Backstage
Diverging roads
I’m sitting here staring at the blinking cursor on my screen, wondering where to ... | 0 comments ›› more ...
Blog
Don't try this at home
I love the Internet and can entertain myself for hours looking up absolutely useless information. | 0 comments ›› more ...
Still waiting for Godot
Shortly before I graduated from college 32 years ago, I wrote a mildly irreverent paper for a journalism course. I pointedly asked how all the French literature I'd studied could possibly be applicable to my "real" life. | 1 comment ›› more ...
When life feels like an episode of 'House'
A week ago, I blogged about my son David, 19, who came home from college with a 6-cm. mass in his left sinus. | 0 comments ›› more ...
A different kind of drama
It’s been quite a few weeks since I’ve blogged, and it’s not because there haven’t been memorable shows on stage around Fairfax. It’s because my mind has been elsewhere. | 5 comments ›› more ...
Reston Community Players' 'Urinetown': Flush with talent
I have to tell you, writing a review of "Urinetown, The Musical!" takes every bit of self-control to fight the urge to indulge in potty humor. | 0 comments ›› more ...
Más vale tarde que nunca
Not that anyone would notice, but it's been awhile since I've brought you up to date on the local theater scene. Blame it on the empty nest (remember that initial iteration of this blog?). | 0 comments ›› more ...
More openings, more auditions
Here's the run-down of openings and auditions for this week. If you know of others, please e-mail me at lbuck@timespapers.com with the details. | 0 comments ›› more ...
'Hedda Gabler': Parlor games for the obsessed
Karen Jadlos Shotts in the title role of "Hedda Gabler," now on stage at the Industrial Strength Theatre in Herndon, is intriguing and unnerving – something that isn't easily accomplished. | 0 comments ›› more ...
Too many shows, too little time
My friend Mary Ann and I have sweatshirts we bought years ago when we were trying to balance our adult lives with raising kids. The sweatshirts read "Too Many Books, Too Little Time." | 0 comments ›› more ...
What are you in the mood for?
Do you crave some classic Cole Porter with a little soft-shoe? A love story with a bizarre twist? Or a thought-provoking look at science with a gruesome mystery tossed in? | 0 comments ›› more ...
'Hedda Gabler' opens tonight
Henrik Ibsen's classic play, "Hedda Gabler," often characterized as the female "Hamlet," opens tonight for a four-weekend run at Industrial Strength Theatre in Herndon. | 0 comments ›› more ...
2nd Flight makes it real
The back story to 2nd Flight’s production of Neil LaBute’s “Some Girl(s),” now on stage at the Cramer Center Theatre in Manassas, seems more like fiction than the storyline of the play. | 0 comments ›› more ...
Tonight's the night
It's opening night for five new local productions. Forget the snow and cold – let some belly laughs or head-scratching intrigue or heart-tugging emotion warm you to the core. | 0 comments ›› more ...
It's catch-up time
Catch up on your to-do list this weekend because next Friday is another big opening night in Fairfax, with shows playing for several weeks. | 0 comments ›› more ...
New year, new shows
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and is now eager to return to area theaters. | 0 comments ›› more ...
A shining star whose light will live on
The local theater scene lost one of its greatest supporters this past week. Bill Strauss, who elevated high school theater to a level few could’ve imagined just eight years ago, died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer. | 0 comments ›› more ...
Tune up for the holiday with the Fairfax Symphony
Christmas is just a little more than a week away, and when it's past, so are your chances to marvel at these spirited performances. | 0 comments ›› more ...
Add this pair to your wish list
If you don’t have the time, money or inclination to travel to New York for Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular this year, you can see a close approximation right here in Fairfax. You may not find live camels and sheep on stage, but you will find everything else – dazzling costumes, ... | 0 comments ›› more ...
Elden Street Players announces an emergency audition
Elden Street Players is seeking a "Lovborg" for "Hedda Gabler." | 0 comments ›› more ...
Give the gift of theater: It's good for their health
Most stages are dark now as actors audition and crews prepare to open new shows in January. But it's not too early to buy tickets for some of those shows. Have you thought about giving tickets to your ... | 0 comments ›› more ...
Time to take in a Cappies show
Now – while community theater's busy fall season is winding down – is a great time to catch a Cappies show at one of our local high schools. | 0 comments ›› more ...
Tune in to ESP's 'Greater Tuna'
Judging from its portrayal in "Greater Tuna," the fictional third-smallest town in Texas must be a nice place to visit – but I wouldn't want to live there. | 0 comments ›› more ...
Catch these shows this weekend
Two shows for children are on stage this weekend, and three for older audiences are nearing the end of their runs. | 0 comments ›› more ...
