Friday: Eddie Palmieri at the Library of Congress

South Bronx-raised pianist Eddie Palmieri established his musical reputation decades ago by innovatively combining the Afro Caribbean dance music he heard growing up in the 1950s with African American jazz. Now 87, Palmieri continues to love performing live where he often enthusiastically shakes his head and smiles while energetically pounding his fingers and sometimes his forearms and elbows on the keys. Although Palmieri has sometimes worked with vocalists, and emphasized more straight-ahead rhythms, he often, as he will be doing at the Library of Congress, digs into his Latin jazz songbook that highlights his ability to solo and improvise with his band. It’s this technique that led the National Endowment of the Arts to award him a Jazz Master in 2013, and he has won various Grammys over the years. Palmieri’s acclaimed skills also draw from the classical piano lessons he took as a youngster and the brief period as a teenager where he played timbales in his uncle’s Latin dance music orchestra. His work has been fueled by his own social justice values. Thus, Palmieri can play sweet and touching chords as he did solo on a song for his late wife Iraida Palmieri in a 2016 NPR Tiny Desk appearance, get noisy with his combo and use unusual time signatures, or combine all these different aspects as he did on his song “Justicia.” For this show Palmieri will be playing with longtime bandmates Luques Curtis on bass, Louis Fouche on alto saxophone, and Camilo Molina on drums. They’ll help provide the mix of dissonance and funky polyrhythms that Palmieri has become legendary for providing. The son of parents who emigrated from Puerto Rico, the charismatic Palmieri is likely to further enhance the evening with stories about his life between songs. Eddie Palmieri plays at 8 p.m. on Oct. 18 at the Library of Congress’ Coolidge Auditorium, 10 1st St. SE. loc.gov. Sold out, but Free RUSH passes will be available on site two hours before the concert. —Steve Kiviat

Opens Saturday: Mixed Up, Cut Up at Pyramid Atlantic

Pyramid Atlantic is known locally as a hub for artist studio space and workshops, but it’s also a hub for printmaking and paper arts more broadly, attracting workshop instructors and exhibitors from around the country and the globe. Its most recent guest is Houston-based artist Carlos Hernandez, showing an exhibit of his silkscreens and collages, as well as hosting an artist talk and two workshops. Hernandez creates both commercial and fine art works, creating concert posters and projects for corporations while also exhibiting widely, from small galleries all the way to the Smithsonian and Library of Congress. He’s worked collaboratively, founding the printmaking space Burning Bones Press in Houston and joining up with the group Outlaw Printmakers. Over the course of his storied career, he has racked up accolades including recognition from the Communication Arts Typography Annual for his playful and inventive lettering work and serving as artist in residence for the legendary Hatch Show Print letterpress shop. Mixed Up, Cut Up features works that are vibrant, frenetic, and jampacked with details, rewarding close looking. There is a level of planning that must go into making multicolored prints in order to get all the pieces to line up, and Hernandez’s work at times is meticulously planned; at other times it embraces the chaos and unpredictability of the process. His workshop on Oct. 17 (from 6 to 9 p.m.) preceding the exhibit revolves around using unconventional or mixed media in daily sketchbook use, and his own doodlings and explorations in this realm are the foundation of the finished works. Mixed Up, Cut Up runs from Oct. 19 to Nov. 24 at Pyramid Atlantic, 4318 Gallatin St., Hyattsville. Wednesday and Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. An artist talk and opening reception start at 5 p.m. on Oct. 19. pyramidatlanticartcenter.org. Free. —Stephanie Rudig

Closes Oct. 26: Gary Anthes at Studio Gallery

A photographer’s road trip through the sparsely populated west is, at this point, something of an American cliche. Gary Anthes’ exhibit Dust and Destiny on the Great Plains includes some of the expected subject matter—abandoned general stores, dilapidated farm buildings, boarded-up Main Street shops, dusty vintage cars, cracked and peeling grain elevators—and it offers a Dust Bowl warning about looming environmental decay. Still, the series benefits from its surprisingly sprightly mood, offering a striking contrast between the decay on view and the glorious light that illuminates it. Anthes—whose most notable prior exhibit in D.C. involved placing natural and man-made objects against the backdrop of interiors of an abandoned 200-year-old barn on his property—made his current collection of images during a 1,000-mile, back-road jaunt through seven states. Several of Anthes’ images feature facades with compellingly rhythmic wooden shingling, one of which includes an appealing arrangement of broken windows, in an echo of Minor White’s “The Three Thirds.” Another image, of a row of grain elevators alongside a receding rail line in Yuma, Colorado, conjures the Neoclassicism of Charles Sheeler’s painted depiction of Ford’s River Rouge plant. Anthes’ finest image may be one from eastern Colorado. It features a gently undulating field of grasslands under a mesmerizing sky in shades of blue; against this elemental pairing, a long piece of irrigation equipment jumps and snakes backward into the frame, providing a bracing sense of three dimensionality. Gary Anthes’ Dust and Destiny on the Great Plains runs through Oct. 26 at Studio Gallery, 2108 R St. NW. Wednesday through Friday 1 to 6 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. studiogallerydc.com. Free. —Louis Jacobson

