National Portrait Gallery director charms the Arts Club

Kim Sajet at the Arts Club, May 4, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The crowd may not have been as big as it was last month when the National Gallery of Art director came, but remarks by the director of the National Portrait Gallery Wednesday night at the Arts Club seemed deeper, more personal, and drew louder laughter. 

Kim Sajet with Dana Tai Soon Burgess at the Arts Club, May 4, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

"I'm fine with people coming in the museum and walking out more confused" than when they came in, said Kim Sajet, NPG director and the first woman to hold the position.

"We are a history museum as well as an art museum," she said, and "I'm just dangerous enough to know a little bit about a lot of things."

She continued: "I believe what museums do is important."

Many new museum directors discover they are "floating down the river" without staff support which takes some time to win over, but Dr. Sajet is proud of her staff.

The National Portrait Gallery is the only portrait gallery in the U.S. she reminded the audience, and it has tried "some crazy things," but the crazies seem to draw the biggest crowds.  

For three days the NPG hosted, more or less on a lark, an exhibition during the heyday of "Google glasses."  

"People lined up for hours to see it," Dr. Sajet said. 

"We've made mistakes; we've learned a lot." 

The Portrait Gallery "used to be non-threatening" with lots of "dead white guys.  What was not to love?" she asked.

NPG's mantra is to collect portraits of persons (until 2001, "really dead" persons, like for more than 10 years) who have made a great impact on American history and culture. 

Right now an artist is working on the Trump portraits, and the Gallery has 15 works under commission. 

The museum might approach a major contemporary artist, she said, and ask:  "Who would you want to do?" 

"I don't know why museums have to be so boring; you know, 'don't touch.'"

"I always tell the curators, you'll get brownie points if you can make someone cry."

"If you live here, you try to stay away from all these tourists, face it."

Competition on the National Mall for space is stiff with two new museums vying for land:  the  women's history museum and the U.S. Latino museum, and hold it!  There's a new kid coming to the block,  an Asian-American museum, Dr. Sajet said.

Answering a question from a member of the audience, she is "so grateful we are not on the Mall.  We are surrounded by fantastic restaurants" but on the Mall, it's nothing but a "food wasteland."

When she arrived in 2013, NPG attendance was one million; now attendance is 2.3 million.

"We may not have the largest attendance" among museums, "but we're the most revisited museum," she said. (Unclear if she meant museums in D.C. or the U.S., probably the former.) 

This year's Outwin Boochever competition which NPG holds once every three years, chose 42 finalists from  2,774 entries, Dr. Sajet said. The winner, Alison Elizabeth Taylor, received $25,000.

It's not easy determining who belongs in the collection.

Take Katy Perry, "a good example," Dr. Sajet said.

At the time Ms. Perry was selected for NPG inclusion, "she was the second highest performing artist after Michael Jackson. If Rosemary Clooney got in, why not Katy Perry?"

(Katy Perry has her own solo shot at NPG; Rosemary Clooney is pictured with 17 others.)

        Will Cotton (b. 1965) , Cupcake Katy, 2010, National Portrait Gallery

Philippe Halsman (1906-1979), Rodgers and Hammerstein, 1954, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Jane Halsman Bello, © Philippe Halsman Archive. Rosemary Clooney is pictured the second from left, back row.

When someone dies, "we put out their portrait"  like Aretha Franklin's (died August 16, 2018), when "the line was out the door the next day."

Visitors left purple flowers at Prince's portrait, ashes for Kobe Bryant on the museum's steps, and filled "two books" (of remembrances?) for John McCain.

"People want to be with other people" at these sad times. 

Answering an audience question, Dr. Sajet said NPG has about 40 digital portraits in its collection.

She was born in Nigeria to Dutch parents, holds citizenship in the Netherlands, and grew up in Australia. She loves reading and is probably one of those "readers for life." She's been in the U.S. 25 years.

"My mother is someone I've always admired." Dr. Sajet has a severely disabled brother.

As a youth, she "fell in love with the history of art." 

"A moment" she experienced at the Whitney Museum of American Art was when she saw a painting by Edward Hopper of an outdoor cafe with a sad clown which helped steer her life.

