Arena Stage's Homecoming Grand Opening Celebration

After many years, Arena Stage kicks off its return to SW DC, (two blocks south of the house I grew up and currently reside in, incidentally), with a Homecoming Grand Opening Celebration.

More than anything, it was wonderful to see an arts organization that is continuing to move forward despite these economic times.

With performances and workshops all over the place, like any good theatre, Arena's volunteer staff adhered to strict seating times. Unfortunately this means that I was late for Synetic Theater's showing of excerpts from The Master & Margarita and couldn't be seated.

I stayed, though, to check out Liz Lerman Dance Exchange right after. In addition to wanting to support one of the few dance companies participating in the grand opening, I also wanted to support a fellow UMD Dance graduate, Sarah Levitt. We both graduated about the same time, and she is actually a company member with the Dance Exchange.

Among the familiar faces included Mark Bishop, technical theatre director at St. Albans School, brother school of NCS where I am mainly employed, but they have multiple joint programs, so I kind of teach at STA, as well, like when working on the musical or the annual dance concert. I also graduated from STA in '99, which was the last year Mark was there before leaving to move up north for a while. He had recently moved back in the past couple of years, but I can honestly say that (although I didn't realize it at the while), he really instilled a sense of professionalism and love of the theatre and the process. It was weird at first, but awesome working alongside him, now.

With regard to Arena Stage, I hope that whatever energy was there for the opening, continues to be there in the years to come. But if the level of engagement displayed at this homecoming, with audiences and artists, is any indication, then the precedent Molly Smith and the Arena family have set is one that I believe is already paving the way forward.

J Street Jr

2010 Montgomery County Executive's Awards for Excellence in the Arts & Humanities

So, it's been a while, and life's been crazy, but I thoughtpick back up with the entries, with a bit of a focus on the thriving artistic and cultural scenes in the DC area.

Over the past several months, since the summer, I produced a show for the 5th Annual Capital Fringe Festival, finalized my thesis for the Arts Management program at American University, and performed in a production of King Arthur with Synetic Theater, as well as started a full-time job with Class Acts Arts, as their Arts Outreach Assistant, and started teaching Dance again, at the National Cathedral School for Girls, for the school year.

All that being said, the event that kind of got me raring to blog again, was this year's Montgomery County Executive's Awards for Excellence in the Arts & Humanities. The Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County works with the County Executive and other individuals and groups, to put on this award ceremony, which was held at the Strathmore Center for Performing Arts, which is just a beautiful venue if you haven't been and have the opportunity.

In addition to recognizing grantees for this fiscal year, awards that are given include the Lifetime Impact Award, Education Award, & Volunteer Award, amongst others. Because of my new found Class Acts Arts Family, I was going to support a couple of the artists on this year's roster, who were receiving awards, Shizumi Shigeto Manale (Outstanding Artist or Scholar) and Michael Bobbitt (Emerging Leader).

Shizumi, a Japanese performing artist, has two companies, Shizumi Dance Theatre and Shizumi Kodomo Dance Troupe (a group for youth, which you can learn more about at their FB Page).

Michael Bobbitt has a been a mentor of mine, whom I met in 2002 when he choreographed one of the two musicals Montgomery College put on through their Summer Dinner Theatre program, that year. He has been the Artistic Director of Adventure Theatre, where he asked me to come on as Production Manager, which was an awesome year which lead me applying to AU's Arts Management program. He also recently became the president of the League of Washington Theatres. I haven't even touched upon what he manages to do in his free time, in addition to family life, but needless to say, I believe that the award was well-deserved.

But the Class Acts Arts connection didn't stop there. As part of the ceremony, a number of performers provided some engaging moments, two of which were on CAA's roster: the first I mentioned earlier, the Shizumi Kodomo Dance Troupe, and the second was Lesole's Dance Project.

And there were some other familiar names and faces with whom I had crossed paths with in previous lives. One was a grantee, Adrienne Clancy, with her group, ClancyWorks Dance Company. I took her class fall and spring semester of my final year of grad school, through AU's Dance department.

The other face was Suzanne Richard, who received the Community Award and is the Artistic Director of Open Circle Theatre. Although I'd known of her and seen her on stage for a little while now, I finally met her two summers ago at the Capital Fringe festival.

Some other blasts from the past included two of Lesole's dancers, who I went to undergrad with, at UMD's Dance program, as well as one of the dancers with Urban Artistry (also on CAA's roster), whom I initially met in the underground/EDM dance scene in the area.

Anyway, that's it for now. It was a fun night, although (for a free event, and on a Monday night) I was kinda hoping more of the younger professional arts crowd would've been in attendance.

Until next time,

J Street Jr

Photos are from Creative MoCo's FB Photo Album.