As Seen On TV: Artist David Amoroso

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February 27, 2020

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CONTENTS

BOY’S LIFE

John Jones illuminates the architecture of gender in Anna Ziegler’s Boy.

By André Hereford

AS SEEN ON TV

In his latest series, artist David Amoroso pays tribute to those who raised him: the TV icons and shows of the ’70s.

Story by Doug Rule

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Volume 26 Issue 41

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CHURCH LADIES

James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner feels remarkably fresh, original, and vitally important.

By Kate Wingfield

SPOTLIGHT: ILANA GLAZER p.7 OUT ON THE TOWN p.10 THE FEED: FOSTERING HATE p.19 THE FEED: RED CARD p.20 THE FEED: HEARTWARMING HELP p.20 COMMUNITY: PEER SUPPORT p.21 COMMUNITY CALENDAR p.21 FILM: THE INVISIBLE MAN p.31 STAGE: THE WANDERERS p.32 STAGE: SHIPWRECK p.33 NIGHTLIFE: UPROAR p.37 NIGHTLIFE LISTINGS p.38 NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS p.39 SCENE: FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR p.44 LAST WORD p.46 Washington, D.C.’s Best LGBTQ Magazine for 25 Years Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Online Editor at metroweekly.com Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley Contributing Editors André Hereford, Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrators David Amoroso, Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Troy Petenbrink, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla Patron Saints Maude Findlay and Mary Richards Cover Photography Todd Franson Metro Weekly 1775 I St. NW, Suite 1150 Washington, DC 20006 202-638-6830 All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.

© 2020 Jansi LLC.

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Spotlight

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T FEELS LIKE our president is satirical,” says Ilana Glazer. “So what's the role of the [comic] when someone who's supposed to be in power is acting so clownish, and the way he talks is in comedy cadence, not in traditional political cadence? So I feel like people are looking to comedians for a philosophical platform — deep, layered. That's my favorite kind of comedy.

But I also think sometimes the role of comedy is just to merely escape and to only focus on joy.”

For the past decade, Glazer has been identified with Comedy Central’s joyously outrageous Broad City. The sitcom, which also starred fellow comic Abbi Jacobson, ended its run in 2019.

“I'm now recalibrating adulthood outside of Broad City,” says Glazer. “Abbi and I are in new territory right now, not having the show being God.” Glazer decided to forgo more television and focus on stand-up. Her first-ever Amazon special, The Planet is Burning, is a manic, hour-long rant, showcasing Glazer’s sensual and boisterous physicality while delving into giddy celebrations of the LGBTQ community, the suction-packed horrors of using a “DivaCup,” and the profoundly unsettling deployment of Holocaust reenactments in Hebrew School. Next Wednesday, Glazer brings her latest show to the Warner Theater.

“This tour is called ‘Horny 4 tha Polls,’” she says. “We're using stripper pole imagery, but also the voting polls. There's also a voter empowerment dance party on Super Tuesday that

I'm hosting with my political organization, Generator Collective....

We pair the joy of dance with the right to vote.”

Glazer has opted to support Bernie Sanders for the Democratic candidacy. “His campaign reaches the most people,” she says. “He reaches poor people and young people. If we can mobilize that voting block — and I think he can — I think we can win. I really wish Bernie and [Elizabeth] Warren would work together, because they would defeat this president and they would actually create progress in the next four years....

The other candidates, I appreciate them, but I wish they would get out of the race.”

Glazer, who is married to David Rooklin, identifies as queer.

Asked if she’s ever had a romantic encounter with a woman, she is remarkably candid. “With the parameters in my relationship, it’s available to me,” she says. “I am open to it, and it could still happen in some form. Life is long and my partner is my life partner. But I feel like my partnership is about growing love, and not limiting, owning, controlling.

“But I also think of queerness as transgressing any prescribed way of living regarding sexuality and gender. My parents treated my brother [who is gay] and me super gender-equal, so I rarely had some script put on me in such a way that was oppressive. I love the queer community. That's who I want to party with forever.” —Randy Shulman

Ilana Glazer

Ilana Glazer brings her Horny 4 tha Polls Tour to the Warner Theatre on Wednesday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $49 to $139.

She also will host the Genny Social Dance Party featuring music by LUV, on Tuesday, March 3, at the Pearl Street Warehouse, 33 Pearl Street SW, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 with proceeds benefiting the Bail Project. Visit www.horny4thapolls.com.

Follow Glazer on Twitter at @ilazer.

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Spotlight CATVIDEOFEST 2020

Seattle-based filmmaker Will Braden has assembled an all-new, 70-minute program that’s a fancy feast for cat lovers, chock-full of cat videos both popular as well as new and undiscovered. A compilation of shorts culled from hours of unique submissions and sourced animations, music videos, and Internet classics, CatVideoFest is styled as a communal experience where feline fanatics can bond over cute cat cinema and learn more about cats in need in D.C. and beyond.

Saturday, Feb. 29, at 10, 11 a.m., and noon. Alamo Drafthouse One Loudoun, 20575 Easthampton Plaza, Ashburn, Va. Tickets are $10. Call 571-293-6808 or visit www.drafthouse.com/northern-virginia.

BEANPOLE

Kantemir Balagov’s film was Russia’s official entry for this year’s Oscars. It also earned the 28-yearold director the prize for Best Director at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Beanpole focuses on the intense bond that forms between two women, both anti-aircraft gunners during World War II, who struggle to readjust to a haunted world and life in Leningrad after the war. Friday, Feb. 28, at 1 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 29, at 5:30 and 8:20 p.m., Sunday, March 1, at 12:30, 3:20, and 6:10 p.m., and Tuesday, March 3, through Thursday, March 5, at 7 p.m. Cafritz Hall, 1529 16th St. NW. Tickets are $9 to $13. Call 202-7773210 or visit www.jxjdc.org.

MARCIA BALL & SONNY LANDRETH

East Texas blues meets southwest Louisiana swamp rock with Ball, a Grammy-nominated pianist and singer-songwriter who offers tastes of roadhouse rock, jump blues, R&B, soul, and zydeco. This weekend, she’ll be paired on the Hamilton stage with kindred spirit Landreth, the Grammy-nominated slide guitarist whose unique style of guitar picking and his mix of Cajun and blues transports audience members to his home in the heart of Louisiana. Saturday, Feb. 29. Doors at 6:30 p.m. The Hamilton, 600 14th St. NW. Tickets are $30 to $45. Call 202-787-1000 or visit www.thehamiltondc.com.

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Spotlight

JEREMY DANIEL

BANDSTAND

A year after Andy Blankenbuehler won the 2016 Tony Award as Best Choreography for Hamilton, he would repeat the feat, this time for his work on Bandstand, which he also directed. And he’s continued in that dual capacity with the touring production of the poignant musical by Richard Oberacker and Robert Taylor. Bandstand centers on a group of American soldiers, newly returned from World War II, who form a band to enter a national competition seeking music’s next big thing. Tuesday, March 3, through Thursday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m., Friday, March 6, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, March 7, and Sunday, March 8, at 2 and 8 p.m. National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Tickets are $54 to $99. Call 202-628-6161 or visit www.thenationaldc.org.

LIV WARFIELD

JOE LEMKE

Hand-selected by Prince to be a part of his backing bands New Power Generation and 3rdEyeGirl, the Purple One even executive-produced Warfield’s second solo set, 2014’s The Unexpected. Warfield, who cites Nina Simone, Etta James, Sade, Tina Turner, and Mary J. Blige as chief influences, is also a Soul Train Award-winning artist whose style merges alt-soul with touches of rock. In 2014, VH1 Soul featured her as a Soul You Oughta Know artist.

Six years later, it’s not too late to hop on the Warfield wagon. Fortunately, the next stop is a solo concert next week in the intimate, acoustically rich Barns at Wolf Trap. Thursday, March 5, at 8 p.m. 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $27. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit www.wolftrap.org.

HARVEY LEVINE

THE VICTORIAN LYRIC OPERA COMPANY: THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE

Maryland’s Victorian Lyric Opera Company presents a new take on the beloved Gilbert & Sullivan operetta.

Director Amy Sullivan helms a Classic Hollywood-inspired production, fully staged with a 1940s-esque set intended to evoke the glitz and glamour of movie musicals of the era — though the action still takes place over Leap Day in the Victorian Era. Expect to hear the classic songs “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" and "Poor Wand’ring One." Remaining performances are Friday, Feb. 28, and Saturday, Feb. 29, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 1, at 2 p.m. F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre at the Rockville Civic Center, 603 Edmonston Dr. Rockville. Tickets are $20 to $24. Call 240-314-8690 or visit www.vloc.org.

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CHRISTINA SCHNEIDER

Out On The Town

OF MONTREAL

Despite its name, Of Montreal was founded and is led by singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Kevin Barnes, who is based in the indie-rock hotbed of Athens, Ga. Barnes named his five-piece after a woman he once dated from Montreal. The odd name hasn’t stopped the eccentric ensemble, whose music is all over the psychedelic rock map, from gaining a devoted following. The band’s 16th studio set, UR FUN, was put together by Barnes in a way where every song was designed to be a potential single. Lily’s Band opens. Monday, March 2. Doors at 7 p.m. 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. Tickets are $25. Call 202265-0930 or visit www.930.com.

Compiled by Doug Rule

FILM DC SHORTS WINS!

DC Shorts has packaged several acclaimed short films in two shows that run approximately 90 minutes and are suitable for those 18 and up.

Show A screens Friday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 29, at 10 p.m., while Show B is Friday, Feb. 28, at 9 p.m., and Saturday, Feb. 29, at 8 p.m. The Miracle Theatre, 535 8th St. SE. Tickets are $15 per showcase , or $25 for a Double Header of both, plus Ticketleap fees. Call 202-400-3210 or visit www.wins. dcshorts.com

DRIVING MISS DAISY

Plenty of other movies have depicted the complicated but nonetheless genuine relationship that can develop between a white homeowner and a black servant in her employ. But few have portrayed it as powerfully and convincingly as Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy, which was originally developed for the stage. Shortly after winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, Uhry got to work writing a

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cinematic adaptation overseen by director Bruce Beresford. And then along came Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy, both giving indelible portrayals of their characters Hoke and Daisy. Both actors earned Oscar nominations but only Tandy took home an acting trophy. The film also won Best Picture. Thirty years later, Driving Miss Daisy remains a strong, superbly rendered story that’s touching and resonant. It screens at Landmark’s West End Cinema Capital Classics series on Wednesday, March 4, at 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 p.m. 2301 M St. NW. Happy hour is from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $12.50. Call 202-534-1907 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

EMMA.

Jane Austen’s classic comedy of manners gets reimagined as a satire of social class and teen angst in a new film adaptation by first-time director Autumn de Wilde. Stylized as a period piece (hence the punctuation), the film stars Anya TaylorJoy, a 23-year-old best known for work in horror (The Witch, Split).

Taylor-Joy plays Emma Woodhouse as “a restless queen bee without rivals in her sleepy little town.” With

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Rupert Graves, Johnny Flynn, Bill Nighy, Gemma Whelan, and Josh O’Connor. Opens Friday, Feb. 28.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW. Call 202-452-7672 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

STAGE DESSA ROSE

The title was the name of a young enslaved woman in pre-Civil War America determined to gain her and her child’s freedom. In this chamber musical from the creators of Ragtime, Dessa is aided in her cause by a disaffected Southern belle named Ruth. The unlikely pair’s adventure is brought back to the stage for a one-night-only production at Olney Theatre Center. Awa Sal Secka and Gracie Jones star. Friday, March 6, at 8 p.m. Mainstage, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, Md. Tickets are $60. Call 301-924-3400 or visit www.olneytheatre.org.