Edward Hopper, Soir Bleu, 1914, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Moderating her presentation was Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Arts Club member, choreographer-in-residence for the Smithsonian, and "poet laureate of national dance" (as identified by a club member).

From May 17 - 19, 2022, NPG will host his newest work, El Muro [The Wall], created by inspiration drawn from the Outwin-Boochever contest. It's 30 minutes of modern dance with 10 performers and live music by Martin Zarzar, formerly of Pink Martini. 

Free to see, but May 17 is "sold out."  Go here to reserve.

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Post-Putin Russia

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Tverskaya Street, Moscow, Mar. 26, 2017/Wikipedia

Navalny, the film, was the subject of a program last week at the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute. 

Other topics came up.

The Kennan's Izabella Tabarovsky  moderated discussion of the "thriller," as she called it, with Leonid Volkov, Alexei Navalny's former chief of staff, and  Maria Pevchikh, head of investigations for the Anti-Corruption Foundation. 

Navalny established the Foundation in 2011 which the Moscow City Court extinguished last June.

Ms. Pevchikh urged that sanctions on Russia remain: "Putin should not be able to get away with what he did."

"Keep pushing until the outcome is there."

Putin should be subjected to [a special] tribunal. 

A former ambassador to/from (?) Moldova asked the panel how to avoid now the "illusion" experienced in the 1990s that the Soviet Union would become more democratic after the nation's 1989 upheaval.

Mr. Volkov said, "we do not know."  It makes no sense to speculate until Putin is gone.  When Stalin died, it took three years to figure out his successor.  All his lieutenants started killing each other.  Right now, none of Putin's lieutenants are strong enough to become a leader. They are all very weak, hating each other.  It  will take three years at least to sort things out. No one knows the lieutenants.

Ms. Pevchikh: No one knows either, the exact number of Russians who have died in the war.  If you trust the government, the number is one to two thousand.  Russia's evening news about Ukraine lasts about 58 minutes. As far as the Russian ship sinking in mid-April, "they" just said "it went down and there was a fire." 

"A Russian soldier's life is worth nothing to Putin," Ms. Pevchikh said.  He has made the Russians think their sons' lives are nothing since "a life is worth sacrificing."

Only the poorest get conscripted, and so far, Putin is quite successful...at home.

patricialesli@gmail.com

National Gallery of Art director woos the Arts Club

Kaywin Feldman at the Arts Club, April 6, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Kaywin Feldman sat on stage at the Arts Club this month with moderator and Club member, Dana Tai Soon Burgess, and talked about her background and vision for the National Gallery of Art. Later, she answered questions from the 50 or so who paid to come and hear the "new" (three years) Gallery director.  

Ms. Feldman started her career as a director at a museum when she was only 28, after being on staff of a Fresno, California museum for just a year. 

Although 52 percent of museum directors today are women, she said there are still none "at the top except for me." 

Kaywin Feldman with Dana Tai Soon Burgess at the Arts Club, April 6, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Her dad was in the U.S. Coast Guard and they moved around a bit.  When Ms. Feldman was born in Boston, he was working on his Ph.D.  Although she mentioned him several times in her talk, she scarcely made reference to  her mother, a homemaker. 

Ms. Feldman's "role model," was Mary Tyler Moore for, after all, who else was there to admire professionally in her growing up years?

She was unsure about a college major and it took several international trips before she found her "calling" on Crete and Knossos which led to her major in Greek and Roman architecture.

Kaywin Feldman at the Arts Club, April 6, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

In her younger years, the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto in Padua, Italy brought her to tears:  "I cried, I was so moved" when she saw it, she said. "I was walking on air" to "experience the feeling of wonder.  It's bigger than we are as human beings. We are part of the shared humanity." 

She praised Andrew Mellon who started NGA with his fortune but who died before the Gallery opened in 1941. His son, Paul, took up his father's leadership role and worked towards making NGA "a living institution." 

Now, NGA is diligently working to reassert "national" in its name and image and more closely match U.S.  demographics. NGA's collection is made up overwhelmingly of male artists: 92 percent and of that percentage, 98 percent are white.

