Karen Novack

The Audio Publishers Association has announced finalists for the 2023 Audie Awards®, the premier awards program recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment. Winners across 26 competitive categories will be revealed at the Audie Awards Gala on March 28. The ceremony will be streamed to the public from Chelsea Piers’ Pier Sixty in NYC. 

Angry irony does not usually get used to describe the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein. But there isn't always a bright golden haze on the meadow. 'You've got to be taught to be afraid/of people whose eyes are oddly made/and people whose skin is a different shade,' came from his pen as did, 'You've got to be taught before it's too late/before you are six or seven or eight. . . .' The character who sings these words in South Pacific is furious because he's a white man in love with an Asian woman, and in the late 1940s, he's surrounded by people who'd find her eyes to be oddly made. Adam Turner, the eponymous character in Anna Ziegler's Boy being taught what to be before it's 'too late,' also has the double whammy of being the person who doesn't fit society's idea of how to be. The situation jumps out of Hammerstein's league into Orwell's because it's doubleplusungood. But that word's off the table as applied to Keegan Theatre's fine production of the 90 minute Boy; directed with skill and compassion by Susan Marie Rhea.

The Keegan Theatre kicks off 2020 with the DC premiere of Anna Ziegler's BOY, opening February 7 and running through March 7, 2020, at the Andrew Keegan Theatre in Washington, DC. BOY is directed by Keegan Artistic Director Susan Marie Rhea. The press opening is on Tuesday, February 11 at 8:00pm.

The Keegan Theatre announces the cast and creative team of Brandon McCoy's heartwarming new play WEST BY GOD, making its world premiere on September 27, 2019 at The Andrew Keegan Theatre in Washington, DC. Following its premiere in DC, WEST BY GOD will travel to West Virginia in the first ever KeeganConnects tour, a new annual initiative designed to take original, provocative plays to small towns and communities nationwide. The press opening is slated for October 1, 2019.

Part of the excitement of DC's Capital Fringe Festival is not knowing when you'll stumble upon a true gem of a production. I was fortunate enough to find a couple when I indulged in two dramas and two comedies within 48 hours at Arena Stage.

Keegan Theatre's UNNECESSARY FARCE is the comedy we all need in these troubling times. Written by Paul Slade Smith and adroitly directed by Ray Ficca, this D.C. premiere will make you really, truly, laugh.

The Keegan Theatre opens 2018 with the Washington, DC premiere of Paul Slade Smith's award-winning stage comedy, UNNECESSARY FARCE. Opening on January 23, this delightfully hilarious comedy is directed by Ray Ficca and features actors Jon Townson, Noah Shaefer, Mario Baldessari, Karen Novack, Emily Levey, Jenna Lawrence and Christopher Herring. Ray Ficca most recently appeared on the Keegan stage as Flan in SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION. 'We're thrilled to have Ray back at Keegan, this time in the director's seat,' says Susan Marie Rhea, Keegan's artistic director and Ficca's co-star in SIX DEGREES. 'He brings a deep familiarity with this piece and its playwright, a natural sense of the rhythm and energy that farce requires, and an approach to directing that perfectly suits Keegan's aesthetic and collaborative culture. We're eager for UNNECESSARY FARCE to open, so that we can delight and uplift our Keegan audiences during this cold and often dreary season!'

Just outside the hustle and bustle of Washington, DC, high quality theater is found at the NextStop Theatre Company in Herndon. BOEING BOEING, a delightful comedy, runs in the 114 seat theater through April 30.

Thursday night, just a few exits away from baggage claim at Washington's Dulles Airport, the comedy Boeing Boeing arrived. The riotous laughter continues at NextStop Theatre Company's 114 seat black box theatre in Herndon through April 30th.

The theater space at the Spooky Action Theatre is so intimate you immediately feel you're in the tiny cabin where all its action in Jez Butterworth's play The River takes place.

More than 25 years after it was first staged, 'Six Degrees of Separation,' John Guare's sly tale of a young con man captivating and ultimately fooling an upper East Side couple, seems almost like a period piece.

The Keegan Theatre now has a masterpiece production with AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, running through September 2, at Church Street, Washington, D.C. Director Mark A. Rhea has assembled a skillful acting company, lead by Rena Cherry Brown, mining the depth of this award-winning play by Tracy Letts.

Closing out Keegan's 2011-12 season is Tracy Letts' Pulitizer Prize-winning and Tony Award-winning play, August: Osage County. Letts' jaw-dropping masterpiece opens on Friday, August 3 and runs through September 2, 2012, at the company's home on Church Street in Dupont Circle. Curtain is 7:30 pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturday evenings, with 3pm Sunday matinees.

Keegan Theatre's producing artistic director Mark A. Rhea discusses the Washington, D.C.-based theatre company. The Keegan opens Tracy Letts' award-winning dark comedy AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY August 3, which runs through September 2, 2012 at the Church Street Theatre.

Closing out Keegan's 2011-12 season is Tracy Letts' Pulitizer Prize-winning and Tony Award-winning play, August: Osage County. Letts' jaw-dropping masterpiece opens on Friday, August 3 and runs through September 2, 2012, at the company's home on Church Street in Dupont Circle. Curtain is 7:30 pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturday evenings, with 3pm Sunday matinees.

Rep Stage, the professional Equity theatre in residence at Howard Community College (HCC), closes its 18th season with Stephen Karam's 'Speech & Debate,' directed by Eve Muson and featuring Parker Drown, the 2010 recipient of the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical. 'Speech & Debate' closes May 1, 2011 in the Studio Theatre of the Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center (HVPA) on the HCC campus.

Rep Stage presents a terrific production of Stephen Karam's off-Broadway play.

Rep Stage, the professional Equity theatre in residence at Howard Community College (HCC), closes its 18th season with Stephen Karam's 'Speech & Debate,' directed by Eve Muson and featuring Parker Drown, the 2010 recipient of the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical.

While the cherry blossoms are blooming - over 30 productions will be taking root on DC area stages in April. So come visit the Nation's Capital and see a show or two or more. There's something playing for everyone.