The evocation of a massage session is stylized " almost jarringly so. Our heroine, Renee (Jeanne Dillon-Williams), the recovering alcoholic who is receiving the body-kneading treatment, stan…
Prepare for rebellious automatons, a 300-year-old opera singer, and a pack of newts taking a page from Ira Glass. These and other inventions will unfold locally this fall courtesy of the Cze…
The invitation came with a catch.An Azerbaijani producer who was putting together a collection of short films asked filmmaker and writer Maria Ibrahimova if she'd be interested in contributi…
The singer Rafiya racked up a lot of miles during her childhood. Born in Los Angeles to Congolese parents, the singer (who uses one name professionally) grew up in Congo, Cape Verde, Benin, …
Weirdness that is deep, measured and suspenseful trumps weirdness that is scattered, frantic and jokey. At least, that statement holds true when you're talking about the double-bill of one-a…
A juvenile delinquent wielding a can of spray paint may not be the kind of character most people associate with fairy tales, but ÂParis-based director Hicham Ayouch says there's a touch o…
Sometimes a swimming pool is more than a swimming pool. Such is the case in "Diva," Heiward Mak's film about the Hong Kong pop-music industry. The 2012 movie repeatedly depicts characters in…
About half way through the World War II spy musical "code name: CYNTHIA," a Washington society beauty preps for a heist. Under the eagle eye of an Allied intelligence mastermind, Betty Thorp…
In classical music, there is an exciting symbiosis between the present and the past. That, at least, is the opinion of Austrian flutist Elisabeth Möst, a champion of contemporary music who …
Joseph Vodlan remembers the moment " about 70 years ago " that he became an artist. He was 5 or so years old, and playing with figurines made from pine bark at his family's home in Slovenia.…
Colombian-born artist Andrés Hoyos makes no bones about it: His work sends an environmental message. Relying almost exclusively on recycled materials, Hoyos creates pieces that he says are …
Rebellious characters are flouting the rules at the 2015 Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, W.Va.Now celebrating its 25th season, the prominent annual showcase for rece…
There is hope in hell " or so it seems, given the upcoming premiere of "Burning Desire to Be Touched," a performance-art piece by the artistic duo known as Mwangi Hutter. The work is set to …
Colombian curator José Roca doesn't want visitors to bring too cerebral of a mind-set to the exhibition "Waterweavers: The River in Contemporary Colombian Visual and Material Culture.""I th…
The silver jaguar carries six amethysts: one in each paw, and on its back and tail. The brooch is remarkable on its own merits, but as part of a new exhibition at the Mexican Cultural Instit…
Scenic designer Paige Hathaway remembers the epiphany that led to the 31 skulls in her attic-style set for "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" at Folger Theatre. She was sitting in rehea…
Luz San Miguel and Davit Hovhannisyan know about journeys. Born in Madrid and in Yerevan, Armenia, respectively, the two are leading dancers with the Milwaukee Ballet. This summer, they are …
In one of the most memorable moments in "Occupied Territories," a flawed but often arresting new theater piece, suburban America drifts into the Vietnamese jungle. The camouflage-clad bodies…
Fran O'Rourke doesn't see any incompatibility between his day job " as a philosophy professor at University College Dublin " and his sideline as a singer."Literature, philosophy, music all f…
If you must indulge in wishful thinking, you might as well do it on an elaborate scale, as French writer Jean Giraudoux did in his play "The Madwoman of Chaillot." This piece of philosophica…
What a difference a friend makes. When we first meet Marjorie Taub, the eponymous Manhattanite in "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife," she's despondent. As depicted by Susan Rome in Theater J…
A satirical fantasia works to earnest ends in "Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love," now in a Studio 2ndStage production. Mallery Avidon's 70-minute play paints with some hallucinatory colors, flanki…
An enormous poster of the movie "Casablanca" looms over a desk as film producers Kim Johnson and Jean Michel Gilbert speak, via Skype, from Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago. The poster d…
It hardly seems fair. Jeb, Misa and Emilio are dealing with a blizzard that has descended on Minnesota. They also are grappling with the meaning of life and death: They have, after all, met …
Argentine writer Patricia Suárez-Cohen likes to listen to the Beatles while she's working. The music doubtless provided welcome jolts of energy when she was writing her first musical, "La…