The new exhibition of historic and contemporary pieces by black artists (Afro-Atlantic Histories) is  "joyful, celebratory, challenging, and difficult;" a history "of so many different people."

The audience interrupted her talk several times with applause.  

The show does not focus explicitly on slavery, Ms. Feldman noted, but it's part of the story told on the walls. (Writer's note:  The depth and scope of Histories is surprising; much more than I ever expected with 130 works from several continents spanning the 17th century to the present.)

Answering a question from an audience member (none of the questions which appeared pre-screened), Ms. Feldman said the East Building (which has been undergoing renovations since 2019) is set to open in July and then the West Building will close for renovations.

All the skylights in the East are being replaced, the first time since 1978, she said. 

It's not been easy working as part of the federal government and having to wait for years for budgets to be approved. 

As a director in her 20s, she relied a lot on instincts which with her experience, still help her today.

Museums are "moral institutions" which should strive "to do good things and do no harm." 

Climate change was acknowledged:  When it comes to heating and cooling buildings, art museums are "wasteful....I need to do more to reduce [our] carbon footprint." Staff travel contributes to climate change. 

Because of Russia's attack on Ukraine, Ms. Feldman resigned her position at the Hermitage to some criticisms, she said. [She had been a member of the State Hermitage Museum International Advisory Board.] 

She has European colleagues who are "very afraid we may no longer be able to work with Russian colleagues." 

Like the Baltimore Museum of Art with an exhibit now up which was curated by museum guards, Ms. Feldman has been communicating with NGA's security guards, too, some of whom have worked at the Gallery for 30 to 40 years. She finds the conversations "challenging, joyful, exciting." 

The NGA guards are "so proud that their story is being told now" as part of the African Dispora. 

She talked about the Benin Bronzes and deaccessioning the only Benin piece at NGA. The process has taken 2.5 years and is "still in our basement." She feels "very strongly [these] works should be returned." 

A British military officer involved in the Benin's "looting" only died in 1970,  bringing the acts closer to  home. 

She said art can change lives with its transformative powers.  It changed hers.

Dana Tai Soon Burgess is the Smithsonian's choreographer-in-residence. 

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Best Documentary: 'Attica'

Granted, I have seen only one other Oscar documentary nominee, Summer of Soul, which is excellent, but in no way can it compare to Attica and its cutting force of the uprising and deaths by law enforcement at the prison in New York, Sept. 9 - 13, 1971. 

On the 50th anniversary of the rebellion last fall, the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and aired on Showtime.

It presents archived film, first-person interviews with those who were there, and new documentation and video about the deaths of inmates and hostages. Except for one guard and three inmates, law enforcement killed 29 prisoners and 10 hostages. 

Two inmates were convicted in the guard's death. No one else was charged.  

The prisoners said they wanted to be treated like people; not like beasts, a refrain which echoes throughout the film.

Stanley Nelson at the Motion Picture Association screening of his film, Attica/Photo by Patricia Leslie

After law enforcement stopped shooting, the prisoners were stripped naked and made to crawl on all fours through human excrement which had accumulated in a makeshift drain the inmates made during the riot. I could only think of Dachau. 

Outside prison walls, some law enforcement members smiled and congratulated themselves on "white power." 

From left at the Motion Picture Association, Major Garrett, Stanley Nelson, Traci Curry, and James Asbury/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Traci Curry and James Asbury at the Motion Picture Association screening of Attica/Photo by Patricia Leslie

If you ever thought anything positive about New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, your opinion will change after you see Attica. Not that his presence would have saved lives, but...

For his own ego, to improve his standing in the Republican Party, to grease his route to the White House (never achieved), Rockefeller ignored the plight of prisoners and the townspeople and did not go to Attica as requested, but, instead, he consulted with President Richard Nixon whose secret tapes revealed their conversation. 

That will show "the Angela Davis crowd," Nixon crowed, "just like Kent State."

After the uprising, Rockefeller claimed the prisoners "carried out the cold-blood killings they had threatened from the outset."  He, of course, was wrong.