No lamenting Adelaide's performance on Reston's CenterStage
I've been a fan of "Adelaide's Lament" – perhaps the most popular song from "Guys and Dolls" – since way back when: the tormented, Brooklyn-accented plaint of the unmarried nightclub showgirl, the sneezing, the wheezing, the misery! Ah-CHOO! | 0 comments ›› more ...
What's playing this weekend?
Several shows continue this weekend. Some performances are sold out (so far I've heard "Greater Tuna" on Nov. 3 is sold out, and "Guys and Dolls" has only limited seating for most shows), so call ahead for ... | 0 comments ›› more ...
Play It Again, Springfield
"The Last Five Years," Springfield Community Theatre's production that opened Friday, is in a word, "delightful." When the one-act musical ended, I sat there, hoping if I stayed in my seat long enough, they'd do it all over again. | 0 comments ›› more ...
More theater openings
It's opening night all over Fairfax County. These five shows take the stage tonight for extended runs. | 0 comments ›› more ...
Auditions for young actors
Two area theater companies are looking for young actors for their upcoming productions. | 0 comments ›› more ...
Who's performing, who's auditioning
One of my hopes for this blog is that it can become a place where theater companies announce their shows' openings, and give details about upcoming auditions and advance sale tickets. If you have news to post, e-mail me at lbuck@timespapers.com. | 0 comments ›› more ...
I hear you
Patti Green Roth, an associate producer for McLean Community Players' upcoming production of "Children of a Lesser God," called me Friday. She wanted to talk about the language I used in my 2007-2008 theater guide, which appeared in this week's Go entertainment section. | 0 comments ›› more ...
On to Act II
I haven't blogged in a couple weeks. No reason, really, except that life has gotten busy. Which I guess is a good thing for an empty nester -- no time to sit around feeling lonely and adrift. | 1 comment ›› more ...
Degrees of separation
I had breakfast with my friend Laura last week. An accomplished journalist and author, she's one of my favorite people and any time we get together, it's a real treat for me. | 0 comments ›› more ...
Getting better all the time
It's been 16 days since Gene and I left our youngest at college. This past weekend was the first we spent totally alone. (The weekend before didn't count because our middle son, Andrew, was home.) | 0 comments ›› more ...
Alone again, naturally
I awoke in a panic before dawn this morning, alarmed that we forgot to wake David up for the first day of school! | 0 comments ›› more ...
The long goodbye -- not!
When it's 97 degrees in the shade, and you can't decide whether it's hotter outside the freshmen dorm where there's no sign of a breeze, or inside your son's non-air-conditioned room where fans merely push the hot air around, good-byes become brief. | 0 comments ›› more ...
A moving experience
I have a confession to make. I'm not really from Loudoun, even though I've worked at the Times-Mirror for five years. I live in Reston and have been a Fairfax County resident since 1980. | 0 comments ›› more ...
Taming those college dorm checklists
David and I made a run to Linens N Things and Target a couple weekends ago to start buying what he needs for his college dorm room: twin XL sheet sets, pillows, comforter, blanket, mattress pad, bath towels, a shower caddy to carry his toiletries to the bathroom, a storage ... | 0 comments ›› more ...
Your history
My sister Carol and her 9-year-old twins are coming to visit this week. She's a teacher, and this is her boys' first educational adventure to Washington, D.C., an introduction to some of those things that make our country great. | 1 comment ›› more ...
Back to the future
Yesterday Gene and I helped a fellow editor and her husband move into their newly purchased condo. It so happens that their condo is next door to one Gene and I rented for a few months in 1985 while we waited for our house to be built. | 1 comment ›› more ...
Dial M[om] for crises
Andrew called from camp the other evening. We chatted about his day, my day, then there was a pause. "I don't want you to panic or get upset," he said, "because it's all fixed, it's going to work out." | 0 comments ›› more ...
You can't take it with you?
Most of us have seen that T-shirt: "It's not an empty nest until their stuff is out of the basement." I need to have shirts made for my husband and me: "It's not an empty nest until their stuff is out of the loft -- for good." | 2 comments ›› more ...
In your dreams
I've had two nightmares this past week in which my mother died. | 7 comments ›› more ...
Loft-y ambitions
Two days after David graduated -- while he was partying all night and sleeping all day -- Gene and I went to work re-feathering our nest. We set our sites on the unfinished loft over our detached garage. | 0 comments ›› more ...
Tears and cheers
My youngest son, David, graduated from high school last week. At a post-graduation affair, my friend Linda and I sat comparing notes on the ceremony and contemplating the reality of our soon-to-be-empty nests -- David and her son Benjy are our last kids at home. About all that, Linda said, ... | 0 comments ›› more ...
Welcome to Empty Nesting
A "Zits" cartoon has been yellowing on my refrigerator for a year and a half. In the first frame, Jeremy, 15, tells his girlfriend, Sarah, "I'm sick of this place," referring to home. "I can't wait 'til I go away to college!" | 3 comments ›› more ...