EXQUISITE AGONY

A 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winner for his drama Anna in the Tropics, Nilo Cruz directs GALA Hispanic

Theatre’s new production of his magical realist romance Exquisite Agony. The cast includes GALA veteran Luz Nicolas, starring as opera singer Millie Marcel, a widow who fixates on the young transplant recipient now living with her dead husband’s heart. Joel Hernandez Lara plays Amer, the object of Millie’s obsession and desire. In Spanish with English surtitles. To March 1. 3333 14th St. NW. Tickets are $20 to $55. Call 202-234-7174 or visit www.galatheatre.org. (André Hereford)

SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER

This one-act play Tennessee Williams has all the hallmarks you’d expect from the playwright: exotic locales, tortured psyches, lyrical language, and Williams’ knack for creating vivid, unforgettable characters. The focus is on an elderly New Orleans socialite mourning the death of her poet son while trying to squelch details about his mysterious death. Of course, it doesn’t exactly work, although the truth of what exactly happened remains vague.

The prevailing theory, and certainly most sensational, suggests that her son’s homosexuality was a factor.

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Christopher Henley directs. In rep with Ada and the Engine. To April 5.

Gunston Arts Center, Theater Two, 2700 South Lang St. Arlington.

Tickets are $40. Call 703-418-4804 or visit www.wscavantbard.org.

CAMERON WHITMAN

THE 39 STEPS

BOY’S LIFE

John Jones illuminates the architecture of gender in Anna Ziegler’s Boy.

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NSPIRED BY THE TRUE STORY OF A TWIN BOY WHO WAS RAISED AS A GIRL after a botched circumcision, Anna Ziegler’s Boy hones in on a betrayal of lead character Adam’s personhood that pierces beyond aspects of anatomy, religion and culture, reaching that profound place inside where he understands his identity.

John Jones, currently starring in the Keegan Theatre production of Boy, wasn’t certain about taking on Adam’s complex journey, even after auditioning for the part at the behest of casting director Kurt Boehm. “It took me a couple of read-throughs to convince myself that I wanted to do this,” says Jones, a Catholic University senior making their professional D.C. theater debut. “But, honestly, I see a lot of theater in D.C., and not too often do we see stories that explore gender in this way. That was interesting to me, and getting the opportunity to do that. So that definitely very much attracted me to this piece.”

Jones, who identifies as non-binary gender-fluid, also credits director Susan Marie Rhea’s hopeful, positive approach to the material as a major incentive for stepping into Adam’s shoes. “I think what she tries to do is bring a level of humanity to a story that kind of seems out of most people's realm of possibilities. [Adam’s] trying to be a normal person and have a happy life. It's just these are his struggles getting in the way, and getting to see that onstage is very interesting, I think.”

The onstage dialogue about gender and identity has provoked heartfelt discussion offstage, too, not only among the cast and creative team, but, as Jones notes, between the company and the audience. “One of the patrons said to me at the end of one of the shows, ‘This story, while it's very specific, you really helped me understand what it must be like for children growing up trans and what their experience is.’ So I think that that is very important, and that helped me come to terms with some of that myself.”

Indeed, Jones admits that “it was hard to grasp at first what message the show was necessarily sending, and how it could be interpreted.” Ultimately, they feel the play “strongly paints the reality” of Adam’s gender experience in a way that fulfills the story’s purpose.

“I do art for a reason and try to make people see something different, or provide a sense of empathy with a story they may not be able to comprehend otherwise. So I guess that would be what I see my responsibility in this role to be.” —André Hereford Boy runs through March 7 at The Keegan Theatre, 1742 Church St. NW. Tickets are $36 to $46. Call 202-265-3767, or visit www.keegantheatre.com.

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Actors cast in this comedic adaptation of one of Alfred Hitchcock’s early works certainly can’t phone in their performance — particularly not those, such as Gwen Grastorf and Christopher Walker, cast in Constellation Theatre Company’s new production as what the program simply lists as a “Cast of Dozens” (there are over 100 roles in all). Constellation’s production stars Drew Kopas as a British everyman who gets ensnared in a spy ring, then proceeds to have romantic dalliances along the way to clearing his name. Patricia Hurley does triple duty as his three paramours.

Extended to March 15. Source Theatre, 1835 14th St. NW. Tickets are $19 to $55. Call 202-204-7741 or visit www.constellationtheatre.org.

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

Aaron Posner helms a Folger Theatre production of the delightful comedy of love, money, deception, and the power of women, as the ladies of Windsor serve Falstaff his comedic comeuppance. To March 1.

201 East Capitol St. SE. Tickets are $27 to $85. Call 202-544-7077 or visit www.folger.edu.

MUSIC ARLO GUTHRIE

The 70-year-old son of folk’s founding father, Woody Guthrie, returns to the area for two performances on the 20/20 Tour featuring “Alice’s Restaurant” with Folk Uke. Friday, Feb. 28, and Saturday, Feb. 29, at 7:30 p.m. The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

Tickets are $65. Call 703-549-7500 or visit www.birchmere.com.

BEAU SOIR ENSEMBLE

With a goal of making classical music accessible and enjoyable, the local female trio, founded in 2007, plays all over the region and all types and eras of classical music.

In a performance at the Athenaeum in Old Town, the chamber ensemble will celebrate what would have been the 250th birthday of Ludwig Beethoven by performing a transcription of his trio Serenade that swaps out the violin for the Beau Soir signature the harp, played by the ensemble’s founder Michelle Lundy, who will be accompanied by Ruth Wicker Schaaf on the viola and Carol Bean on the flute. J.S. Bach’s Trio Sonate will also be rendered in a flute/viola/harp transcription made for Beau Soir by Alex Jacobsen of the National Symphony Orchestra. A local premiere from Miguel del Aguila will round out

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airing during the weeks of April 20 and May 11. Saturday, Feb. 29, at 8 p.m. GMU Center for the Arts, 4373 Mason Pond Drive, Fairfax. Tickets are $34 to $53. Call 888-945-2468 or visit www.cfa.gmu.edu.

SCOTT BRADLEE’S POSTMODERN JUKEBOX

CAPITAL IRISH FILM FESTIVAL

Irish identity, culture, and artistry will be explored through a slate of roughly 18 comedies, dramas, documentaries, shorts, and animation in the 14th annual Capital Irish Film Festival, presented by Solas Nua. It kicks off Thursday, Feb. 27, with a screening of Shelly Love’s sweet and sassy mother-daughter tale A Bump Along The Way followed by an Opening Night Reception hosted by the Northern Ireland Bureau. Winner as Best Debut Irish Feature at the 2019 Galway Film Fleadh, A Bump Along the Way is one of five films this year from Northern Ireland, also including Ethan McDowell’s Lúbtha [Queer], about growing up gay in 1990s Northern Ireland, which screens as part of the “CIFF 2020 Shorts Program” on Saturday, Feb. 29, at noon. At 1:45 p.m. that same day comes Seamus Heaney and the Music of What Happens Next, a look at the life and work of the late Nobel Prize-winning poet, followed by a post-screening Q&A with Northern Ireland Bureau Director Andrew Elliott and literature expert Christopher Griffin. The festival closes Sunday, March 1, with two more documentaries: Tom Burke’s Shooting the Darkness (pictured), about a group of Irishmen who unwittingly became war photographers on the streets of their own towns during the Troubles in Northern Ireland; and Aodh Ó Coileáin’s bilingual tribute Cumar: A Galway Rhapsody, followed by a closing party featuring fiddlers Susan Collins and Michael Wynch. AFI Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. Tickets are $13 per screening, or $120 for a CIFF All-Access Pass. Call 301-495-6720 or visit www.afi.com/Silver.

the main concert program, and the concert will conclude with a little Irish music as an early toast to St. Patrick’s Day. Friday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. 201 Prince St., Alexandria.

Tickets are $15. Call 703-548-0035 or visit www.nvfaa.org.

Town” to “Awaiting Resurrection.”

Buffalo Nichols opens. Friday, Feb. 28, and Saturay, Feb. 29. Doors at 8 p.m. 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. Tickets are $35. Call 202-265-0930 or visit www.930.com.

DRIVE BY TRUCKERS

Two decades after her first hit “I Try,” Gray continues to record and perform a distinctive blend of R&B, pop, funk, and jazz. Gray continues to tour to celebrate a more than 20-year repertoire that includes “Buddha,” drawn from Ruby, her tenth and most recent full-length album. Monday, March 2, and Tuesday, March 3. Doors at 6 p.m.

City Winery DC, 1350 Okie St. NE. Tickets are $55 to $70. Call 202-2502531 or visit www.citywinery.com.

The alt-country/Southern rock band tours in support of The Unraveling, a followup to 2016’s American Band, a politically charged set intended as a warning shot hinting at a coming storm. The new set, written in the wreckage and aftermath, is as political as it is personal, as lead vocalists and songwriters Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood — white Southerners — grapple with the challenges of our times, as captured in song titles, from “Babies in Cages” to Armageddon’s Back in

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MACY GRAY

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

NPR’S FROM THE TOP: LIVE TAPING FEAT. ANDERSON & ROE

The nationally distributed NPR program and podcast that celebrates the voices and talents of America’s brightest young classical musicians comes to George Mason University for its next live taping. Greg Anderson (a From The Top alum) and Elizabeth Joy Rose of the acclaimed piano duo Anderson & Roe will interview and perform with each of the exceptional young artists, ages 12 to 18.

Four of the 10 featured pre-collegiate musicians hail from the greater D.C. area, including Ella Kim, a Supernova Piano Duo of Jialin Tso and Alexander Suh, Kiesse Nanor, and Lira Masuda. From The Top is heard Sundays on WETA 90.9 FM as well as 200 other stations across the country, with this live event

A rotating musical collective founded by the arranger and pianist Bradlee in 2009, PMJ became a YouTube sensation through amusing reworkings of recent pop and rock songs, sung in the style of vintage swing and jazz. Also including original tunes, this “traveling band of throwback minstrels” returns to the area with another stop on its “Welcome to the Twenties 2.0 Tour,” a year-long run of shows to help prepare fans for a new decade of music, chiefly by channeling the musical style birthed in the 1920s — namely, jazz.

As Bradlee puts it in the tour’s promotional materials: “Get ready for the most sensational ’20s party this side of The Great Gatsby.” Tuesday, March 3, at 8 p.m. Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, Md. Tickets are $36 to $86, or $139 to $189 for VIP Packages. Call 301-581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

UMD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: OUR RIGHTS, AND NOTHING LESS

To mark the centennial of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the University of Maryland School of Music presents a world premiere of a work by Maria Newman. Written in honor of Susan B. Anthony’s 200th birthday, Our Rights, and Nothing Less will be presented featuring UMD Voice Professor Carmen Balthrop as speaker. Music Director David Neely will lead the UMSO in a program that also includes Clara Schumann’s Concerto in A Minor for Piano and Orchestra featuring soloist Miko Kominami and Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E Minor. Friday, Feb. 28, at 8 p.m. Dekelboum Concert Hall in The Clarice, University Boulevard and Stadium Drive. College Park. Tickets are $10 to $25. Call 301-405-ARTS or visit www.theclarice.umd.edu.

WASHINGTON NATIONAL OPERA: DON GIOVANNI

The protagonist in Mozart’s anti-hero classic Don Giovanni fashions himself a real Don Juan, aiming to seduce and conquer all of the beautiful women he encounters, whatever it takes. Eventually, however, “time’s up” for Giovanni in this celebrated tragicomedy.

Ryan McKinny takes on the title role in a Washington National Opera production directed by E. Loren Meeker and choreographed

by Eric Sean Fogel. WNO Principal Conductor Evan Rogister will lead the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra accompanying the

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DANCE

510 MEDIA

DEMO BY DAMIAN WOETZEL: NOW 2020

SAMPSON MCCORMICK

In 2018, McCormick became the first queer comic to headline an event at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture. Raised in D.C., McCormick appreciates how the comedy scene overall has become more welcoming and inclusive since he started in stand-up well more than a dozen years ago.

