Time: 45 minutes
Dates and Times:

• Saturday, July 12, 7:00p
• Sunday, July 13, 4:00p
• Friday, July 18, 9:15p
• Sunday, July 20, 4:15p
• Sunday, July 27, 5:30p

Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: Lotus: A Quarantine Story

Genre: Solo performance, drama

Written and performed by Gigi Cammaroto.

The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.

The post 2025 District Fringe Review: ‘Lotus: A Quarantine Story’ by Gigi Cammaroto (4 ½ stars) appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Kicking off DC’s inaugural District Fringe Festival is Caro Dubberly’s A Guide to Modern Possession — a musical that embodies everything a Fringe production should be: it’s raw, unfinished, and really fucking good.

Caro Dubberly may be known around town as an actor and director, but who knew they were also a powerhouse composer, lyricist, and book writer? Well, now we do.

A Guide to Modern Possession is a rock-infused musical packed with catchy tunes, whip-smart lyrics, and a coming-of-age story that flips the script to center characters long left out of the musical theater spotlight.

Oh — and it’s got demons.

The show follows Cody, a nonbinary young adult coping with the trauma of a past sexual assault and a fraught relationship with their religious, cancer-stricken mother. To numb the pain, Cody turns to weed and alcohol. Enter the demons — first as a snarky Greek-chorus-style peanut gallery, later as darker manifestations of Cody’s internal struggle. On their website, Dubberly explains that they and Director/dramaturg Laley Lippard (who’s been developing the show with Dubberly since 2021) are using “demonic imagery as a vehicle for exploring PTSD.”

Audience members should be aware that this is a staged reading of Act One only. That means no costumes and no choreography — but what you do get is the chance to witness a sharp, promising new musical in its early form. And the show already has accolades to back it up: it was a semifinalist for the 2023 Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Music Theater Conference and a finalist for Olney Theatre’s Vanguard Arts Fund.

Leading the cast as Cody is Jayson R. Broadnax, a recent Howard University grad with more lighting design credits than acting ones. But hey, DC casting directors, let’s change that. Broadnax is a phenomenal talent. Their rich voice is perfectly suited to Dubberly’s rock-driven score, and they bring a raw emotional honesty to Cody’s vulnerability.

Backing up Broadnax is a strong supporting cast: Sophia Early as Cody’s loyal best friend Anna, Christian Montgomery as Dee and the Demon, and Geocel Batista and Adrian Jesus Iglesias as Cody’s mom and dad. Every one of them delivers with professional polish.

As a staged reading, design elements were sparse, but the uncredited lighting design subtly amped up the tension. Dubberly accompanied much of the score live on keyboard, with prerecorded instrumental tracks strategically layered in to heighten key emotional beats. Stage Manager Willow McFatter kept everything running smoothly.

If A Guide to Modern Possession is how District Fringe is starting its run, it’s poised to become a standout fixture on DC’s theater calendar.

A Guide to Modern Possession 
A new musical by Caro Dubberly

Running Time: 75 minutes
Dates and Times:

• Friday, July 11, 7:00p
• Sunday, July 13, 7:45p
• Sunday, July 20, 5:15p
• Thursday, July 24, 7:15p
• Sunday, July 27, 7:00p

Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: A Guide to Modern Possession

Genre: Musical, Dark Comedy
Content Warnings: Suicide, physical and sexual violence, profanity

Directed by: Laley Lippard
Playwright: Caro Dubberly
Performed by: Jayson R. Broadnax, Sophia Early, Christian Montgomery, Adrian Iglesias, Geocel Batista, Max Burchell, Lila Cooper, Ava Wilson, Luís Córdovez, Nessa Amherst

The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.

The post 2025 District Fringe Review: ‘A Guide to Modern Possession’ by Caro Dubberly (5 stars) appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

District Fringe is proud to announce partnerships with Van Ness Main Street and The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) to support the inaugural 2025 festival. These partnerships include access to and use of venues as well as sponsorship support.