After Attica was screened last week at offices of the Motion Picture Association in Washington, former Attica inmate James Asbury joined CBS newsman Major Garrett and the filmmakers,  Stanley Nelson and Traci Curry, for a discussion of the making of the film and what it was like to be there.

Director Nelson said he realized he had better go ahead and make the film now, to "get these guys on film" since the 20-somethings then were in their 70-somethings now.  

He and Ms. Curry said they were surprised by the cooperation they received from local citizens and the newscasters who were willing to talk for cameras.

The many first person accounts by prisoners, hostage family members, attorneys, and law enforcement flesh out the horror.

A historian was interviewed but that segment didn't fit the event's flow, and was not included, the filmmakers said. 

Major Garrett was passionate about the film which he said he's seen three times, twice  last Thursday.

It's a brutal telling, with archival materials and new video the producer and director discovered while reviewing documents gathered by law enforcement which they thought would portray themselves in a positive way. 

Ms. Curry said the film is not only about the prisoners, but the working class residents of the small town whose wellbeing was not even an afterthought by authorities who ignore society's lower rungs.

Attica is another sad chapter in American history where the number of deaths remain the most recorded at a U.S. prison rebellion.

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Washington Stage Guild presents exceptional Bernard Shaw

 

(L-R) Will Rothhaar as Frank Gardner, Peter Boyer as Mr. Praed and Carl Randolph as Sir George Crofts in Mrs. Warren’s Profession at Washington Stage Guild/Photo by DJ Corey Photography

A prescient script from the 19th century matches outstanding performances by today's actors in Washington Stage Guild's current production, Mrs. Warren's Profession.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), sometimes ranked as the greatest British playwright after William Shakespeare, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. He wrote more than 60 plays, including Mrs. Warren's Profession which he finished in 1893, and one he considered one of his "plays unpleasant" since it weighed in on a controversial topic. 

(L-R) Lynn Steinmetz as Mrs. Kitty Warren and Rachel Felstein as Vivie Warren in Mrs. Warren’s Profession at Washington Stage Guild/Photo by DJ Corey Photography

It's about a reformed prostitute and brothel-owner who tries to forge a new relationship with her estranged daughter, outraged by her mother's profession.

Shaw believed the brothel business was one forced by economic necessity, not by moral failings, and ends his play on an unsettling note of which I had hoped the opposite.

(L-R) R. Scott Williams as Reverend Samuel Gardner and Will Rothhaar as Frank Gardner in Mrs. Warren’s Profession at Washington Stage Guild/Photo by DJ Corey Photography

Director Michael Rothharr has some experience with this drama: He directed it for the Guild in 1991 when his son, Will, pranced around the stage at age four and now appears in the show as Frank Gardner in a sharp, confident manner. 

"Frank" is a suitor, and a likely possibility to "clinch the deal," although somewhat manipulative and coy. 

Lynn Steinmetz is Mrs. Warren, also from the 1991 production when she played Vivie (and not looking a day older).

From my mother's perspective, Mrs. Warren's frailties deserve compassion and patience, while her daughter, Vivie (Rachel Felstein), is a cold-blooded, self-righteous, and heartless woman who knows not how to forgive. 

A mother's pleas go unheeded.

Both women present their characters in convincing fashion. 

Superb acting by the remainder of the cast matches the riveting content including the wonderfully likable, clown Peter Boyer as Mr. Praed, another Vivie suitor and welcome contrast to the serious business at hand.

Carl Randolph is Sir George Croft, the entitled wealthy financier of Mrs. Warren's business, her "pimp" who sets his eyes on Vivie, too.  Although a simple gesture when he lays his hand upon her shoulder, it was as if he had stripped her, exposing her vulnerabilities and sending shivers up my spine, for he took liberties with touch which was every man's right in Victorian England when it came to spouses. Women had no rights.  And she was not his spouse.

R. Scott Williams is the Reverend Samuel Gardner, a bumbling, stumbling mysterious piece of Mrs. Warren's puzzle and also, the father of Frank Gardner.  

Many questions are left unanswered for the pleasure of the audience to figure out.