Closes Oct. 26: Perspectives, a Morton Fine Arts’ *a pop-up project, at Washington Square 

Morton Fine Arts brings another installment of its trademarked *a pop-up project, titled Perspectives, to Washington Square. In a press release, Morton promises that this free exhibit of “’nature-based abstraction” will “communicate elements from nature directly” as experienced by the featured artists, who have been “[f]reed from the limitations of traditional representation.” Earlier this year, Morton Fine Arts staged another pop-up exhibit at Gallery B in Bethesda: Creating in Abstraction: A Pop-up Project Group Exhibition of 11 Global Contemporary Artists. Two of the highest-profile artists featured in that exhibit, Morton heavyweights Rosemary Feit Covey and Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, return for Perspectives. The other artists featured in Perspectives are Natalie Cheung, Hannelie Coetzee, Maya Freelon, Hiromitsu Kuroo, Eto Otitigbe, Andrei Petrov, and Jenny Wu. In interpreting the theme, the artists’ imaginations have varied widely: from Tzu-Lan Mann’s signature blending of Eastern and Western brushwork to Otitigbe’s blue-toned aluminum plate engravings; and from Freelon’s neon tissue ink monoprint Eclipse series to Wu’s latex-and-resin wood panel pieces. Wu’s panels, notably, feature titles that would not be out of place on a Fall Out Boy album, such as “DMV Still Does Not Default to Department of Motor Vehicles For Me,” “This Is Almost As Exciting As the Bylaw Review,” and “I Checked the Tag But I Don’t Understand the Tag.” With the unbeatable price of free and a wide variety of styles to survey, Perspectives is an opportunity for anyone who is modern art-curious but has been afraid to commit. Perspectives runs through Oct. 26 at Washington Square, 1050 Connecticut Ave. NW. Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. mortonfineart.com. Free. —Allison R. Shely

Ongoing: Mari Calai’s GENESIS at Photoworks

You can’t accuse photographer Mari Calai of lacking inspiration. Calai, in her capacity as artist in residence at Photoworks, has assembled a collection of works of unusual breadth. In one series, Calai—a native of Bucharest, Romania, who now lives in Falls Church—photographs doilies, but with a fuzzed approach that softens their fine, lacy details into near ethereality. In another series, Calai produces “chemigrams,” cameraless images made in the darkroom using light and chemicals, which she prints and attaches directly, without fuss, to the wall. The patterns in these chemigrams range from Japanese-style filigrees to abstract expressionist blobs; their toning ranges from mocha to an unexpected shade of pink. Other works teeter on the edge between realism and abstraction; some images suggest a raging fire, others like astronomical orbs, while others could pass for a foggy mountain valley—often printed on paper with subtle textures. The most impressive images veer a little closer to realism, notably a scene that appears to be sand dunes, a look upward into leaves and branches, and a spiral shell, highlighted with gold leaf. Mari Calai’s GENESIS runs through Nov. 10 at Photoworks at Glen Echo Park, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo. Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. glenechophotoworks.org. Free. —Louis Jacobson

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“People remember the moments,” rather than the particulars of a performance, says the actor Marlene Dietrich in the play Marlene put on by ExPats Theatre. No one cares about the plot or performances of a movie (or a stage play), she claims, so long as the hero is able to capture her audience’s attention with a mere glance or the way her cape flows behind her. 

Marlene has a bit of a formless and forgettable plot, and unfortunately the real-life Dietrich is not on hand to provide such indelible moments. Actor Karin Rosnizeck gamely depicts the iconic star and neatly handles some tricky accent work, but at the end of Dietrich’s legendary legs were some extremely large shoes to fill, and the shoe doesn’t quite fit here. 

The show opens backstage at a Paris theater as Marlene prepares to take the stage for one of her final performances. Her assistant Vivian (Valerie Adams Rigsbee) and the theater’s maid Mutti (Hilary Kacser) race around in a tizzy, trying to get the dressing room up to the headliner’s exacting standards. When the icon turns up, she is a tempestuous presence, snapping at the staff, reminiscing about her glory days, and placing outrageous orders of bouquets so she’ll appear to have legions of admirers. Her relationship with Vivian changes on a dime from tender and even flirtatious to outraged and authoritarian, and the most thrilling part of the production is watching that ambiguity and potentially queer storyline play out. 

