Editor’s Picks: Bye Bye Birdie, Kim Petras, Women Celebrating Women, AFI Docs and more!

BYE BYE BIRDIE

As part of its Divas Outdoors programming on the lawn, Hillwood screens the 1963 movie adaptation of the Broadway musical by composer Charles Strouse, lyricist Lee Adams, and book writer Michael Stewart. Ann-Margret is the young fan whom rock star Conrad Birdie will sing to in a televised performance before he’s sent off to war via the draft in a movie also starring Dick Van Dyke and Janet Leigh. The evening begins after gates open at 4 p.m. with tours of the mansion and new special exhibition Mid-Century Master: The Photography of Alfred Eisenstaedt as well as picnicking on the Lunar Lawn and the option of purchasing sandwiches and light snacks plus a champagne cocktail, beer, wine, and either alcoholic or non-alcoholic frozen beverage at the Merriweather Café. Screening starts at 8:45 p.m. Friday, June 14, at the Hillwood Estate, 4155 Linnean Ave. NW. Tickets are $10 to $15. Call 202-686-5807 or visit www.HillwoodMuseum.org.

A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2

Holly Twyford, Craig Wallace, and Nancy Robinette lead a powerhouse cast in this clever and sharp “sequel” to the Ibsen classic, circa 1879 from contemporary playwright Lucas Hnath (currently represented on Broadway with Hillary and Clinton). Nicole A. Watson directs a Round House Theatre production staged at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s secondary house while the Bethesda company’s venue undergoes a dramatic renovation. Now to June 30. Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th St. NW. Call 202-547-1122 or visit www.roundhousetheatre.org. 

KLYTMNESTRA: AN EPIC SLAM POEM

Danielle Drakes directs the latest Theater Alliance production, a dynamic one-woman show written and performed by local black trans woman Dane Figueroa Edidi. A saga of strong women, the men who seek to destroy them, and the dangerous extremes this kind of society can have if left unchecked, Klytmnestra is a multicultural retelling of the classic Greek myth written to vindicate a mother slain by her own son’s hand, incorporating Kabuki and African dance elements along the way. To June 16. Anacostia Playhouse, 2020 Shannon Place SE. Tickets are $30 to $40. Call 202-241-2539 or visit www.theateralliance.com.

KIM PETRAS

A performer at Capital Pride 2018 along with Troye Sivan — who she opened for last fall at the Anthem — the German-born, L.A.-based trans dance-pop artist Petras is a bubbling-under act you’ve no doubt heard here or there via hits “Heart to Break,” “I Don’t Want It All,” “All I Do Is Cry,” and “Broken.” Petras drops by the Fillmore Silver Spring on her Broken Tour through the U.S. Mazurbate opens. Saturday, June 15. Doors at 8 p.m. 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. Tickets are $20 to $23. Call 301-960-9999 or visit www.fillmoresilverspring.com.

RICHARD III

Synetic Theater offers its 14th “wordless Shakespeare” production, an athletic, futuristic, cyberpunk adaptation of King Richard III’s Machiavellian rise to power, highlighting the terrifying extremes made possible through the abuse of modern technology. Synetic’s Paata Tsikurishvili directs Alex Mills in the title role, with Irina Tsikurishvili portraying Queen Elizabeth. The cast also includes Matt Stover, Maryam Najafzada, Thomas Beheler, Philip Fletcher, Jordan Clark Halsey, Aaron Kan, Tim Proudkii, Nutsa Tediashvili, Ana Tsikurishvili, and Scean Aaron. Closes June 16. 1800 South Bell St., Arlington. Call 800-811-4111 or visit www.synetictheater.org.

WOMEN CELEBRATING WOMEN

Bethesda’s Triangle Art Studios honors the women’s suffrage movement and the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution with an exhibition and open house featuring studio artists Jill Newman, Maruja Quezada, Barbara Siegel, and Clare Winslow. Nonprofits supporting women, including Emerge Maryland, Empowered Women International, the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, and Emily’s List, will earn 25 percent of proceeds of art sales during the Opening Reception on Friday, June 14, from 6 to 8 p.m. On display through June. Triangle Art is located in the Cheval Condominium, 7711 Old Georgetown Rd., Bethesda. Call 301-215-6660 or visit www.bethesda.org.