Victorian costumes (by Sigríd Jóhannesdóttir), especially Mrs. Warren's colorful hats, are a delight and nicely complement the men in their dashing, upper-class attire.

Megan Holden designed an outdoor garden setting which easily transitions into law offices and more, all perfectly adequate for the show.

Shaw's play was years ahead of a more vigorous effort to win women's rights, a movement still underway in this, the month to recognize women's history.

In Britain Lord Chamberlain banned the play which did not reach the public stage until 1925, and when it came to New York in 1905, police arrested the cast and crew.

Other production crew members: Marianne Meadows, lighting; Marcus Darnley, sound; Arthur Nordlie, stage manager; Jenny Male, intimacy director; Laura Giannarelli, assistant stage manager; Bill Largess, artistic director and dramaturg; Steven Carpenter, associate artistic director.

What: Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw

When: Thursday, 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Through March 27, 2022,

Where: The Undercroft Theatre of Mt. Vernon Place United Methodist Church, 900 Massachusetts Ave., Washington, D.C. 20001

Tickets: Thursday and matinees, $50; Friday and Saturday nights, $60.

For more information, call the Box Office, 202-900-8788 and/or visit the WSG's website.

Metro stations: Walk from Mt. Vernon Square, Gallery Place, or Metro Center.

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Make way for Alexandria's 'Blue Stockings'

Paul Donahoe (Mr. Banks), Ilyana Rose-Dávila (Maeve Sullivan), Madeline Byrd (Tess Moffat), Melissa Dunlap (Celia Willbond), Tegan Cohen (Carolyn Addison) in Little Theatre of Alexandria's Blue Stockings/Photo by Matt Liptak

A "blue stocking" in 19th century England was a derisive term meaning a woman who eschewed "wifely duties" and pursuits of the home to advance her own intellectual goals, namely, that of mind enrichment and learning. 

You sometimes hear the term today.   

In this Women's History Month, the Little Theatre of Alexander brings to the stage, Blue Stockings, the first play by Jessica Swale (b. 1982) which presents four young ladies who pursue a higher education, amidst ridicule and attacks by "gentlemen" students who, then as they do now, set about to mold the women, according to their desired tastes. 

"She wants to be a scientist; alas!  She's a woman!" Tsk! Tsk!

Ilyana Rose-Dávila (Maeve Sullivan), Melissa Dunlap (Celia Willbond), Elizabeth Replogle (Miss Blake), Tegan Cohen (Carolyn Addison), Madeline Byrd (Tess Moffat) in Little Theatre of Alexandria's Blue Stockings/Photo by Matt Liptak

The setting is Cambridge University at the first female college for women, Girton College, established in 1869. (It would be another 79 years before women would be accepted at Cambridge [1948].) 

The first scene of the play opens at what appears to be the university or a prison, maybe both.

The drama hits several themes, including females who ride bicycles (this is a theme?) and want to gain their independence, seeking opportunities to attend and graduate from the university. 

Change is hard to tolerate in most circumstances, and these "gentlemen" are going to have none of it!

At least, most of them.

(Back row) Tegan Cohen (Carolyn Addison), Melissa Dunlap (Celia Willbond), Madeline Byrd (Tess Moffat), Ilyana Rose-Dávila (Maeve Sullivan)

(Front row) Robert Heinly (Dr. Maudsley/Professor Collins), Anne Hilleary (Miss Bott/Mrs. Lindley), Michael King (Holmes), Ali Cheraghpour (Edwards), James Blacker (Lloyd), Paul Donahoe (Mr. Banks)  in Little Theatre of Alexandria's Blue Stockings/Photo by Matt Liptak

Enter "Dr. Maudsley" (Robert Heinly), based on a real character, and soon to bear the hatred of most audience members. He questions, he undermines, he belittles the women in his gruff and domineering manner with a commanding voice, seizing every moment, every spotlight and devouring all the attention whenever he's on stage. 

He is thoroughly disgusting and it takes only seconds to grow to hate him.  I believe it was he who said, "This is a lecture hall, not a laundromat," but he was 65 years too early since the term was not used until 1934.