Now based in L.A., McCormick returns home with a run of weekend shows at the DC Comedy Loft. Paris Sashay opens. Thursday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m., Friday, March 6, at 8 and 10 p.m., and Saturday, March 7, at 7:30 and 9:15 p.m. The Cellar Stage, 1523 22nd St. NW. Tickets are $20, plus two-item food/beverage minimum. Call 202-2931887 or visit www.dccomedyloft.com.

vocalists, who will sing in Italian with projected English titles.

Performances begin Saturday, Feb. 29. To March 22. Opera House.

Tickets are $45 to $299. Call 202467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

WPA GOSPEL CHOIRS & ALFRED STREET BAPTIST CHOIR: I AM A MAN: RECLAIMING BRILLIANCE IN THE MIDST OF BROKENESS

Members of the gospel choirs of Washington Performing Arts are joined by Alexandria’s Alfred Street Baptist Church Choir and special guests to be announced for a concert in which 100 male voices sing in tribute to African-American men.

The main focus is on those who have died untimely deaths in the last decade or so, many of them slain as a result of altercations with trigger-happy white police officers.

With a title, I am a man!, that stems from a slogan popularized by the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike that unfortunately, ultimately led to the assassination of Martin Luther

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King Jr., the program is centered on the oratorio by Atlanta-based composer Joel Thompson, The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed. With a nod to Haydn’s Last Words of Christ, Thompson’s work features the last utterances of men whose names have become well-known posthumously, including Michael Brown, Kenneth Chamberlain, John Crawford, Amadou Diallo, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, and Trayvon Martin. Styled as a moving memorial as well as a reminder of the need for greater social justice, the concert, overseen by the director of WPA’s adult gospel choirs Theodore Thorpe III, also celebrates the accomplishments of African-American men who continue to thrive and enrich our community. Sunday, March 1, at 7 p.m. Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $25 to $70. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

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The former New York City Ballet Principal Dancer and now president of the Juilliard School curates and hosts a new installment in his genre-blurring collaborative series featuring some of the most creative voices in dance and music today.

Collaborators at this new DEMO program include Tony Awardwinning Broadway star and former NYC Ballet principal Robert Fairchild, current NYC Ballet principal Lauren Lovette and rising star Roman Mejia, modern dance dynamo Melissa Toogood, emerging tap dancer Dario Natarelli, the Memphis Jookin phenomenon Lil Buck and fellow hip-hop/ street dance sensation Jon Boogz (who together are co-founders of Movement Art Is (M.A.I.), an organization working for social change through greater recognition of dance), cutting-edge string quartet Brooklyn Rider, and the versatile guitarist Alberta Khoury. Monday, March 2, at 8 p.m. Eisenhower Theater. Tickets are $29 to $69.

Call 202-467-4600 or visit www. kennedy-center.org.

EPHRAT ASHERIE DANCE: ODEON

The twin energies of hip-hop/social dance forms and Afro-Brazilian rhythms careen and collide on stage for a work created by choreographer Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie and her twin brother, jazz musician Ehud. In the New York-based native Israelis’ collaborative work Odeon, Ephrat’s signature style, largely drawn from social and street dances, converges with Ehud’s arrangements for piano, upright bass, and percussion, all to tell a story about relationships: between siblings, between music and movement, and between classical traditions and contemporary sound and movement. Seven dancers stomp, clamp, bend, and leap in a series of vibrant duets, trios, and quartets, a stylistic shuffle of ballet and modern dance as well as movement language drawn from hip-hop, house, breaking, and voguing. The varied choreography is all set to the buoyant rhythms of a score inspired by the work of early 20th-century Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth, who blended what he called “Brazilian tangos” and other popular rhythmic styles of his era a century ago into traditional late-Romantic style classical compositions.

Tuesday, March 3, and Wednesday March 4, at 8 p.m. Kay Theatre in The Clarice at the University of Maryland, University Boulevard and Stadium Drive. College Park.

Tickets are $10 to $30. Call 301405-ARTS or visit www.theclarice. umd.edu.

FRUITS BORNE OUT OF RUST BY TABAIMO AND MAKI MORISHITA

Internationally renowned Japanese visual artist Tabaimo collaborates with fellow compatriot and award-winning choreographer Maki Morishita for a whimsical, even mischievous multimedia work exploring the notion of moving from states of stability to instability, and back again. Marking Tabaimo and Morishita’s Kennedy Center debuts, Fruits borne out of rust follows a solo female dancer as she moves with Tabaimo’s immersive, animated video projections, going from a wood-floor apartment, to a large birdcage with a dove, to a line of tatami mats that swallows her whole. All the while, two on-stage musicians perform original music composed by Yusuke Awazu and Keisuke Tanaka. Morishita’s choreography blends subtle movements of the dancer’s fingers and toes with the dynamic drive of her torso and limbs as a way to enhance Tabaimo’s peculiar world. Tuesday, March 3, at 7:30 p.m. Terrace Theater. Tickets are $35 to $45.

Call 202-467-4600 or visit www. kennedy-center.org.

MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY: THE EVE PROJECT

For its return to the Kennedy Center, the dance company named after the woman widely regarded as the mother of modern dance presents a collection of new commissions inspired by the late Graham’s work plus several of her signature classics. Another celebratory nod to the 19th Amendment's centennial, the EVE Project features new works including Untitled (Souvenir)

by Pam Tanowitz and Lamentation Variations by Aszure Barton, Liz Gerring, and Michelle Dorrance, each riffing on Graham’s iconic solo of the same name. Repertory works to be presented at various performances include Graham’s Diversion of Angels, Ekstasis, and Chronicle. Thursday, March 5, through Saturday, March 7, at 8 p.m. Performances are followed by a free talk with company artists, collaborators, and creative team members. Eisenhower Theater. Tickets are $25 to $69. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

RUSSIAN NATIONAL BALLET

The grand national tradition of major Russian ballet works is the bread and butter of this 50-member company, which returns to George Mason University to present four classics over the course of a weekend: Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Carmen, and Cinderella.

Under the direction of legendary Bolshoi principal Elena Radchenko, the company kicks things off Friday, March 6, at 8 p.m., with its only performance at the Hylton Performing Arts Center on GMU’s Science and Technology campus.

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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ture sense of whimsy, the paintings, more than 60 in all, are intended to complement the text, but more importantly to add a new dimension to the work: through depictions of Stein at her desk, following visitors such as Sylvia Beach and Man Ray, and evoking “the unique modernist ferment that was 27 rue de Fleurus.”

Sunday, March 8, at 5 p.m. Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Call 202-364-1919 or visit www.politics-prose.com.

THE STOOP STORYTELLING SERIES: MOVERS AND SHAKERS AKA BADASS BROADS

SUICIDE.CHAT.ROOM

Taffety Punk Theatre Company, a bold, ragtag collective that aims to bring theater artists, dancers, and musicians together to ceate and collaborate in ways beyond the typical, reprises one of its early successes — an original, provocative “dance play” incorporating elements from documentary theater, even using real-life dialogue, and shedding some much-needed light on the dark, taboo subject of suicide. The original creative team behind the devised work suicide.chat.room returns for a short, four-performance reboot honoring the 10th anniversary of its premiere. Thursday, Feb. 27, through Saturday, Feb. 29, at 8 p.m., with a matinee on Saturday at 3 p.m. Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 7th St. SE. Tickets are $15. An album of the show’s music is available as a download for $12, or a vinyl recording for $20. Call 202-547-6839 or visit www.taffetypunk.com.

There, the troupe will bring to life Tchaikovsky’s beloved fairytale Sleeping Beauty through exquisite choreography originally created

by Marius Petipa and presented in an opulent production that is touted as charming for the whole family. 10960 George Mason Circle, Manassas, Va. Tickets are $33 to $55. Call 703-993-7759 or visit www.hyltoncenter.org.

It’s followed on Saturday, March 7, at 8 p.m., with a one-two punch of two beautifully tragic one-act ballets — an adaptation by Radchenko set Tchaikovsky’s passionate, starcrossed Romeo and Juliet, and an adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen, a story fueled by unrequited love and obsession, featuring the work of choreographer Alberto Alonso and composer Rodion Shehedrin. The company will pair the two works of tormented love for a program full of its signature graceful and lavish style. The weekend concludes on Sunday, March 8, at 2 p.m. with Radchenko’s grand take on Cinderella, the timeless fairytale rendered with Prokofiev’s jubilant music, gorgeous scenery, and sumptuous costumes. Concert Hall in the Center for the Arts, 4373

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Mason Pond Drive, Fairfax. Tickets are $34 to $56 per performance.

Call 888-945-2468 or visit www. cfa.gmu.edu.

COMEDY MICHAEL IAN BLACK

This straight comedian has joked in the past about how gay acting he’s noticed he can be. Familiar from Comedy Central’s Another Period and his commentary on VH1’s I Love The... series, not to mention his sex scene with Bradley Cooper in the 2001 film Wet Hot American Summer, Black has been an affiliated member of the LGBTQ community since birth, raised by his lesbian mother. Friday, Feb. 28, at 7:30 and 10 p.m., and Saturday, Feb. 29, at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Arlington Drafthouse, 2903 Columbia Pike. Tickets are $25. Call 703-486-2345 or visit www.arlingtondrafthouse.com.

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

RIOT! COMEDY EVENT FEATURING MARGARET CHO

The Kennedy Center honors International Women’s Day with a star-studded night of comedy including veteran queer comic Cho, Daily Show with Trevor Noah breakout Dulcé Sloan, Sasheer Zamata of Saturday Night Live fame, Jen Kirkman of Chelsea Lately and Drunk History as well as her multiple hit Netflix stand-up specials, and Catherine Cohen, host of a weekly show at Alan Cumming’s East Village bar Club Cumming.

Sunday, March 8, at 8 p.m. Concert Hall. Tickets are $29 to $69. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

READINGS & LECTURES MAIRA KALMAN

An artist and illustrator whose work is frequently featured in the New Yorker, Kalman’s latest project is an illustrated edition of the Gertrude Stein’s classic book from 1933 that shed light on the life and times of her life partner, Alice B. Toklas.

Full of color and Kalman’s signa-

Baltimore’s storytelling organization teams up with the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business and its affinity group Women in Business at Carey to showcase seven women touted as “Badass Broads.” Expect to hear stories about taking risks, breaking barriers, fighting oppression, and disrupting the status quo.

Wednesday, March 4, starting at 5 p.m. with complimentary appetizers, beer, and wine, with storytelling at 6 p.m., located on the 24th floor in the Legg Mason Tower in the Harbour East area of Baltimore.

100 International Dr. Tickets are $10 to $15, plus Eventbrite fees. Call 410-234-9200] or visit www.stoopstorytelling.com.

ABOVE & BEYOND ATLAS INTERSECTIONS FESTIVAL 2020

Since it opened 15 years ago in a renovated former Art Deco movie palace, the Atlas Performing Arts Center has had a visible impact on its H Street Corridor neighborhood through its regular work in presenting “art that informs, educates, enlightens, and inspires,” as the institution’s executive director Doug Yeuell puts it. That is also essentially the goal of Intersections, a festival that aims to showcase art that makes “a difference in our society, culture and world.” The 11th annual festival, which runs to March 1, offers over 50 performances from artists ranging from musicians to filmmakers, dancers to speakers. 1333 H St. NE. Individual ticket prices vary. Call 202-3997993 or visit www.atlasarts.org/ intersections for a full schedule and details.

TRIXIE MATTEL: GROWN UP

The veteran of RuPaul’s Drag Race and winner of the show’s third season of All Stars, Trixie Mattel returns to D.C. to promote her third album, Barbara. For the occasion, she’ll be backed by a live band for the first time. Sunday, March 1.

