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On Tuesday, December 11, we continue our series "Arts and Sciences" with a brand-new play, "Shakespeare, Moses, and Joe Papp" (2002), by Ernest Joselovitz. "Papp" depicts the epic battle between legendary empire builder Robert Moses & upstart impresario Joseph Papp over Papp's proposal to provide free Shakespeare in Central Park. Critics have raved about Ernie Joselovitz. The New York Times called "Hagar's Children" (1972) a "special theatrical experience that touches reality with pain and understanding." "Catskill Tzimmis" (1995) received a Helen Hayes nomination as Outstanding New Play; the Washington Post called it "laugh-out-loud-funny." "Vilna's Got a Golem" (1996) earned praise from coast to coast: the Seattle Times found it "vivid" & "powerful," the New York Times called it "confident and carefully thought out," & in Philadelphia it won the John Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play. The Washington Post recently called Ernie Joselovitz a playwright with "brand-name status" in DC-area theater.
Our December meeting will feature playwright Ernie Joselovitz himself. Joselovitz grew up just outside Los Angeles & studied playwriting at UCLA & the University of Minnesota. In 1978 he joined New Playwrights' Theatre in DC as playwright-in-residence. Four years later, Joselovitz founded the Playwrights Forum, the DC area's top training ground for playwrights. "Shakespeare, Moses, and Joe Papp" will have its world premiere April 3-May 5 at Round House Theatre.
We will meet in December at Delray Vietnamese Garden, 4918 Del Ray Ave., Bethesda (301-986-0606). Dinner begins at 6:30 p.m.; our discussion is 7:30-9:30. From Bethesda metro, take both up escalators, turn left onto Old Georgetown Rd., walk five short blocks to Del Ray Ave. & turn right. Drivers can find inexpensive garages on Cordell Ave. & Old Georgetown Rd.
To attend this meeting you will need a reservation. Call 202-483-4048 or e-mail [email protected]. For a "Papp" of your own, send $12 to Elizabeth Dixon, 1318 22d St., NW, #301, Washington, DC 20037. Call first (202-223-1763 24 hours/day) to make sure we still have copies.
At 3 p.m. Saturday, April 6, Footlights will attend the world premiere of
"Shakespeare, Moses, and Joe Papp" at Round House Theatre, 12210
Bushey Dr., between Randolph & Veirs Mill Roads in Silver Spring.
Tickets are $17 & include a post-show discussion. Mail your check to Robin Larkin, 5403
Nibud Ct., Rockville, MD 20852 (240-669-6300 & [email protected]).
Robin will distribute tickets in the lobby just before the performance.
No one understood the power of oral discourse better than Martin Luther King, Jr. On the day commemorating his birth, Monday, January 21, the "art" part of our current series concludes with "The Weir" (1997), a "beautiful new play" (Financial Times) about the art of storytelling, by Conor McPherson. On a bleak night in a rural Irish pub, four men compete to impress a young Dublin woman. Each tells a ghostly tale, only to find her turning the tables with a hair-raising story of her own. "Riveting" (Guardian), "moving" (New York Times), & "profound" (New York Daily News), "The Weir" "shifts from the comical to the spine chilling with wrenching poignancy" (Daily Telegraph). Our January meeting will feature director Nick Olcott, whose production of "The Weir" we'll attend on Saturday February 2, 3 p.m., at Round House Theatre, 12210 Bushey Dr., Silver Spring. Tickets are $17. Mail your check to Robin Larkin, 5403 Nibud Ct., Rockville, MD 20852.
Tuesday, December 11: "Shakespeare, Moses, and Joe Papp," Delray
Viet Gdn
*Monday, January 21: "The Weir," Delray Viet Gdn
Tuesday, February 19: "Copenhagen," Luna Books
Wednesday, March 13: "The Physicists," TBA
Thursday, April 18: "Blithe Spirit," Delray Viet Gdn
Monday, May 13: "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon
Marigolds," Luna Books
*Note change from prior newsletters.
All Footlights meetings run from 7:30-9:30 p.m., with dinner from
6:30-7:30.
For more information about Footlights, check our website, www.footlightsdc.org. You can subscribe to our list & receive our monthly e-letter for free by sending any message--even blank--to [email protected].