Meanwhile, to counterbalance this most unlikable of unlikables, is "Professor Banks" superbly portrayed by Paul Donahoe, a humorous fellow who exercises patience and support for the women and their goals.

Mr. Donahoe's seesawing hand and arm motions, flung out like the wings of a pterosaur, add energy and enthusiasm to his character.  He is a hero in the time of none (or, one). 

Liz LeBoo as the real-life "Mrs. Welsh," the college head mistress, makes for a stern, yet sympathetic leader.

I loved "Miss Bott" (Anne Hilleary), a perfectly good chaperone and women's hall advisor, so typical in her physical appearance and garb, not as blind and deaf as she seems (like most house mothers!). 

Madeline Byrd is "Tess Moffat," one of the four young women who receives most of the attention and earnestly carries out her duties as a discriminated woman. 

Some humor arrives when the librarian (Joel Durgavich) loudly shushes everybody in the grand manner of yesteryear. 

The British accents came across as unaffected and realistic, not pretentious and overdone, as they often are.

Costumer Joan Lawrence dressed the women according to the times, but the men's apparel seemed to diverge from the era.

Initial derogatory comments about women brought some murmurs of laughter from audience which made me a little uncomfortable that anyone would laugh at these remarks in the 21st century. We still have far to go.

A provocative production which I did not anticipate would bring me to tears, but there they flowed in the last scene, leaving me to think I'm a lucky gal to live now, instead of then! 

Other cast members:  Madeline Byrd, Ilyana Rose-Davila, Melissa Dunlap (also, the dance choreographer), Tegan Cohen, Ali Cheraghpour, James Blacker, Michael King (also fight captain), John Paul Odle, Michael Townsend, Elizabeth Replogle, Khalia Muhammad (also, assistant to the director), Michael Rufo, Will Cooke, Manus Nunan, and Hilary Adams (also, assistant director).

Also in the production crew: Lloyd Bittinger, Margaret Chapman, Christine Farrell, producers; Marzanne Claiborne, director;  Meredith Kirchner, Joan A.S. Lada, stage managers; A.K. Camper, Steve Lada, assistant stage managers and (Lada) combat choreographer;  Margaret Snow, wardrobe chief; Domenica Marchetti, language coach; Robin Maline, hair/wigs/makeup; Franklin Colemen, lighting; Donna Reynolds, property design; Charles Dragonette, set design and dressing; Jim Hutzler and Jeff Nesmeyer, set construction; Diedre (De) Nicholson-Lamb, set painting; Alan Wrap, sound; Art Snow, special effects coordinator; Beverley Benda, vocal coach, Russell M. Wyland, rigging.

LTA's Covid-19 Attendance Policy requires all persons to provide proof of full vaccination AND to wear a mask inside LTA (including during the performance).

What: Blue Stockings by Jessica Swale

When: Now through Mar. 19, 2022, Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.  The Sunday 2 p.m. performance on Mar. 13 is sold out!

How much:  $21, weekdays; $24, weekends.

Where: The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street, Alexandria, VA 22314.

Duration: About 2 hours with one 15-minute intermission.

For more information: Box Office: 703-683-0496; Business: 703-683-5778. Email: boxoffice@thelittletheatre.com or Asklta@thelittletheatre.com

Patricialesli@gmail.com

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Reston's 'Delightful Quarantine' is just that

L-R, Anthony Pohl is "Tug Goff," Liz Weber is "Mavis," and Kim Thornley is "Violet" in Reston Community Players' A Delightful Quarantine/Heather Regen Photography  
 

Attention, Theatregoers:   This one I could see again!  There aren't many shows I can write that about, but Reston Community Players' A Delightful Quarantine is so much fun.

What's to say that all quarantines are bad?  

Not necessarily so in  Susqua Creek Acres, Pennsylvania where some "extra-terrestrials" have landed and it's  immediate confinement to whatever house you're in!  

Head for the doors! 

Liz Shaher's surround sirens ignite the show and away we go!