Doors at 6:30 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St. NW. Tickets are $39.50.

Call 202-888-0050 or visit www. thelincolndc.com. l

theFeed

FOSTERING HATE

Supreme Court to rule on anti-gay discrimination by taxpayer-funded foster care agencies. By John Riley

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HE U.S. SUPREME COURT HAS AGREED TO hear a case about whether foster care agencies that receive taxpayer money should be allowed to discriminate against prospective parents based on the agency’s stated religious beliefs.

At the crux of the case is a dispute between Catholic Social Services and the city of Philadelphia over the city's policy prohibiting taxpayer money from going to agencies or contractors that do not abide by the city's law prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ people.

Philadelphia contracts with private agencies to provide services to children in the city’s foster care system. But in 2018, the city stopped referring foster children to Catholic Social Services because of the agency’s refusal to license qualified same-sex couples as foster parents or allow them to adopt children currently in the agency’s care.

CSS sued, claiming its refusal to place children with same-sex couples is based on its belief that marriage is reserved for only those unions between one man and one woman, and that the city’s policy therefore violates its religious freedom by punishing it for holding those beliefs.

The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Pennsylvania brought a motion, which was eventually granted, on behalf of the Support Center for Child Advocates and Philadelphia Family Pride seeking to intervene in the case.

The two pro-LGBTQ organizations have since argued that overturning the city’s policy would harm LGBTQ families and children in the foster care system waiting to be placed in loving homes.

A federal district judge and the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Philadelphia, saying the city can require child placement agencies that wish to receive taxpayer dollars to agree to accept all qualified prospective foster or adoptive parents.

CSS appealed the case to the Supreme Court, arguing that it has a constitutional right to discriminate against prospective foster families who do not adhere to their preferred religious beliefs.

LGBTQ advocates, including the ACLU, argue that if the court were to side with CSS, they would effectively be shrinking the pool of available foster families by allowing agencies across the nation to flout local laws and turn away prospective parents. Currently, there are an estimated 440,000 children in foster care across the country.

“We already have a severe shortage of foster families

willing and able to open their hearts and homes to these children,” Leslie Cooper, the deputy director of the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project, said in a statement referring to those children in foster care throughout the country. “Allowing foster care agencies to exclude qualified families based on religious requirements that have nothing to do with the ability to care for a child such as their sexual orientation or faith would make it even worse.”

Cooper added: “When agencies choose to accept taxpayer dollars to provide this critically important government service to children, the needs of children must come first.”

Lambda Legal, which submitted an amicus brief to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of itself and nine organizations serving LGBTQ youth, also pointed out the harm that could result from shrinking the pool of available foster families.

“By imposing their religious view of what families must look like and seeking to discriminate against same-sex couples, CSS simply hurts the children they claim to serve,” Karen Loewy, senior counsel for Lambda Legal, said in a statement. “We can also cannot overlook the profound impact on LGBTQ young people, who are overrepresented in the child welfare system, frequently due to issues around rejection by their families of origin on account of their sexual orientation or gender identity, when they receive hurtful messages from child welfare providers insisting that people like them are not good enough or are not deserving of equal treatment and dignity.

“The Supreme Court has the opportunity to affirm the basic principle that when agencies accept government money to provide services to children involved in the public foster care system, their religious beliefs are not a license to discriminate,” Loewy added.

“It is unconscionable to turn away prospective foster and adoptive families because they are LGBTQ, religious minorities, or for any other reason unrelated to their capacity to love and care for children,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “We reject the suggestion that taxpayer-funded child welfare services should be allowed to put discrimination over a child’s best interest.

“This case could also have implications for religious refusals that go far beyond child welfare,” David added.

“The Supreme Court must make it clear that freedom of religion does not include using taxpayer funds to further marginalize vulnerable communities.” l

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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theFeed

RED CARD

Elizabeth Warren calls Arizona GOP’s ban on trans athletes “cruel”. By Rhuaridh Marr

D

EMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SEN. Elizabeth Warren has branded a proposed ban on transgender student athletes in Arizona “cruel.” Warren responded on Twitter to Republican state Rep. Nancy Barto’s “Save Women’s Sports Act,” which last week was approved by an Arizona House committee and will be voted on over the coming weeks. The bill, which applies to K-12 schools, community colleges, and state universities, would allow only those assigned female at birth to compete on female athletic teams.

In addition, if a person’s gender identity were called into question, that athlete would be required to obtain a doctor’s note proving they are female before being allowed to compete.

The bill would also allow cisgender female students who believe they’ve missed out on athletic opportunities because of transgender inclusion on a school team to file lawsuits seeking redress.

“Trans athletes are not a threat,” Warren tweeted. “We need to protect trans kids — and all LGBTQ+ kids — and ensure they feel safe and welcomed at school. I urge the Arizona legislature to reject this cruel bill.”

Barto previously defended her bill by saying, “Science is what it is. The difference between males and females is obvious.”

Opponents of Barto’s bill argue that it will effectively ban transgender females from participating in sports altogether, as they may not want to compete against cisgender males or put themselves at risk of abuse or harassment on male sports teams.

Arizona’s move also follows similar Republican-led initiatives in Georgia, Tennessee, and Washington state, all designed to restrict transgender athletes from competing in sports that math their gender identity. Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, told the Arizona Republic that there is “a reason these bills are popping up simultaneously.”

“There have been no problems with this issue in Arizona.

This isn’t responding to an issue that students are having in Arizona,” Minter said. “This is a national campaign to use this issue — sadly — to just polarize and divide people.”

For Warren, it’s the latest example of the senator’s support for the transgender community. Last week, she used nonbinary-inclusive terms in a tweet discussing a potential vice presidential pick, and the Massachusetts senator includes her preferred pronouns in her Twitter bio.

Warren has also repeatedly highlighted the epidemic of violence against transgender women — particularly trans women of color — in the United States, including reading out the names of women who have been killed and raising the issue of anti-trans violence during Democratic debates.

Like other candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, Warren has also committed to reverse Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people serving openly in the U.S. military, branding the ban “shameful” in a tweet last year. l

HEARTWARMING HELP

Pete Buttigieg helps 9-year-old boy “tell the world I’m gay” at campaign event. By Rhuaridh Marr

A

NINE-YEAR-OLD BOY ASKED FORMER MAYOR Pete Buttigieg to help him “be brave” and “tell the world I’m gay” at a campaign rally in Denver, Co., on Saturday.

Zachary Ro, from Lone Tree, submitted a question to the presidential candidate, which was read out by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold to the crowd of around 4,000 people, the Guardian reports.

“Thank you for being so brave,” Ro wrote. “Would you help me tell the world I’m gay, too? I want to be brave like you.”

After Ro was brought on stage, Buttigieg said, “I don’t think you need advice from me on bravery. You seem pretty strong.”

“It took me a long time to figure out how to tell even my best friend that I was gay, let alone to go out there and tell the world,” Buttigieg continued, “and to see you willing to come to terms with who you are in a room full of…thousands of people you’ve never met, that’s really something.”

He offered Ro a “couple of things that might be useful,” saying that “it won’t always be easy, but that’s OK, because you know who you are.”

“And that’s really important,” he said, “because when you 20

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

know who you are, you have a center of gravity that can hold you together when all kinds of chaos is happening around you.”

Buttigieg continued: “The second thing I want you to know is that you’ll never know who’s taking their lead from you, who’s watching you and deciding that they can be a little braver because you have been brave.

“When I was trying to figure out who I was, I was afraid that who I was might mean that I could never make a difference.

And what wound up happening instead is that it’s a huge part of the difference I get to make,” Buttigieg said. “I never could have seen that coming, and you’ll never know whose life you might be affecting right now, just by standing here. There’s a lot of power in that.”

He ended by telling Ro that while he “can’t promise it’ll always be easy, I can promise you that I’m gonna be rooting for you. And I think there’s a whole bunch of people here who are going to be rooting for you every step of the way.”

After the campaign event, Ro spoke to FOX31 about the experience, saying, “I just feel inspired by Pete.”

He added: “I feel like he gave me some very good advice.” l

Community FRIDAY, Feb. 28

at 1525 14th St. NW. For an appointment, call 202-7457000 or visit www.whitman-walker.org.

GAMMA is a confidential, vol-

The DC Center holds its

CENTER AGING MONTHLY LUNCH for members of D.C.’s

senior community. Lunch is potluck, so attendees are encouraged to bring their favorite dish to share. 12-2 p.m.

2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org or call 202-682-2245.

The DC Center’s TRANS SUPPORT GROUP provides a space to talk for transgender people and those who identify outside of the gender binary. 7-9 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

WOMEN IN THEIR TWENTIES (AND THIRTIES), a social

discussion and activity group for queer women, meets at The DC Center on the second and fourth Friday of each month.

Group social activity to follow the meeting. 8-9:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www. thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events ANDROMEDA TRANSCULTURAL HEALTH

offers free HIV testing and HIV services (by appointment). 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Decatur Center, 1400 Decatur St. NW. To arrange an appointment, call 202-291-4707, or visit www.andromedatransculturalhealth.org.

BET MISHPACHAH, founded

by members of the LGBT community, holds Friday evening Shabbat services in the DC Jewish Community Center’s Community Room. 8 p.m. 1529 16th St. NW. For more information, visit www.betmish.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

practice session at Barry Farms Aquatic Center. 6:30-8 p.m. 1230 Sumner Rd. SE. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

HIV TESTING at Whitman-

Walker Health. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

KARING WITH INDIVIDUALITY (K.I.) SERVICES, 20 S. Quaker Lane, Suite 210, Alexandria, Va., offers $30 “rapid” HIV testing and counseling by appointment only. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Must schedule special appointment if seeking testing after 2 p.m. Call 703823-4401. www.kiservices.org.

G-STOCK STUDIO

untary, peer-support group for men who are gay, bisexual, questioning and who are now or who have been in a relationship with a woman. 7:30-9:30 p.m. Luther Place Memorial Church, 1226 Vermont Ave NW. GAMMA meetings are also held in Vienna, Va., and in Frederick, Md. For more information, visit www.gammaindc.org.

METROHEALTH CENTER

PEER SUPPORT

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A local support group gives LGBTQ service members and first responders a safe space to open up.

AST YEAR, I WAS GETTING OUT OF THE MILITARY, and I was in the D.C. area,” says Sara Laszaic. “I knew I wanted to connect with the LGBTQ community and wanted to see if there were any support groups out there. I stumbled across The DC Center in the midst of my search, and talked to the executive director at the time, who told me there wasn’t a group for military members or first responders but that I was welcome to start one if I’d like. I said, ‘Yes, I’d like to start one. I think there’s a need for it.’”

So Laszaic founded The Center’s Military and First Responders Group. She and co-facilitator Nick Harrison underwent training to learn techniques for promoting discussion among members — who include not only active-duty military members, and first responders, but veterans, reservists, and military spouses or partners. In May 2019, they held their first meeting.

“There is no therapist — the group is all peer-led,” says Laszaic, who previously served as a police officer and was in the military for 10 years, experience she uses to inform the type of issues she broaches with group members.

“I’ll throw out a lot of different issues that I think are pertinent to military veterans or first responders,” she says. “We talk about issues that affect the LGBTQ community, particularly for those in the military and talk about how we feel, how it’s affected us, and try to support each other through it.”

“A normal meeting could be just about anything,” says Harrison.

“We’ve talked about transitioning from the service. We’ve talked about some of the struggles that people in the LGBTQ community have had integrating in the military and how they’ve dealt with that. We’ve talked about day-to-day life, how it is after the military and sort of what that adjustment is like. It really depends on what [issues] the people coming to the group bring with them.”

