Seven ways to enjoy summer in the city
If you’re sticking close to home this summer, not to worry. There’s still plenty to do in the area. Grab a snowball to keep cool, and head on out to enjoy some of Baltimore’s favorite traditions. 1. Artscape Artscape is the largest free arts festival in the U.S. (last year, over 350,000 attended), and it’s located right here in Charm City. There will be more than 150 fine... READ MORE
Columbia launches inaugural film festival
The Columbia Film Festival — the first of what organizers hope will be an annual event — gets underway Friday, June 24 and Saturday, June 25 with two dozen films from around the world screened at Howard Community College. The films, from movie makers as far away as Korea and Japan and as close to home as Ellicott City, helps winds up this summer’s Columbia Festival of the Arts,... READ MORE
Summer: big-name musicals, festival fare
Summer theater in Washington: The first thing we usually ask ourselves is what’s onstage at the Kennedy Center, which typically schedules a couple of big productions, often for long runs. There’s no deviation from custom this year, with a couple of major audience attractions in the Potomac palace. First is Kinky Boots, running from June 14 to July 10 in the Opera House. It’s the... READ MORE
Peter Pan flies high at Toby’s in Columbia
Wild Indians, bungling pirates and kids who know what’s important (not growing up) are whooping, flailing and flying all over the small stage at Toby’s in the dinner theater’s gleeful and invigorating Peter Pan.Still, and all, let’s consider the time (1903) and the place (Scotland and London) of the origin of the play.And let us note that the play is definitely a... READ MORE
Older dancers show amazing gracefulness
In a discipline filled with young, flexible dancers, it isn’t often that seniors have the opportunity to take to the stage and offer their own expressions through movement.Their leg extensions may not be as high as they used to be, nor their lunges as deep. But older dancers bring deep emotion and vast experience to their performances, according to Cheryl Goodman, director of Dance... READ MORE
He’s behind the Mall’s patriotic concerts
Without Jerry Colbert, there would be no crowds of hundreds of thousands on the National Mall, no swelling strings of the National Symphony Orchestra in the al fresco concerts broadcast live to millions of homes on PBS, no roster of celebrities celebrating the country’s most patriotic holidays. “I felt pretty good about that, that a show on public television can beat NBC,” Colbert... READ MORE
Colorful balloons to fly high over Howard
Ron Broderick, known as the Balloon Meister, is ready to take you up, up and away into the west Howard County sky before bringing you down to earth at the Turf Valley resort in Ellicott City.If you don’t want to take the 30 to 45 minute sky ride in one of the 21 balloons on display, you could rise 60 to 80 feet, then descend, in a tethered balloon.The balloons will be glowing from... READ MORE
Chamber concerts in a homey atmosphere
Daniel Weiser wants to bring chamber music “alive” for Baltimore audiences. All is offered in a relaxed and informal real-home atmosphere in hopes of enticing new concert-goers — especially younger audiences who may not have been exposed to classical music previously. “We want the audience members to enjoy the energy of the performances, and the spirit of community and... READ MORE
Alvin Ailey dancer returns to hometown
When Jacqueline Green appears in Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Baltimore engagement at the Lyric on April 26 and 27, the young dancer will be coming home to be greeted by family and friends — and new audiences. Green, who is 26 and grew up near the Alameda in Baltimore, was a self-described tomboy — “running around outside throwing sticks” — when she auditioned for the ... READ MORE
Radiant performances in 110 in the Shade
If you’re a regular theatergoer and movie-watcher, you have probably seen 110 in the Shade long before its current incarnation at Ford’s Theatre, onstage now through May 14. In fact, you have likely seen more than one of its many versions. It began as a TV play in 1953, before writer N. Richard Nash took it to Broadway the following year. He gives us the story of Lizzie,... READ MORE