Charlene Sloan is "Shirley" and Kevin Dykstra is "Roy" in Reston Community Players' A Delightful Quarantine/Heather Regen Photography

It's an hilarious romp with a huge cast (I love 'em), multiple scenes (ditto), many costume changes (yes!) and just about everything one could want in a stage show.

Director Liz Mykietyn writes in program notes that she found the play by Mark Dunn 15 years ago, but it took 10 years to convince anyone to do it. Enter and thank you, RCP! 

How some strangers come to be commingled is life as it is! And, not to be discriminatory, but I do believe the female actors  outshone the men!

The cast has uncoupled couples (?) stuck together, a crossdresser, a long-lost daughter, a prayerful sister, and many more. 

"It" is not the "it" you think "it " is!

My favs were the two "elderly" women (Liz Weber as Mavis, Kim Thornley as Violet) perfectly costumed (by Kathy Dunlap) in little old lady garb of flowered dresses, sweaters (de rigueur!)  and pearl necklaces. (Wait! They're in vogue!)

But it's their mannerisms, the weaves, the bobs, and "Violet's" teetering and tottering which steal the show.  I never wanted them to leave. 

Ms. Mykietyn choreographed the fights and helped design and paint the set, but her tutelage of the two women could be an acting class. 

Although I am not a "cat woman," Shelby Kaplan as the convincing "Judeen" almost made her stumbling date, "Chester" (Michael Wong) and me, into cat fanciers. 

Ms. Kaplan was another favorite whose performance, delivery, and voice grow stronger in every scene she's in, producing cat howls from the audience, for to get 14 cats on stage simultaneously is quite the feat.

A sneeze is a sneeze is a sneeze (maybe, two). (?) He flushed the toilet twice! (?) 

"Professor" Lucy Fuller (Beth Atkins) is the seesawing "moderator" who leads the show with a terrific voice to boot!  It is no wonder she's the music coach, too.

The playbook calls for seven different interior house scenes and before the show, I wondered how that would be achieved.  

Not to worry.

Minimalism may be in vogue, but here, not so much.

One scene easily flows into another on the complicated, stacked stage of different rooms which all work splendidly with Jeff Auerbach and Kimberly Crago's expert lighting, blinking in different colors to target the speaker. 

A laughing good time at the theatre will set your mind apart from another world, for this Quarantine is a fantastic escape to kick off spring to a rollicking start.

I must say I felt some guilt and unease having a jolly good time watching the play unfold in this time of global tragedy and death and destruction in Ukraine.  It's impossible to escape all the horror, but RCP managed to make me forget troubles for a little while and I am grateful.

Other cast members are Alexa Yarboro Pettengill (also, properties designer and set dresser), America Michelle, Nida Syed (another standout actor), Rebecca Asch, Josh Keiter, Charlene Sloan, Kevin Dykstra, Allie Blanchet (Mar. 5, 6, 11),  Birdie Thomas (Mar. 11), Jane Keifer (Mar. 5, 6, 11),  Cara Ethington (Mar. 12), Eileen Marshall, Danny Seal, Anthony Pohl, Ryan Heise (also the stage manager), Kate Keifer (also, the marketer), Anna Mintz (also, set designer and painter), Charlotte McIntosh (also, assistant stage manager), David Reph, Richard Durkin (also the producer).

The production team included Dan Widerski, master carpenter, electrician, and with Sara Birkhead, technical director; Kat Brais, hair and makeup; Jon Roberts, projections; and Ali Althen, marketing.

Who: Reston Community Players

What:  A Delightful Quarantine by Mark Dunn

When: March 5, 11 and 12 at 8 p.m. and March 6, 2 p.m.

Where: Reston Community Center, 2310 Colts Neck Road, Reston, VA 20191

Tickets:  Buy online, at the box office at the Community Center, or call 703-476-4500 and press 3 for 24-hour service. $30, adults; $25, juniors and seniors, plus, $2, fee each ticket. The Reston Community Center’s box office is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 4 - 9 p.m.; Saturday, 1 - 5 p.m.; and 2 hours before any ticketed performance.

Ages: For all but likely too complex for those under age 12. 

Duration: Two hours plus one 15-minute intermission. 

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