Reginald L.Douglas: Last News

Bars and Measures (★★★★☆), in a gripping Mosaic Theater production, metes out its clues and secrets with well-measured slowness, as Bilal, in solitary confinement, awaits his next court hearing.He stays loose and lucid by practicing his bass in his head, his hands running up and down the imaginary fingerboard. We hear the music as he plays, while, behind him, light strips lacing the cracks in the concrete walls pulse in time to the tune.His abject physical confinement and resilient creative mind are vividly captured in the blend of scenic design by Paige Hathaway, spry lighting by John D.

Confederates renders a frank, witty, and delightfully twisted exploration of racial biases, be they unconscious or firmly resolved.The play, directed by Stori Ayers in a riveting new production at Mosaic, derives some suspense from the anticipation that its parallel plotlines might connect. But whether or not the individual stories of embattled college professor Sandra (Nikkole Salter) and enslaved rebel Sara (Deidre Staples) actually meet, their experiences as Black women, though separated by centuries, are still intertwined.Even Nadir Bey’s evocative set design suggests as much, combining Sandra’s office and Sara’s plantation cabin within the same space.

Monumental Travesties, written by playwright-in-residence Psalmayene 24.“My thought was we would go to the rehearsal room, show you that,” he says, leading me through a maze of hallways, and up a stairway to the second floor. “And then meet Psalm and everybody, and then we could sneak peek into the theater.”Douglas is directing Monumental Travesties, a sharp, D.C.-set comedy centered around a Black performance artist’s radical response to the Emancipation Memorial, that statue of Lincoln lording over a formerly enslaved man on his knees erected nearly 150 years ago in Capitol Hill’s Lincoln Park.Featuring Renee Elizabeth Wilson, Jonathan Feuer, and Louis E.

www.tedsbulletin.com.Local stage artists will read from a collection of short, contemporary plays from the besieged Ukraine, some of them written and translated in just the past month, as part of a benefit for two Ukrainian charities and jointly organized by Theater J and Mosaic Theater Company.“Plays from the Front Lines: A Fundraiser for Ukraine,” a program of staged readings directed by Mosaic’s Playwright-In-Residence Psalmayene 24, will share the war-time insights and experiences from some of the country’s leading playwrights, followed by a post-show discussion.“It is a humbling honor to amplify the voices and visions of Ukrainian playwrights capturing this moment in world history with both honesty and hope and to support ongoing relief efforts through this partnership and event,” says Mosaic’s artistic director Reginald L. Douglas in a statement.The beneficiaries are Voices of Children, and its work in providing psychological support to Ukrainian children, and the Beit Graham Jewish Community Center and its work in providing essential services and basic supplies for its members.