Draft Infographic: Illustrating the History and Success of the NFL’s “Rooney Rule”
Bier Baron Tavern’s Strange Dance with the Devil
Originally published on KStreetMagazine.com on November 16, 2012.
It can generally be said that when the word “strange” appears in the title of a play, you can expect it to be just that. The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, playing now at the Bier Baron Tavern in Dupont (that’s right, a dinner show!), is no exception: the story tells of a young Scottish folklore academic (and self-described expert in depictions of hell in what are called “Border Ballads”) that finally learns to love—when she seduces the devil to escape the underworld.
Indeed strange; but raucous, clever, and completely enchanting, too. Presented in DC by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, this National Theater of Scotland production features live Scottish (and not-so-Scottish, without giving it away) music, extraordinary performances by a cast of just five actors, and of course — like any good piece of fiction — a look at the meanings of life and love, relationships, loneliness, tradition versus modernity… the things that make us all tick… through the journey of the young heroine, Prudencia.
Fair warning, though: this is not for the shy or faint of heart….
To read the rest of the post, click here.
Z-Burger: The American Dream Reaches Columbia Heights
A version of this post appeared in K Street Magazine on September 7, 2012.
Have you tried the onion rings, yet? asked Peter Tabibian, hovering over a flock of reporters like a doting mother. Let me get you onion rings, he answered aloud, before anyone could say that they were already full from the cheeseburgers, cheese steaks, fries, hot dogs and custard they’d already sampled. Later, he would invite us to tour not only the kitchen, but the basement storage rooms, where century-old tiles still lined the walls, and a faded, carved fireplace could be seen behind boxes of plastic cups.
And who could blame him for his enthusiasm?
STC’s ‘Strange Interlude’ Worth the Hike
“Every time you see an O’Neill play, [it’s] like climbing up to the top of a mountain,” said Director Michael Kahn in a recent blog post. ”It can be hard work but [it’s] also incredibly rewarding.”
In referring to his latest Shakespeare Theatre Company production Strange Interlude, Kahn hit that nail on its head. At first, the story seems contrived and untimely, reflecting long-outdated attitudes about love and marriage, a melodrama centered on a desperate, delusional heroine Nina Leeds– a war widow who sacrifices her happiness to men in repentance for the death of her adored fiance.
But despite its dark, or at least controversial undertones– sordid affairs, family secrets, questioning love, chauvinism, and above all, religion– Kahn breathes a timeless humor into his script (masterfully edited down to a three-hour performance from an original running time of six).
To view the rest of the story, originally published April 3, 2012, visit KStreetKate.com.
Tough Questions at HBO’s Game Change Premiere
Tinseltown’s finest met in DC last night for the premiere of HBO’s Game Change, a film starring Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson and Ed Harris that chronicles the behind-the-scenes drama of John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid, from his surprise move of selecting Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate to the duo’s ultimate defeat in the general election.
Based on the book by political journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, “We lift the curtain, we show beat by beat what it’s like to be inside a presidential campaign,” said screenwriter Danny Strong at the Newseum event.
“It’s a human story” about a woman who was thrust onto a national stage, completely ill-equipped, said actress Sarah Paulson, who plays senior campaign advisor Nicolle Wallace.
A human story, but nonetheless a political one as well…
View the rest of this story, published March 9, 2012, at KStreetKate.com.
