Olney Outdoors’ First Show Is On Us: Rayshun Lamarr
Founded in 1938 as a summer playhouse and relaxing weekend getaway in what was then rural Montgomery County, the Olney Theatre Center recently unveiled a summer-long performing arts slate that nods to its roots while also reflecting the current zeitgeist.
The multi-genre “Olney Outdoors” presents a range of programming that, according to the theater’s Kevin McAllister, celebrates “bringing together both our likenesses and differences in a positive light,” performed as Washingtonians of all different backgrounds and experiences “sit under the stars and find joy in our commonalities together.”
To help encourage new guests to make the trek, Olney Theatre has implemented a new First Show Is On Us initiative in which those who have never been to the campus can get four free tickets to a paid event of their choice.
Grouped across eight categories, the lineup includes Friday night revues, part of the Andrew A. Isen Cabaret Series, each week featuring two stars of Washington’s theater scene sharing the open-air Root Family Stage. Upcoming pairings include Donna Migliaccio and Nova Y. Payton (8/6), Rayanne Gonzales and Rayshun Lamarr (8/13), Greg Maheu and Vishal Vaidya (8/20), and Malinda Kathleen Reese and Alan Wiggins (8/27). Saturday nights bring Jazz@Olney with performances by some of the area’s best jazz artists including Christie DaShiell (7/31), Elijah Jamal Balbed (8/7), Akua Allrich & The Tribe (8/14), Warren Wolf & WOLFPACK (8/21), and Mark G. Meadows & The Movement (8/28). Additional paid weekend shows that first-time attendees could attend for free include Theatre for Young Audiences performances as well as faith-centered “Sing Praise!” concerts.
On Wednesday nights in August, Olney will present free showcases, two apiece, of slam poets and drag performers. Sip ‘N’ Slam is set for the first two hump days of the month, with spoken-word artists Megan Rickman Blackwood, Black Root, Regie Cabico, and Carlynn Newhouse scheduled for Part One (8/4), and Vijai Nathan, Amin Drew Law, Charity Blackwell, and Analysis for Part Two (8/11). It’s followed by two hump nights with a glittery gaggle of drag queens storming the stage including Brooklyn Heights, Betty O’Hellno, Ariel Von Quinn, and Evon Michelle on August 18, and Kristina Kelly, Vagenesis, Tiara Missou, and Echinacea Monroe pulling on August 25.
The programming takes place in and around the outdoor Root Family Stage, with guests seated distanced on blankets or in chairs, or on raised bleachers offered at full capacity for fully vaccinated or more risk-tolerant guests. (In case of inclement weather, some performances will be moved indoors to the Mainstage with up to 200 patrons spread out at less than half-capacity.)
Olney Theatre Center is located at 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, in Olney, Md. Call 301-924-3400 or visit www.olneytheatre.org.
Stages are alight this Spring with a deluge of exciting productions -- some starry, as in the case of The Shakespeare Theatre's Uncle Vanya featuring Hugh Bonneville, equally beloved in Downton Abbey and the joyous Paddington films.
The beauty of theater -- and in all these inventive, upcoming works -- is that it serves up various points of view with drama, wit, and intellect often concealed under the guise of boisterous entertainment. At its best, theater quenches our thirst for a deeper connection to our fellow human beings. At its worst, it's Cats. Still, theater sometimes gives you a musical moment that makes your spirits soar.
Defying the adage that the lady needs no introduction, Bruce David Klein’s captivating documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story extends a four-minute introduction to its larger-than-life subject Liza Minnelli before the film truly enters the breach, touching down on June 22, 1969, the day her mother Judy Garland died.
In the midst of the preamble performance clips -- presenting Liza as a gangly ingenue onstage with her mother, and as a superstar commanding the world’s stages on her own -- Klein runs amusing outtakes of Liza, present-day, sitting for interviews but not at all passively. Dressed in head-to-toe black, her trademark pixie cut topped by a newsboy cap, she commands the room tenaciously, directing the cameraman on how to shoot her.
“I was talking to a couple of homosexuals down in Melbourne, and they were talking to me about listening to Kylie,” John Grant says rather gleefully, clearly relishing this anecdote from his recent tour of Australia. “And I was like, ‘She came and guested at my show at Royal Albert Hall, and came on stage during ‘Glacier.’” The Aussies’ response? “They were just looking at me like I had two heads on my shoulders. They were looking at me like a German Shepherd hearing a weird noise.
“It was really hilarious,” he continues, “because it was just as epic for me as it was for them hearing that.”
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