Perhaps most importantly, the identity of the group’s members, and any comments they make during the course of a group session, are kept strictly confidential due to the sensitive nature of some of the topics they discuss.

“People can come to the group and share as much as they want,” says Harrison. “So people can come in, get whatever they need to off their chest, and then leave, knowing that nobody in that group is going to share any of that information.” —John Riley The DC Center’s Military and First Responders Support Group meets on the second Thursday of every other month from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at The DC Center, 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

Call 202-682-2245 or visit www.thedccenter.org.

offers free, rapid HIV testing.

Appointment needed. 1012 14th St. NW, Suite 700. To arrange an appointment, call 202-8498029. www.metrohealthdc.org.

PROJECT STRIPES hosts

LGBT-affirming social group for ages 11-24. 4-6 p.m. 1419 Columbia Road NW. Contact Tamara, 202-319-0422, www. layc-dc.org.

SATURDAY, Feb. 29 CHRYSALIS arts & culture

group visits the Baltimore Museum of Art for brunch at Gertrude’s Restaurant, then goes to nearby Johns Hopkins University to see gay history exhibit and to tour an historic mansion on campus. Nonmembers welcome. Carpool at 9:15 a.m. from the New Carrollton Metro Station.

Return by 5:30 p.m. Drivers needed. For more info, contact Craig, 202-462-0535 or criaghowell1@verizon.net.

Weekly Events DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

practice session at Deanwood Aquatic Center. 9:15-10:45 a.m.

1350 49th St. NE. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/ walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards. Route distance will be 3-6 miles. Walkers meet at 9:30 a.m. and runners at 10 a.m. at 23rd & P Streets NW. For more information, visit www. dcfrontrunners.org.

SUNDAY, March 1 ADVENTURING outdoors

group takes a moderate 8.5mile hike from the Anacostia Metro Station to National Harbor. Route includes stops at Civil War forts, one of the District’s original boundary

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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stones, Oxon Hill Park, and the MGM Casino. Bring beverages, lunch, comfortable walking shoes, the $2 trip fee, and money for public transportation back to either Anacostia or Alexandria. Meet at 10 a.m. at the Howard Road entrance to the Anacostia Metro Station. For more information, contact Martin, 202-996-1873, or visit www.adventuring.org.

AGLA’S WOMEN’S GROUP meets

at a private home in Crystal City for a monthly potluck on the first Sunday of each month. Meet new women from around the D.C. area, socialize, and play games. Feel free to bring your own dishes and board games for sharing. Host will supply plates, silverware, glasses, and napkins. 5-7 p.m. For address and more information, RSVP to Julie Alexandrin at Julie@agla.org.

Weekly Events LGBT-inclusive ALL SOULS

MEMORIAL EPISCOPAL CHURCH

celebrates Low Mass at 8:30 a.m., High Mass at 11 a.m. 2300 Cathedral Ave. NW. 202-232-4244, www.allsoulsdc.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

practice session at Wilson Aquatic Center. 9:30-11 a.m. 4551 Fort Dr. NW. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/

walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards.

Route distances vary. For meeting places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

DIGNITYUSA offers Roman

Catholic Mass for the LGBT community. All welcome. Sign interpreted. 6 p.m. St. Margaret’s Church, 1820 Connecticut Ave. NW. For more information, visit www.dignitywashington.org.

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

welcomes all to 10:30 a.m. service, 945 G St. NW. For more info, visit www.firstuccdc.org or call 202628-4317.

HOPE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST welcomes GLBT community for worship. 10:30 a.m., 6130 Old Telegraph Road, Alexandria.

Visit www.hopeucc.org.

Join LINCOLN

CONGREGATIONAL TEMPLE – UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST for

an inclusive, loving and progressive faith community every Sunday. 11 a.m. 1701 11th Street NW, near R in Shaw/Logan neighborhood. Visit www.lincolntemple.org.

METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA services at 11 a.m., led

by Rev. Emma Chattin. Children’s Sunday School, 11 a.m. 10383 Democracy Lane, Fairfax. For more info, call 703-691-0930 or visit www.mccnova.com.

NATIONAL CITY CHRISTIAN CHURCH, inclusive church with

GLBT fellowship, offers gospel worship, 8:30 a.m., and traditional worship, 11 a.m. 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more info, call 202-232-0323 or visit www.nationalcitycc.org.

ST. STEPHEN AND THE INCARNATION, an “interracial,

multi-ethnic Christian Community” offers services in English, 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., and in Spanish at 5:15 p.m. 1525 Newton St. NW. For more info, call 202-232-0900 or visit www.saintstephensdc.org.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF SILVER SPRING

invites LGBTQ families and individuals of all creeds and cultures to join the church. Services 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. 10309 New Hampshire Ave. For more info, visit www. uucss.org.

MONDAY, March 2 Join LGBTQ people from around the D.C. area for a biweekly BOARD GAME NIGHT, hosted by a local Board Gamers Meetup group. 6-9 p.m. Panera Bread, 1350 Connecticut Ave. NW, basement level. For more information, visit www.meetup.com/DC-LGBTBoard-Gamers.

The DC Center holds a monthly VOLUNTEER NIGHT for those interested in giving back to the local LGBTQ community. Activities include sorting through book donations, taking inventory, or assembling safe-sex packets. 6:30-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www. thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a practice

session at Dunbar Aquatic Center.

7:30-9 p.m. 101 N St. NW. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

DC’S DIFFERENT DRUMMERS

welcomes musicians of all abilities to join its Monday night rehearsals. The group hosts marching/color guard, concert, and jazz ensembles, with performances year round. Please contact Membership@DCDD.org to inquire about joining one of the ensembles or visit www.DCDD.org.

The DC Center hosts COFFEE

DROP-IN FOR THE SENIOR LGBT COMMUNITY. 10 a.m.-noon. 2000

14th St. NW. For more information,

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FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

call 202-682-2245 or visit www. thedccenter.org.

3310 Connecticut Ave. NW. Visit www.bookmendc.blogspot.com.

US HELPING US hosts a black

Weekly Events

gay men’s evening affinity group for GBT black men. Light refreshments provided. 7-9 p.m. 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. 202-446-1100.

Visit www.ushelpingus.org.

WASHINGTON WETSKINS WATER POLO TEAM practices 7-9

p.m. Newcomers with at least basic swimming ability always welcome.

Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, contact Tom, 703-299-0504 or secretary@wetskins.org, or visit www.wetskins.org.

TUESDAY, March 3 Weekly Events THE GAY MEN'S HEALTH COLLABORATIVE offers free

HIV testing and STI screening and treatment every Tuesday.

5-6:30 p.m. Rainbow Tuesday LGBT Clinic, Alexandria Health Department, 4480 King St. 703746-4986 or text 571-214-9617. www.inova.org/gmhc

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS

holds an LGBT-focused meeting every Tuesday, 7 p.m. at St. George’s Episcopal Church, 915 Oakland Ave., Arlington, just steps from Virginia Square Metro. Handicapped accessible.

Newcomers welcome. For more info, call Dick, 703-521-1999 or email liveandletliveoa@gmail.com.

Support group for LGBTQ youth ages 13-24 meets at SMYAL. 4-7 p.m. 410 7th St. SE. For more information, contact Dana White, 202567-3156, or visit www.smyal.org.

Whitman-Walker Health holds its weekly GAY MEN’S HEALTH AND WELLNESS/STD CLINIC. Patients are seen on a walk-in basis. No-cost screening for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. Hepatitis and herpes testing available for a fee.

Testing starts at 6 p.m, but should arrive early to ensure a spot. 1525 14th St. NW. For more information, visit www.whitman-walker.org.

WEDNESDAY, March 4 AGLA holds an introductory meeting of its new YOUTH LEADERSHIP AND ADVOCACY GROUP for youth from age 11 to 22

from Northern Virginia. The group is youth-led with support from vetted adults who serve as facilitators.

To learn more, and for location and details, email Youth@agla.org.

BOOKMEN DC, an informal men’s

gay-literature group, discusses Felice Picano’s 1979 novel, The Lure, at the Cleveland Park Library.

All are welcome to attend. 7:30 p.m.

AD LIB, a group for freestyle con-

versation, meets about 6-6:30 p.m., Steam, 17th and R NW. All welcome. For more information, call Fausto Fernandez, 703-732-5174.

FREEDOM FROM SMOKING, a

group for LGBT people looking to quit cigarettes and tobacco use, holds a weekly support meeting at The DC Center. 7-8 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

JOB CLUB, a weekly support program for job entrants and seekers, meets at The DC Center. 6-7:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more info, email centercareers@thedccenter.org or visit www.thedccenter.org/careers.

WASHINGTON WETSKINS WATER POLO TEAM practices 7-9

p.m. Newcomers with at least basic swimming ability always welcome.

Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, contact Tom, 703-299-0504 or secretary@wetskins.org, or visit www.wetskins.org.

THURSDAY, March 5 Weekly Events DC LAMBDA SQUARES, D.C.’s

LGBTQ square-dancing group, features an opportunity to learn about and practice various forms of modern square dancing. No partner required. Please dress casually. 7:30-9:30 p.m. National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more info, call 202930-1058 or visit www.dclambdasquares.org.

DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds practice. The team is always looking for new members. All welcome.

7-9 p.m. Harry Thomas Recreation Center, 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For more information, visit www.scandalsrfc.org.

THE DULLES TRIANGLES

Northern Virginia social group meets for happy hour at the Cosmopolitan Lounge inside the Sheraton Hotel in Reston. All welcome. 7-9 p.m. 11810 Sunrise Valley Drive, Second Floor. For more info, visit www.dullestriangles.com.

US HELPING US hosts a Narcotics Anonymous Meeting. The group is independent of UHU. 6:30-7:30 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. For more information, call 202-4461100. www.ushelpingus.com. l For more events, visit www. metroweekly.com/community/ calendar.

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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EOPLE JUST ASSUME I'M LATINO,” SAYS David Amoroso. “I'll just be walking on the street and people will start speaking to me in Spanish. And then sometimes I'll go into a Spanish-speaking environment and the people that are there will speak English to me. It's very odd.”

Amoroso has only compounded the confusion with the art he creates. “A lot of my work does focus on Mexican iconography,” says the 56-year-old artist.

“When I paint those things, people assume it's because I grew up in an environment that's Spanish-speaking and had Mexican influence. I definitely didn't.”

Viewers of his art have also been known to initiate a round of the country-of-origin guessing game. “Oh, that looks like it's from El Salvador. Are you from El Salvador?” Or, “Oh, that's Guatemalan. Are you from Guatemala? Did you live in Guatemala?"

The answer is no, across the board. He’s an American who was raised in Northern Virginia in an Italian-American household. He actually doesn’t know much more beyond that. Ultimately, he plans to keep it that way.

“I was adopted as a baby in Philadelphia — I know nothing about the individuals who placed me up for adoption,” he says. “I am not interested in taking a DNA test, because I prefer to not know where I came from. That gives me the flexibility of creating my own history.”

Amoroso has been doing that all along — creating the man, and the artist, by going it alone, charting his own way, on his own terms. Although he was raised in a family with a mother, a father, and two sisters, he never felt a strong sense of support and encouragement, of bonding and belonging, even of love — despite the fact that the family name — Amoroso — means loving in Italian.

“We are all so different that we definitely lived as strangers in one house,” he says.

“We all just sort of stayed in our own corners. [You could] compare it to having five cats 24

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that don't get along. They just go to their area and ignore each other.” As one minor but instructive case in point: “Honestly, I didn’t even know my dad had a Master’s degree until he died. It was in his obituary.”

Instead, Amoroso revelled in the things that brought him comfort. “My childhood escape was a mix of TV, music, and drawing,” he says. “I would spend hours in my room listening to music, or in the basement watching TV and sort of absorbing into it. I liked to draw as a child, so I would always do drawings and things.”