The 2025 festival will take place over three weekends from July 11 to 27, 2025, with performances Wednesday to Sunday. The festival will activate spaces at the UDC Lecture Hall 44A03 and the outdoor amphitheater, plus additional spaces around Van Ness Main Street, including a pop-up bar/community gathering space where patrons can purchase drinks, snacks, and hang out and connect with other patrons and District Fringe artists (more details on location to follow). There will be a District Fringe Opening Night Party on July 11 starting at 9pm – location and details coming soon.

“Van Ness Main Street is thrilled to take its partnership with the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) to the next level to welcome District Fringe to our main street!” said Van Ness Main Street Executive Director, Gloria M. Garcia. “Activating the cultural assets on the UDC campus while integrating our businesses on the corridor to support District Fringe, its theater companies and aspiring artists fits with our neighborhood’s artistic goals and vibe. We look forward to many more years partnering with District Fringe on Van Ness Main Street.”

“As an undergrad at Georgetown, DC’s Capital Fringe was the source of my first paid acting roles,” said ANC 3F Member Adrian Iglesias. “In light of the fact that venues (or a lack thereof) are a classic, consistent obstacle for theatres, I am thrilled that the new District Fringe will be able to take advantage of the unique performance spaces Van Ness has to offer — and that Van Ness Main Street and UDC have been so welcoming. Among other sites, UDC’s gorgeous amphitheater is lamentably underused, so it will be a pleasure to see the neighborhood activated by some local arts and culture!”

“Bringing a festival to life requires one thing above all else: the space in which to do it,” said Co-Lead Producer Karen Lange. “The shrinking number of affordable venues for theatrical performances has been a huge issue for independent artists. The generous welcome that UDC, Van Ness Main Street, and Van Ness’s ANC3F have given District Fringe is truly inspiring. It shows us they care about art and what it has to offer a community. We can’t thank them enough.”

District Fringe will be comprised of seven (7) productions that were chosen for full multi-night runs, with an additional eight (8) selected for one-night-only performances (from 50 submissions). All acts in the festival are locally grown, from first-time playwrights to established producers.

2025 District Fringe Performance Lineup

A Guide to Modern Possession / Caro Dubberly

Are You Out of Your Mind? Songs of Obsessing, Confessing, and Second-guessing / Oren Levine & Barbara Papendorp

GO / Rodin Alcerro & Pablo Guillen

Lotus: A Quarantine Solo Show / Gigi Cammaroto

Out of My Wheelhouse / Nora Dell

Prey Most Difficult / Sad Druid Productions

The H Twins / Hope Campbell Gundlah

One-night-only performances:

THE HARDEST WORDS TO SAY / Ché Navïn Arrington

Now to Ashes / THEATRE51, Renae Erichsen-Teal & Sarah Pultz

The Pit / Confetti Collective and Lenox Kamara

“Be Good!” With Paulette / Daniel Maseda

Body Play: or a play about play / Elle Marie Sullivan

Hey Pamela? Yes Pamela? / Pamela Leahigh

Matt and Lily Get Together / Lily Kerrigan & Matthew Marcus

Meet Cute: Live Blind Dating Show / Erick Acuña Productions

Full details of all shows, including location and ticketing, can be found at
www.districtfringe.com/tickets. Tickets will be on sale June 27.

Tickets/Passes

Individual Tickets: $15
Full Festival Pass (15 shows): $200 (26% discount)
10-Ticket Pack: $122 (20% discount)
4-Ticket Pack: $56 (10% discount)
About District Fringe 

District Fringe was created by artists for artists to promote and propel the strong independent theater tradition in the DC area. At a time when the arts community is under direct threat from the current administration, District Fringe unapologetically stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion as they work to create an open, egalitarian space for artists to produce work that challenges, entertains, and inspires. District Fringe was founded by the artistic leaders of Pinky Swear Productions (Karen Lange), Theatre Prometheus (Tracey Erbacher), and Nu Sass Productions (Aubri O’Connor).

SEE ALSO:
District Fringe announces artists for inaugural 2025 festival (news story, May 18, 2025)
District Fringe to pick up where Capital Fringe Festival left off (feature by Leah Cohen, May 7, 2025)

The post District Fringe announces venues and partnerships for 2025 festival appeared first on DC Theater Arts.