AFI DOCS

This year’s 17th annual documentary film festival, bringing global stories and experiences to the heart of our nation’s capital, will screen 72 films of varying length, kicking off with True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, a world-premiere profile of a prominent national lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, which provides legal services for the poor and is the driving force behind a national lynching memorial, on Wednesday, June 19, at 6:30 p.m., at the National Archives (Constitution Avenue between 7th and 9th Streets NW). Next weekend brings screenings of two feature-length LGBTQ-themed documentaries: Gay Chorus Deep South, a look at the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and its tour, with the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, to faith-based communities in red states after the 2016 election, which screens Friday, June 21, at Landmark’s E Street Cinema (555 11th St. NW), and Saturday, June 22, at 2:30 p.m. at the AFI Silver (8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring); and a 30th anniversary screening of Tongues Untied, Marlon T. Riggs’s revolutionary and moving film that gave voice to the discriminatory struggles as well as the artistic expression of communities of black gay men, incorporating poetry, music, performance, and autobiographical revelations into the mix, on Friday, June 21, at 9 p.m., at E Street. Other notable titles exploring this year’s theme exploring artists and their contributions to the creative world include Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, David Crosby: Remember My Name, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements, Shangri-La, The Apollo, and Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice — the latter the latest from the Oscar-winning gay filmmaking duo Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Times of Harvey Milk). Festival runs to June 23. Tickets are $12 to $15 each; $50 for the opening night film; passes are available starting at $150. Call 301-495-6720 or visit www.afi.com/afidocs.

THE DRAG BY MAE WEST

The Shakespeare Theatre Company celebrates Pride Month by offering a free reading, as part of its ReDiscovery Series, of a banned drama by gay icon and sex symbol Mae West, known for her eyebrow-raising double-entendres and sex-positive comedic stylings. One of the earliest depictions of gay life on the American stage, The Drag focuses on the murder of a closeted gay man who is married to the daughter of a famous gay conversion therapist, but this 1927 melodrama also features a raucous drag ball that featured West herself as a guest. Written in collaboration with West’s cast of gay male actors, The Drag was Broadway-bound after previews in Connecticut and New Jersey — but then the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice stepped in, arresting West and cast on charges of obscenity for her Broadway production of Sex, a sentimental drama about a sex worker. New York State subsequently passed a law prohibiting the representation or discussion of homosexuality on stage. The Shakespeare Theatre’s reading, directed by producing artistic director of Maryland’s Rep Stage, is followed by a talkback with local activists, performers, and scholars. Monday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m. Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th St. NW. Tickets are free but required. Call 202-547-1122 or visit www.shakespearetheatre.org.

THE DONALD J. TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL TWITTER LIBRARY

Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah offers a pop-up exhibit that riffs on “the finest works from Trump’s Twitter collection,” just in time for President Trump’s 73rd birthday. A hit in Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, the cheeky exhibit will “memorialize and celebrate the many ‘unpresidented’ moments of President Trump’s Twitter history,” and also includes a new display on First Lady Melania Trump’s main initiative, “An End to Cyberbullying,” described as “her battle against those who use personal attacks, threats of violence, and really dumb nicknames in a vain attempt to soothe their own insatiable insecurities.” Other attractions include: the “Commander-In-Tweet” interactive installation replicating the Oval Office in which participants wil be presented with a crisis situation and have 30 seconds to compose a tweet “while sitting on a golden toilet, just like the president”; “Sad! A Retrospective” video display of the people, places, and things the president has deemed “sad!”; “Trump Vs. Trump,” which documents the president’s “unique ability to hold a variety of different opinions on the same subject”; and “Verified Survivors,” a series of testimonials recounting the trauma of being attacked by Trump on Twitter from high-profile individuals. Friday, June 14, through Sunday, June 16, from noon to 8 p.m. The Showroom, 1099 14th St. NW. Free. Visit www.thedailyshow.com/trumptwitterlibrary.

THE ADVENTURE PARK: KEEP IT LIT PRIDE NIGHT

Billed as “the largest man-made outdoor climbing park in the world,” the Adventure Park at Sandy Spring was created nearly a decade ago as a fundraising entity for Sandy Spring Friends School. Located on the school’s 140-acre property, the park is 20 miles north of downtown D.C., and three miles east of Olney, in Maryland’s leafy Montgomery County. This Saturday, June 15, ushers in the second annual Pride Night evening event. “I like to call it the Adult Swim of Adventure Park: We kick all the kids out,” says owner John Hines. The park’s 13 different aerial trails, each consisting of a dozen climbing challenges and a few short “reward ziplines” — and ranging in difficulty from “absolute beginners” to “insanely difficult” — will be lit up via colored tube lighting. And the whole experience, for ages 18 and up, will be musically enhanced. Those who don’t want to climb or zipline can simply stick to the walking trails underneath — for free. Why Pride Night? Because Sandy Spring “is a Quaker school,” and Quakers, as Hines puts it, “have been on the forefront of every social issue in the world. It means a lot to us.” Located at 16701 Norwood Rd., Sandy Spring, Md. Tickets are $34 per two-hour climbing session per person for Keep It Lit. Call 240-389-4386 or visit www.theadventurepark.com.