Part of the trouble with Marlene is that it can’t decide whether it’s a comedy or drama, a memory play or a musical, and it’s almost totally devoid of dramatic tension. The tone of the play shifts with each of the actors’ mood swings; Marlene’s addresses to the audience and the other characters are mostly streams of consciousness. Though these go in some interesting directions, they often lead to dead ends and fail to have a larger dramatic thrust. Marlene experiences some minor tribulations, including some self-doubt and a leg that, at one point, collapses beneath her, but these are moved past quickly. 

The show is ostensibly a musical, but the first full song comes during a sequence midway through the run time, and the rest are packed at Marlene’s final concert at the end. Any buildup and backstage fretting that led up to that point fizzle out immediately. Rosnizeck performs the final songs well enough and deftly switches between singing in different languages while maintaining her German accent, but what could probably be one triumphant final number instead stretches to five—an awfully long time for anyone but a screen siren from Hollywood’s golden age to hold a room’s focus.

The set, designed by Tennessee Dixon (also in charge of projections), includes a screen that at times hosts projections and at others is illuminated from behind to show the action in the hallway outside the dressing room. In one segment Marlene describes her life in Germany in the 1930s—recounting the county’s depression, the rise of fascism, and the creation of concentration camps—as a video projection shows women in the countryside moving rocks and rubble. A pile of similar rubble that has inexplicably laid in front of the screen for the duration of the show is now put to use as Mutti starts lugging the rocks across the stage, a compelling set piece that nevertheless fails to connect to the overall play. 

You couldn’t ask for a more compelling subject than Marlene Dietrich, so it’s unfortunate that the script leaves one wondering what the point of the story was. Despite that, there are some hints of a more fully formed or unexpected picture of the icon. Rosnizeck very much looks the part, and the costumes by Donna Breslin help to construct the image of the diva, and so there is the bit of the feeling of seeing some previously unknown behind the scenes footage of Dietrich. A recurring bit about Marlene always cleaning her surroundings leads to several good comedic moments. It’s a kick to see the screen siren harrumphing around the stage with a broom and getting down on her knees in a suit skirt to wipe up the perceived dust, and those are the moments worth remembering. 

ExPats Theatre’s production of Marlene, written by Pam Gems and directed by Vanessa Gilbert, runs through Oct. 20 at Atlas Performing Arts Center. expatstheatre.com. $24.25–$52.75.

What could be more meta, or more Washingtonian, than seeing a play about Abraham Lincoln performed at the site where he was infamously shot? Mister Lincoln played at Ford’s Theatre in 1980 and was brought back this season specifically to coincide with the election year. Watching the play, it’s impossible not to think of the history of the building, as well as the larger-than-life presence Lincoln occupies in the American imagination. The former president has become an avatar for American values and democracy, an impossible ideal for any future politician to live up to, but leading man Scott Bakula grounds the famous figure with an affable and affecting performance. Mister Lincoln doesn’t do much to move the president off his pedestal, but it does affirm that there’s an actual person and not just a statue up on that perch. 

A billboard-size, fragmented portrait of Lincoln hangs above the stage, only one eye visible so that the president is perpetually winking at the audience. The setting is Lincoln’s mind, or maybe his notebook. Suspended slightly above the stage floor are hundreds of pieces of paper, emphasizing Lincoln as a writer and wordsmith. The script, which was updated from the original 1980 play by dramaturg Richard Hellesen, frequently pulls directly from Lincoln’s own speeches and writings. 

The play opens with a brief introduction from Lincoln, who recounts the state of the nation and his presidency at the time he attended that fateful play at Ford’s Theatre. He turns and indicates the Presidential Box, just feet above the stage, which lights up with a dramatic burst, leading to what seems to be Lincoln’s life flashing before him. What follows is a stream-of-consciousness journey through Lincoln’s life and career as he reminisces. Sometimes this works to keep the story and timeline moving briskly; other times there’s the sensation of chatting with a family member who’s starting to suffer memory loss. “That reminds me of a story” is a common refrain to connect the dots to the next chapter, or just for Lincoln to introduce a non sequitur. 

While Mister Lincoln serves as something of a greatest hits tour of Lincoln’s career, this walkthrough of his life and career will likely have some unexpected turns or insights to those who aren’t die-hard Lincoln fans. There are hints of the depression that at times overcame him, the anger he felt toward his adversaries, and the frustrations he felt toward the country he governed. Lincoln the writer was a bit of a humorist and a master of joke setups and punchlines, which garner big laughs. Bakula delivers them good-naturedly—and it’s a feat to land a joke about Reconstruction. 

The play is a bit of a marathon for its star, with only one actor and only one unbroken act, Bakula is watchable and engaging all the way through, very occasionally tripping over a word or two. He’s aided by the soundscape designed by Sarah O’Halloran, with audio cues of boos and cheers and crowds tittering. He sometimes addresses the audience directly, and sometimes mimes conversations with his wife, Mary, or members of Congress. Bakula is especially effective when he’s directly beseeching God to give him guidance and in his conversations with his dead children. 