Television was more than just an escape — it was an influence on his future art, one that forms the core of a March exhibit of recent works at Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville, Maryland.

Raised by TV is a collection of approximately 20 new paintings paying tribute to many of the television sitcoms and celebrities who had an early and lasting impact on Amoroso, all drawn from his childhood in the late 1960s and ’70s. In those days,

screens were populated with eccentric characters and idealistic adults who, mercifully, looked and acted little like those people Amoroso confronted in real life. None of them more so, of course, than the perfect parents from The Brady Bunch, Carol and Mike Brady.

“She was warm and empathetic, and he was stern but always fair,” Amoroso writes in the exhibition statement. “Although the lessons they taught seemed painfully obvious to even a child, it was reassuring to know that somewhere parents were doing their job.” By contrast, he found his own parents — an “alcoholic mother and physically abusive father,” as he describes them — to be generally either absent or abject.

“I always thought, as a kid, I was adopted because I was a martian. I know that sounds ridiculous, but at the time it made sense.” Amoroso was a big fan of My Favorite Martian, a sitcom about a man who takes in a human-looking alien with secret FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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powers. The show helped him cope by putting things into perspective. “It’s something that sort of maintained me because I'm like, ‘Okay, this is just temporary that I'm here.’ The fact that he lived with another man — it seemed like a non-sexual gay couple.”

And that’s another way television helped shape and offer solace to the young, impressionable Amoroso. Given the time period, immediately before and after Stonewall, it’s not surprising that no one on TV was openly gay the way we mean it today, and issues of sexuality and identity were never explicitly discussed. And yet, anyone who was curious and questioning themselves didn’t have to look too hard or too deep to find kindred spirits. “We had Match Game with Charles Nelson Reilly, Paul Lynde in Bewitched — all of these people that were gay,” says Amoroso.

None of those people were out at the time, of course, and neither was the not-yet-adolescent Amoroso. But something about that early exposure, and especially that kind of unstated yet unmistakable way of being gay, has had an impact on the artist that lasts to this day. “I think it's a sidebar for me versus an important part of my identity,” he says, when asked about his coming out. “It's interesting because I look at other friends that I had back then that were gay, and they struggled more with it. I don't remember being bullied or picked on for that. I was picked on because I was weird, and maybe that was the understory to it, I don’t know. I've never really thought about it that much. I think I've always just been objective: ‘This is the way I'm born. This is what I do.’ I treat it usually as a need-to-know basis. But ‘nothing to hide, nothing to say,’ to sum it up.”

In art as in life, you can detect a distinct gay sensibility with Amoroso, yet usually only in subtle or suggestive ways. Amoroso points to one of his earliest groupings of paintings as being instructive. His “retro wallpaper series” features “portraits of guys sort of macho-posturing. Then I do retro wallpaper designs over them in floral. I don't think it's gay per se in theme. I love it from more of the standpoint of body modification — like tattoos. The designs I'm putting on the subjects, I'm layering them like tattoos. A lot of the guys are tattooed, but I won't paint their tattoos in the paintings. Most of the guys are straight. They're just friends of mine. So they don't necessarily view it that way, either. But once in a while, one will ask, ‘Do you have to put so much pink in it?’” Amoroso’s response? “Oh, come on. You're tough 28

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

enough. You can handle it."

To create such portraits, Amoroso generally prefers to start with photography. “I’ll photograph the guys, get the lighting how I want it, then I’ll paint and do the designs over them.”

Ideally, everything starts with a photograph.

“Right after high school, I started doing a lot of photographic portraits and fashion portfolio things,” he says. It started strictly a hobby, as Amoroso never thought to pursue art as a career, in part because he didn’t know it was a viable option.

That all changed one night. While he can’t recall precisely what prompted a particularly testy exchange with his father, Amoroso can never forget how it ended. “I remember my dad saying, ‘Well, you're 18 now. You're old enough to take care of yourself.’” And just like that, he was off. “I remember feeling furious about that comment. I packed up my stuff, threw it in my Camaro, and just left and couch-surfed for a while.” He quickly learned photography was a viable pursuit. “I’d be working fulltime in a warehouse job or retail job, often doing the photography [on the side]. Honestly, the photography kept me financially liquid throughout all that.”

In the decades that followed, Amoroso has pursued several different career paths — in the arts and in community-based assistance — often simultaneously. These days, he juggles his full-time and fully sustaining work as a painter with meaningful employment on the side, teaching underserved residents in Northern Virginia employment-based skills and work readiness.

Recently, he’s found himself reaching a “breaking point,” a result of often working up to 18-hour days. Amoroso expects to let go of the community work in the next year or so.

As an artist, Amoroso is eager to grow further — as well as further afield. “I would love to paint bigger. I would love more

large modern gallery-style exhibits,” he says. And he would like to expand his audience of collectors beyond his primary markets of D.C., California, and Texas, ideally by pushing into New York.

What he doesn’t anticipate for his future is dipping back into making art motivated by politics. During the later years of George W. Bush’s presidency, Amoroso created a few artworks that mocked the president, among other political advocacy themes. “A lot of people ask, ‘Why haven't you done anything like that with Trump?’ With Bush, I thought it was hilarious that he seemed like such a buffoon. With Trump, just hearing his voice, reading something he says, or seeing his face, I have a visceral response to it. I never cared for him, ever. But as repugnant as he is, my bigger issue is with the fact that he has support. I'm naturally wired for pessimism, but I still had hope in humanity.

I still do to some extent, but just knowing how many people support him terrifies me.

“Honestly, it's one of the hardest things for me,” he concludes. “I want to do something with my art that is more political, but I swear, I would be too traumatized and nauseous using Trump’s image in anything. I don't know how to do that. There are a lot of other people doing a really great job, so I'll let them do that while I meditate with happy, bright colors.” l Raised by TV: Paintings by David Amoroso runs March 4 to 26, with an Opening Reception on Friday, March 6, from 6 to 9 p.m., at Artists & Makers Studios, 11810 Parklawn Dr., Ste. 210, Rockville, Md. Call 240-437-9573 or visit www.artistsandmakersstudios. com.

For more about David Amoroso, look for @AmorosoART on social media or visit www.amorosoart.wixsite.com/davidamoroso.

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Movies

Vanishing Act

Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man stretches out a decent horror premise until it’s as thin as air. By André Hereford

T

HE CHEEKILY EXTENDED FINAL SHOT OF WRITER-DIRECTOR LEIGH Whannell’s The Invisible Man (HHHHH) is of the sort that invites shrewd reassessment of all that’s gone before. But the most likely reframing of this reframing of H.G. Wells’ classic novel would make less sense than what Saw co-creator Whannell already gives us, updating the sci-fi tale to modern-day stalker suspense.

The film retains a key science fiction element from the book, casting villain Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) as a scientist and “optics entrepreneur” who might have found a way to make himself invisible. That becomes a real roadblock for his architect girlfriend, Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss, swinging for the fences), who’s introduced beating a stealthy, though none too hasty, escape from uber-controlling Adrian’s walled oceanside compound. Hiding out on the opposite side of the Bay with friendly cop James (Aldis Hodge) and his teenage daughter Sydney (Euphoria’s Storm Reid), Cecilia learns that Adrian has died, and breathes easy for a perfunctory moment. But, quickly, she starts to suspect that her abusive tormentor is alive and well, and somehow unseen as he hounds and terrorizes her into madness.

Despite all evidence that Adrian’s a lunatic who’d more likely pull a Dateline and just murder anyone with the nerve to leave him, he apparently decides to toy with Cecilia’s sanity by systematically and invisibly ruining her life. Of course, that’s inefficient and involves a lot of iffy calculation of what Cecilia, James, Sydney, and Cecilia’s mostly supportive sister Alice (Harriet Dyer) might do at any given moment — but it’s

twisted, so sure. The problem is that the paranoid gaslighting goes on forever without Cecilia opting for more resourceful defenses than pleading with disbelieving loved ones, “You’ve got to believe me!”

(They don’t believe you, Cecilia, try something else.) For too long, Whannell builds scares around loud, sudden noises and slow, quiet breaths, punctuated by pounding blasts of Benjamin Wallfisch’s score, before Cecilia finally, truly takes matters into her own hands.

Suspense gives way to horror in a few abrupt slashes, with the movie providing Saw lifers only one really good kill among the few onscreen deaths. But the hazy plotting supplies ample grist for milling over questions, like how does one character have crime scene photos conveniently at the ready at a meeting he didn’t know he’d be attending? What happened to Officer James’ wife, Sydney’s mother, who doesn’t warrant a throwaway line or even a tearful cutaway to a family photo?

And, since wife-mom is so far out of the picture, how do sisters Cecilia and Alice know James again? Because he’s hot as hell and nobody in this slow-fizzing chiller seems to notice. l

The Invisible Man is rated R, and opens in theaters everywhere on Friday, Feb. 28. Visit www.fandango.com.

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TERESA CASTRACANE

Stage

Wandering Eyes

Theater J’s moving The Wanderers serves up shattering betrayal and redemption, with a sweet side of laughter.By André Hereford

L

OCAL THEATERGOERS ARE CURRENTLY BLESSED WITH SOLID PROductions of two riveting, very different dramas by acclaimed playwright Anna Ziegler — Keegan Theatre’s Boy, and Theater J’s D.C. premiere production of The Wanderers. Both plays trace paths to forgiveness through painful circumstances, while The Wanderers (HHHHH), in particular, sheds light on what might truly be meant by the phrase “religious freedom.”

Told through the parallel, Brooklyn-set love stories of Hasidic Jewish couple Esther (Dina Thomas) and Schmuli (Jamie Smithson), and modern marrieds Sophie (Kathryn Tkel) and Abe (Alexander Strain), The Wanderers weaves the two threads of romance into a tight, funny, multi-generational family saga. Sophie, a struggling writer whose mother was Jewish, and whose father is African-American, wittily describes herself as “Jewish-ish.” Even when she’s offstage, her sharp-eyed perspective greatly informs the audience point-of-view of her husband Abe, the far more successful novelist of the two.

And Sophie is offstage much of the time, as Abe engages an ego-stroking fascination with a famous admirer of his books, the auburn-haired movie star Julia (Tessa Klein).

Offering a physical embodiment of an affinity that blossoms via DMs and online chats, director Amber McGinnis stages Abe and Julia’s epistolary repartee with the actors playing scenes face-to-face. All the better to maximize the creeping sense that the pair, both otherwise devoted to their respective spouses and children, are treading too

close to a dangerous line. The direction, along with Strain and Klein’s simpatico chemistry, wring every ounce of dreadful anticipation from Abe and Julia’s budding relationship, as Tkel’s excitable Sophie maintains audience sympathy throughout her professional and personal travails.

And for all the moving relatability of the play’s depiction of contemporary couplehood, The Wanderers saves its real gutpunch of love overcoming acts of betrayal for the flip side of its narrative coin.

As arranged married couple Esther and Schmuli, Thomas and Smithson convey the common sense and sensitivities of two not equally devout ultra-Orthodox Jews who don’t operate with the cynical view of the world that rears its head in Abe and Sophie’s relationship. Abe and Sophie can spot all the red flags, while relatively naïve Esther and Schmuli have little idea what shocking reversals await them. The Wanderers swerves into a few surprising turns, in fact, and gets a helluva lot of mileage out of scenic designer Andrew Cohen’s swooping backdrop and a single bench — which also serves as a bassinet, a seat inside a movie star’s trailer, and even a casket, when that bell comes sadly tolling. l

The Wanderers runs through March 15, at Theater J, 1529 16th St. NW. Tickets are $39 to $69.

Call 202-777-3210, or visit www.theaterj.org.

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FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

TERESA CASTRACANE

Stage

Identity Politics

Anne Washburn’s Shipwreck goes after self-involved liberals, which is like shooting fish in a barrel. By Kate Wingfield

A

N EAST COAST WEEKEND GETAWAY WRAPPED UP INSIDE A CONTEMplation of racial identity, Anne Washburn’s Shipwreck: A History Play About 2017 (HHHHH) has its moments, but ultimately tries to do too much. Set six months into Donald Trump’s presidency, Washburn snows a handful of liberals into a farmhouse, which one of the couples has recently taken on as a second home. As a long evening turns into a sleepless night, the group devolves into discussions of the seismic shift of the election and what it says about America. There are some subtle revelations vis-à-vis identities and views on Trump, but most of it revolves around the kind of mindless, half-formed discussion that has always passed for “informed” among the indulged.

Washburn, of course, is holding up something of a mirror — and, as it later turns out, not just to her audience. But going after self-involved liberals is like shooting fish in a barrel at this point, and even if it eventually makes for an interesting vehicle in which to explore racial identity, it’s boring.

And although the play, without doubt, captures for posterity the dawn of a newly disturbing age in America (and not just on one side of the aisle), it doesn’t offer much when so much has happened since. Throwing in a reference to an impeachment which had not yet occurred may get a giggle, but it isn’t enough to conquer the fact that events have well overtaken Trump’s arrival and his James Comey moment.

Still, what does eventually become interesting is the presence in the gathering of African-American Louis, who, although also an East Coast elite, seems to have evolved some kind of altered consciousness when it comes to the day’s politics. Whatever you think of Washburn’s rather existential messaging, the approach is original and, as performed by the phenomenal Jon Hudson Odom, riveting.

Also clever is Washburn’s meta-connection between the farmhouse and two outsiders, modern farmer Lawrence, and his son, Mark. Appearing in interludes to talk about their lives and, ultimately, racial identities, the two monologue directly to the audience in an attractive contrast to the self-centered and self-contained weekend gathering.

Without giving too much away, there is a nuance here that offers an unexpected take on African-American identity — but also, very originally, the complexity of the human mind. If James Whalen’s Lawrence is engaging, Mikeah Ernest Jennings’ portrayal of Mark is mind-bendingly good.

Mixing his powerful ability to connect with the audience with his credible, complex evocation of this young 21st-century man, Jennings is stellar. His portrayal is so vivid, it’s hard to believe his Mark isn’t sitting in a Starbucks somewhere long after the play has ended.

Credit is also due to the ensemble for creating the gathering which by turns amuses, curls the toes, and seems all-too-relatable. As Allie, the person everyone would like to slap, Jennifer Dundas is pitch-perfect, capturing the articulate frenzy of a woman always on broadcast, who almost never gets called out, no matter what she slips into a con-

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versation. As Andrew, Tom Story brings the wry humor, if not an altogether convincing chemistry with his partner Louis.

Playing the crunchy granola Teresa, Alyssa Keegan is nicely convincing by not overplaying a character that almost begs for it. Hostess Jools is an awkwardly written role, but Anna Ishida nicely captures her brittle disdain, even if one is left wondering who she really is and why she bothers to entertain. Last but not least, Jeff Biehl keeps it understated as the quiet Jim, husband to Teresa, and then carries, with impressive focus, the lion’s share of Washburn’s all-encompassing detour into a hallucinogenic Trumpland.

This fever dream, upon which the play ends, will be less of a surprise to those familiar with Washburn’s penchant for the surreal (seen in full flagrante in her Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play), but that doesn’t make it any better. Despite director Saheem Ali’s strong sense of pacing and the interesting mood created by Arnulfo Maldonado’s sets and Colin K. Bills’ lighting, it is neither especially funny nor ominous. And if there is something lurking behind all of the symbols, parroted testimony and allusions, it is a puzzle that comes too late in an already long evening.

This sequence sits in another realm, the fantasy excess arguing with the rest of the play. It seems a squandering of Mark’s journey and all the effort expended on that exhausting weekender. In the end, it all feels rather like the kind of arty event the weekenders would enjoy critiquing. If that’s Washburn holding up yet another mirror, well, that just adds to the exhaustion of the exercise. l Shipwreck: A History Play About 2017 runs through March 8 at Woolly Mammoth, 641 D St. NW. Tickets are $20 to $107.

Call 202-393-3939 or visit www.woollymammoth.net.

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FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

SCOTT SUCHMAN

Stage

Church Ladies

James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner feels remarkably fresh, original, and vitally important. By Kate Wingfield

I

N HIS 1960 ESSAY HISTORY IS A WEAPON, JAMES BALDWIN WROTE, “IT IS very nearly impossible...to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.” Sixty years later, and although the “conversations” on racial, sexual, class and political identity are louder and often healthier than ever, they do sometimes come at the expense of a curious mind. Put another way, not everyone finally given voice has enough trust to allow questions, explorations, or challenges to the messaging.

With this in mind, it’s hard not to cheer the Shakespeare Theatre Company for staging James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner (HHHHH). Although certainly a rich capsule of mid-century African-American urban life, the play is, just as importantly, a fabulous, anarchical refusal to toe anybody’s line.

Baldwin never knew the Alpha choruses of the internet, never knew what it’s like to be caught in the maelstrom of voices providing a language, but also the existence and four corners, of an “identity” — be it one of race, gender, or political party. He embraced and struggled with his experience, but, as is so evident in Amen, he didn’t need to conform to a narrative or require that it confer certainties or sainthood. Instead, it was a life’s contemplation through which he asked the kind of bold and unfettered questions about religion, love, and human frailty that transcend race or ethnicity. Seen

amid today’s culture of “core messaging,” it feels remarkably fresh and original.

Set in a church that is at once inside and outside, Baldwin’s space is created by the city in every sense. The world is not just on the doorstep, it has come inside.

For this community, it is apt: there is no escaping the poverty and strife born of racism, there are only fleeting moments in which to shelter, be they through love, enterprise, or faith.

Capturing this mood, scenic designer Daniel Soule’s impenetrable walled yard has a certain grim, urban grandeur, the windows either open like portals into a black abyss or covered with lamp-lit curtains, as if to keep out the night. They speak of inner lives filled with small joys and larger despairs, but they also sit in observation of the congregation below.

This is a place where community is so strong, so desperate, it might even turn on itself.

Baldwin set the stage for his drama with the community congregation gathering for the sermon of their Pentecostal pastor, Margaret Alexander, and a rousing

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hymn. The choice to raise the house lights, apparently to draw in the audience, doesn’t quite work and is thankfully short-lived.

After this slight misstep, the musical interludes become increasingly exciting signifiers of emotional portent and power. The performances are singular with the chorus-congregants wholly invested. In particular, Nova Y. Payton (Sister Douglass) sings with other-worldly magic and skill, Jade Jones (Sister Rice) brings the house down with her impressive Gospel range, and the searing gaze and velvet voice of Lauryn Simone (Sister Sally) remains immensely memorable.

As the first prayer meeting winds down, it becomes clear that single-minded and commanding Pastor Margaret has been leading the church for some years. When she counsels the terrified new mother Ida Jackson, who arrives with her ailing baby, she shocks her by insisting she leave her non-observant husband and then reassures her that God will protect her child. In this short glimpse of Margaret’s adamance, Baldwin subtly announces his themes: that to love is to be humbled and that one must ask whether God is ever anybody’s answer. Carefully orchestrated, director Whitney White sets a simple, almost stark vision — one that keeps the mood urgent and relevant, despite the play’s era.

Almost as soon as Margaret speaks with such certainty, her world is rocked by the arrival of her mysterious, jazz musician husband Luke. Deathly ill, he is seeking reconciliation, but also truth. When the congregant elders discover another side to Margaret, simmering resentments surface and Margaret loses hold of her uncompromising façade.

But where another playwright might have explored redemp-

tion, Baldwin had bigger, better, near-subversive, fish to fry.

Not only is forgiveness thin on the ground, Margaret never answers Ida Jackson’s most primal questions: what kind of God allows children to suffer? Is this a God anyone can or should “obey”? These are explorations so confident and independent that characters can fail, identities can falter, and challenges can even be made to the value of religion. For this alone, the play is a treasure.

Still, this is an early work, and Baldwin never quite develops Margaret’s complex relationship with Luke or her son, David.

Matters aren’t helped by Mia Ellis’ Margaret, who never quite rings true. Though she cuts a charismatic figure and is fluent with Baldwin’s language, there is too little nuance in Ellis’ delivery and expression and it feels self-conscious. As Luke, Chike Johnson is convincingly grim, hopeful and painfully intimate, but he has too little to play against with this short-range Margaret. The chemistry with son David, played with earnest energy, if a bit too young, by Antonio Michael Woodard, is more fraught than genuine.

That said, much is carried by other key characters. E. Faye Butler captures her Sister Moore with hilarious sensibility but also reveals, with great skill, a fearsome inner life (as well as a fabulously expressive singing voice). As Margaret’s sister Odessa, Harriett D. Foy brings the angst and nuance that Ellis needed, while Deidra Lawan Starnes captures Sister Boxer’s resentment with credible personality and edge.

Baldwin may be a voice from the past, but his example and belief in an independent mind has never been more important. l

The Amen Corner runs through March 15 at Sidney Harman Hall, 610 F St. NW. Tickets are $35 to $120.

Call 202-547-1122 or visit www.shakespearetheatre.org.

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NightLife Photography by Ward Morrison

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Scene

Uproar - Friday, Feb. 21 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

DrinksDragDJsEtc...

Friday, February 28 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports DC EAGLE Meaty Fridays Happy Hour 5-9pm • Free Hot Dogs all night and Pizza at 7:30pm • $2 off all drinks until 9pm • $5 Cover starts at 7pm, $10 after 9pm • RuPaul’s Drag Race Viewing, hosted by Crystal and Brooklyn, 8pm • Birds of Prey Drag Show at 10:30pm • Open until 3am FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 Rail and Domestic • $5 Svedka, all flavors all night long • Kicks and Giggles present Go Fresh: An AllLewks-Considered Queen House Music Dance Party, 10pm-close • No Cover NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Open 3pm • Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Weekend Kickoff Dance Party, with Nellie’s DJs spinning bubbly pop music all night NUMBER NINE Open 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover • Friday Night Piano with Chris, 7:30pm • Friday Night Videos, 9:30pm • Rotating DJs

PITCHERS Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Capital Laughs Comedy Show, Second Floor, 7:30pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $5 • Otter Happy Hour with guest DJs, 5-11pm

Destinations A LEAGUE OF HER OWN 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.facebook.com/alohodc AVALON SATURDAYS Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW 202-789-5429 www.facebook.com/ AvalonSaturdaysDC

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ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm • Guest dancers • Rotating DJs • Kristina Kelly’s Diva Fev-ah Drag Show • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:45pm • Music by DJ Jeff Eletto • Cover 21+

Saturday, February 29 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-3am • Video Games • Live televised sports AVALON SATURDAYS The Kidd Madonny Show: GaylaXXXy Tour 2020, 10pm-4am • Featuring DJ Kidd Madonny • Drag Show, 10:30-11:30pm, hosted by Ba’Naka and a rotating cast of drag queens • $4 Absolut Drinks, 10pm-midnight

• $20 Cover • $25 VIP • Tickets available at Eventbrite.com • 21+ DC EAGLE Open at 5pm • Happy Hour until 9pm • $5 Cover except for special events • Saturday Kink in the Main Bar, 9pm-close • LOBO, BRUT, and Aftershock rotating on 2nd, 4th, and 5th Saturdays • Xavier Entertainment presents Edge/Wet/Delta Elite/ Bachelor’s Mill Reunion • Serving until 3am FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Saturday Breakfast Buffet, 10am-3pm • $14.99 with one glass of champagne or coffee, soda or juice • Additional champagne $2 per glass • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Freddie’s Follies Drag Show, hosted by Miss Destiny B. Childs, 8-10pm • Karaoke, 10pm-close

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5 Bacardi, all flavors, all night long • No Cover NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-3am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs playing pop music all night NUMBER NINE Doors open 2pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Rewind One Hit Wonders with DJ Khelan, 7-10pm • Yaaas with DJs BacK2bACk, 10pm PITCHERS Open Noon-3am • Video

DC EAGLE 3701 Benning Rd. NE (202) 455-6500 www.dceagle.com

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR 900 U St. NW 202-332-6355 www.nelliessportsbar.com

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR 555 23rd St. S. Arlington, Va. 703-685-0555 www.freddiesbeachbar.com

NUMBER NINE 1435 P St. NW 202-986-0999 www.numberninedc.com

GREEN LANTERN 1335 Green Ct. NW 202-347-4533 www.greenlanterndc.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

PITCHERS 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.pitchersbardc.com

NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS Compiled by Doug Rule

ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS ANNIVERSARY It has now been one decade and one year since Ziegfeld’s/Secrets reopened in its current large, two-story complex on the outskirts of Southwest, with the Ladies of Illusion downstairs and fully exposed go-go boys upstairs. This Friday, Feb. 28, and Saturday, Feb. 29, the entertainment complex will toast “over 40 years of fun and drag” with special shows and guests joining the house’s grand dame Ella Fitzgerald, drink specials, and music by DJ Steve Henderson. Ziegfeld’s/Secrets is at 1024 Half St. SW. Call 202-863-0607 or visit www.secretsdc.com.

Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with $16 Bottomless Mimosas, 10am-3pm • Homme Brunch, Second Floor, 12pm • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers TRADE Doors open 2pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $5 • CTRL: QWERTY, 9pm • DJ Dvonne with guest DJ Natty Boom and performance by Drag King Boi Band, featuring Roman

Noodle, Zillonare, and Majic Dyke ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets upstairs, 9pm-close • Fully nude male dancers • Ladies of Illusion Drag Show with host Ella Fitzgerald in Ziegfeld’s • Doors open at 9pm, Show at 11:45pm • Music by DJs Keith Hoffman and Don T. • Cover 21+

Sunday, March 1 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-12am • $4 Smirnoff and Domestic Cans • Video Games • Live televised sports DC EAGLE Open at Noon • Happy Hour until 9pm • Food

SHAW’S TAVERN 520 Florida Ave. NW 202-518-4092 www.shawstavern.com TRADE 1410 14th St. NW 202-986-1094 www.tradebardc.com ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS 1824 Half St. SW 202-863-0670 www.ziegfelds.com

RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE VIEWING PARTIES Several local queens will once again battle it out for the title of D.C.’s Best Host for a Reality Show Viewing Party starting this Friday, Feb. 28, and continuing at 8 p.m. every Friday into Pride season. The show in question is RuPaul’s Drag Race, the Emmy-winning hit VH1 show preparing to hoist 13 more queens on a suspecting America via its 12th Season. There’s a viewing party on the boards at just about every gay and LGBTQ-popular bar in town — including Nellie’s, which hasn’t announced a hostess yet, but is serving $6 Absolut cocktails till 10 p.m.

— and it’s great fun to watch and wash it down with a local diva or two.

The DC Eagle has Brooklyn Heights and Crystal Edge, additional guest stars each week, plus free pizza and hot dogs and $5 Stoli mixed drinks.

Pussy Noir co-host Trade’s coverage alongside porn star Boomer Banks for a night of games, lewks, gawks, and the “usual antics,” including music by Wess the DJ and XL Happy Hour drink prices until 10 p.m.

Goldie Grigio hosts at 18th & U Duplex Diner and then performs along with special guest Mia Vanderbilt. KC B. Yoncé is on the mic upstairs at Number Nine, which offers its 2-4-1 Happy Hour until 9 p.m. Desiree Dik helms the Red Bear Brewing Co., where this week’s premiere will be followed by the monthly Slay Them! Drag Performing Competition.

Meanwhile, CAKE may take the proverbial cake at Pitchers by hosting and giving away prizes and surprises all while guests eat, drink, and watch the show from 14 TVs on three different levels of the bar. For contact information and links, visit www.metroweekly.com/nightlife.

CTRL: QWERTY: ALL BLACK EVERYTHING The last Saturday of the month at Trade, DJs Adam Koussari-Amin, Dvonne, and Jeff Prior spin vogue house, “queerstep,” and other harder pop/EDM-focused tunes than the average gay party. And in honor of February as Black History Month, they’re taking the leap this Saturday, Feb. 29, to throw a party with music spun by Dvonne B2B with special guest Natty Boom of the Anthology of Booty collective, plus a performance by the Drag King Boi Band featuring Roman Noodle, Zillionaire, and Majic Dyke. The party, for everyone 21 and up, starts at 10 p.m.

Trade is at 1410 14th St. NW. No cover. Call 202-986-1094 or visit www. tradebardc.com.

FLASHY SUNDAZE This Sunday, March 1, the team behind the popular holiday-weekend party Flashy Sundays hosts another non-holiday, non-late-night bash — essentially, a tea dance — and all for free. Starting at 4 p.m., DJs TWiN and Sean Morris will take to the decks on the club’s rooftop level, where they’ll wind down the weekend and send it out with a bang. They’ll keep things spinning fast and, well, flashy, until 10 p.m. Flash is at 645 Florida Ave. NW. No Cover. Call 202-827-8791 or visit www.facebook. com/flashydc. l

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served 4-7pm, $12 a plate • Cigar Sundays and Cruisy Sundays • $3 off all Whiskeys & Bourbons and Rail, $5 Chivas Regal • Serving until 2am FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Fabulous Sunday Champagne Brunch, 10am-3pm • $24.99 with four glasses of champagne or mimosas, 1 Bloody Mary, or coffee, soda or juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Zodiac Monthly Drag Contest, hosted by Ophelia Bottoms, 8-10pm • Karaoke, 10pm-close GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Karaoke with Kevin downstairs, 9:30pm-close NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and

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1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-1am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • Pop Goes the World with Wes Della Volla at 9:30pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open Noon-2am • $4 Smirnoff, includes flavored, $4 Coors Light or $4 Miller Lites, 2-9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm

SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with $16 Bottomless Mimosas, 10am-3pm • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-priced select pizzas and appetizers • Dinner and Drag Show with Kristina Kelly, 6:30pm • For reservations, email shawsdinnerdragshow@ gmail.com TRADE Doors open 2pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $5 • GLAM BOX: A Monthly Dress-Up Dance Party, 10pm • Come in a look, or find one from our house glam boxes • Walkoff contest at 10:30pm • Music by Joann Fabrixx • Special guest hosts

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

Monday, March 2 DC EAGLE Too Smart Trivia every week • Happy Hour until 9pm, $2 off all drinks • Free Pool play • $2 Bud & Bud Lights FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Singles Night • Half-Priced Pasta Dishes • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long • Singing with the Sisters: Open Mic Karaoke Night with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, 9:30pm-close NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour

— $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Half-Priced Burgers • Paint Nite, 7pm • PokerFace Poker, 8pm • Dart Boards • Ping Pong Madness, featuring 2 PingPong Tables NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Shaw ’Nuff Trivia, 7:30pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $5

Tuesday, March 3 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports DC EAGLE Jockstrap Tuesdays: First Drink Free for Guys in Jockstraps • Twisted Tuesdays in the Eagle’s Nest • Hosted by DMV Kiki Nights (Vogue Beats, House, GoGo) FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco Tuesday • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long • Tito’s Tuesday: $5 Tito’s Vodka all night

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NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Drag Bingo with Sasha Adams and Brooklyn Heights, 7-9pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close NUMBER NINE Open at 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm SHAW’S TAVERN Super Tuesday: Join us for All the Results! • Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Burgers and Pizzas, 5-10pm • Schitt’s Creek Watch Party, Second Floor, 9pm

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TRADE Doors open 5pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $5

Wednesday, March 4

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports DC EAGLE Happy Hour until 9pm • Karaoke by D&K Sounds from 9pm-1am • $5 Rails, Wines & Domestic Drafts FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • $6 Burgers • Beach Blanket Drag Bingo Night, hosted

by Ms. Regina Jozet Adams, 8pm • Bingo prizes • Karaoke, 10pm-1am

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4pm-9pm • Bear Yoga with Greg Leo, 6:30-7:30pm • $10 per class • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long • Karaoke, 9pm

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Piano Bar with Jill, 8pm

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR SmartAss Trivia Night, 8-10pm • Prizes include bar tabs and tickets to shows at the 9:30 Club • Absolutely Snatched Drag Show, hosted by Brooklyn Heights, 9pm • $3 Bud Light, $5 Absolut, $15 Buckets of Beer

TRADE Doors open 5pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $5

NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover

Thursday, March 5

PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

DC EAGLE $5 Rail and Domestics for guys in L.U.R.E. (Leather, Uniform, Rubber, Etc.) • Lights Dimmed at 8pm

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Shirtless Thursday, 10-11pm • Men in Underwear Drink Free, 12-12:30am • DJs BacK2bACk NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • $15 Buckets of Bud Products all night • Sports Leagues Night NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover • ThurSlay, featuring DJ Jack Rayburn, 10pm PITCHERS Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Thirst Trap Thursdays, hosted by Venus Valhalla,

11pm-12:30am • Featuring a Rotating Cast of Drag Performers • Dancing until 1:30am SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Bottles of Wine, 5pm-close TRADE Doors open 5pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $5 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS All male, nude dancers, 9pm-close • “New Meat” Open Dancers Audition • Music by DJ Don T. • Cover 21+ l For more specials not featured in print, visit www.metroweekly.com/ nightlife/drink_specials.

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Scene

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Freddie’s Beach Bar - Saturday, Feb. 22 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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LastWord.

People say the queerest things

“PBS KIDS should stick to entertaining and providing family-friendly programming, instead of pushing an agenda.”

— Anti-LGBTQ activist group ONE MILLION MOMS, protesting children’s cartoon Clifford the Big Red Dog because it features “a child character named Samantha who has two mommies.” The group previously tried to lead a boycott of PBS cartoon Arthur for showing a same-sex wedding.

“As long as Maryland’s law is on the books, it will continue to endanger LGBTQ people.”

— The ACLU OF MARYLAND, in a statement calling for lawmakers to repeal the state’s sodomy law, which was ruled unconstitutional in 2003. “States across the country have been repealing their sodomy laws since 1961,” ACLU said.

“It is time for Maryland to join them, and live up to our state nickname, ‘The Free State’.”

“Unfortunately, we did not receive responses from Tulsi Gabbard ahead of publication. ” — The HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN, in a statement noting that Rep. Tulsi Gabbard was the only Democratic presidential candidate not to submit responses to the organization’s survey on LGBTQ issues. Gabbard has a history of opposing LGBTQ rights, though she has since apologized and claims to now be supportive.

“I’m on no dating apps.

I’m not on Tinder, Grindr, Bumble, Humble I am not on any of them. ” — BEN AFFLECK, discussing his dating life with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer. Responding on Twitter, Grindr said, “Don’t knock it till you try it.”

is full of teens playing ‘beer’ pong and having Mock-tails, “My kitchen and we’ve got the chocolate fountain going.

It’s a happy place.”

— DAVE SCOTT, a Canadian father who went viral on Twitter after sharing news about his transgender son’s party celebrating starting testosterone treatment. “So this month my 16yo Son started Testosterone,” he wrote.

“Today he’s throwing a 1 yr T-Versary.” Scott later added: “Lots of love to everybody out there.

Remember, you guys are valid no matter how you transition or what your journey entails.”

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FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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