In addition to embodying a warm and human figure behind the icon, Bakula visually inhabits the role well. Credit must be given to the hair and makeup team, which lend Bakula Lincoln’s distinctive beard and silhouette and make him a dead ringer for the 16th president. The costumes by Veronica Stevens help to situate the era and position of Lincoln’s career. Bakula spends a lot of time taking coats on and off, donning hats, untying neckties, and shaking out handkerchiefs, in order to quick-change from militiaman to prairie lawyer to a politician of increasing levels of power. Mister Lincoln is sure to attract tourists and school groups looking for a dose of history in the nation’s capital, but it delivers more than the average historical reenactment. 

Mister Lincoln, written by Herbert Mitgang and directed by José Carrasquillo, runs through Oct. 13 at Ford’s Theatre. fords.org. $23–$59.

Ralph Steadman: And Another Thing at American University Museum opened Sept. 7 

It’s somewhat rare for “commercial” artists and designers to get the gallery treatment, but the AU Museum is featuring illustrator Ralph Steadman for a second time after showing a retrospective of his work in 2018. The artist is 88 years old and still cranking out cartoons, portraits, book covers, and artwork for Flying Dog beer labels, and this show flits between his early work and sketches all the way to newly created and previously unseen pieces. From classics like illustrations done for Hunter S. Thompson to his more recent series depicting extinct birds, Steadman’s art shows a mind that is fascinating to explore. The exhibit opens on Sept. 7 at the  American University Museum, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Free.

NMWA Nights at the National Museum of Women in the Arts on Sept. 18, Oct. 16, and Nov. 20 

There’s nothing more thrilling to me than an after-hours museum event—they indulge the childhood fantasies I developed from reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, while also serving a speakeasy-esque element of drinking somewhere you’re normally not supposed to. Nobody does this better than NMWA Nights, where almost every section of the museum is open for different activities and there’s always a craft option. Sure, you can prowl the galleries while enjoying libations, but on any given NWMA night you might also get a drag king showcase, a night market, a scavenger hunt, or a pop-up featuring books about Black art. The first NMWA Night starts at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 18 National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Ave. NW. $20–$25.

Pictures of Belonging at the American Art Museum opens Nov. 15

Some of the Smithsonian’s best exhibits draw upon their vast archives and pull out lesser known names. Three Japanese American artists make up Pictures of Belonging; they all had vibrant art careers, and they were each affected by World War II and the internment of Japanese Americans (Miné Okubo and Hisako Hibi were both held in an internment camp, where they founded an art school, while Miki Hayakawa’s family was interned). Pictures of Belonging is an opportunity to introduce these luminaries to a new audience and reaffirm their place in the canon. The exhibit opens Nov. 15 and runs through Aug. 17 at SAAM, G and 8th Streets NW. Free.

Art and Graphic Design of the European Avant Gardes at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center opens Oct. 23

The inaugural exhibit at the brand-new Irene and Richard Frary Gallery pulls extensively from the namesakes’ collection and offers a thesis statement for the gallery: that of fostering international dialogue and exploring where art and democracy meet. The years the show covers, 1910 to 1941, sprouted multiple distinct art movements and contained huge political upheaval. The upending of visual conventions through movements like Dadaism, Surrealism, and Constructivism is a key focus, along with the mass communication via books and posters that allowed those ideas to proliferate. The exhibit opens Oct. 23 and runs through Feb. 21 at the Frary Gallery, 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Free.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Always to Return at the National Portrait Gallery opens Oct. 18

It’s been more than a decade since the conceptual sculptor was last shown in D.C., but his footprint will be especially felt when Always to Return opens at the National Portrait Gallery. Gonzalez-Torres is especially beloved for his “portraits” that do not depict their subject in a traditional sense, but rather are composed of objects—mint candies—that equal their weight, so it’s fitting for his work to be housed alongside the hall of Presidents and other traditional portraiture representations. His work will literally burst out of the museum itself with “Untitled (America),” a string light installation that will hang on the building’s facade and extend to the MLK Library and along 8th Street NW. The exhibit opens Oct. 18 and runs through July 6 at both the Portrait Gallery and and the Archives of American Art, 8th and G Streets NW. Free.

Check out more of our 2024 Fall Arts Guide here.

Cartoonist Adam Griffiths has spent the past couple years carving every nook and cranny of his Silver Spring home into a space for making or appreciating art. What was once a furniture staging area for the realtor who previously lived in the house has become a gallery that’s shown 13 exhibits to date. Out back is a garage that’s being converted into a screen printing studio. The basement contains a video vault culled from Griffith’s former job at Video American in Takoma Park; there he hosts screenings of obscure films and B movies. On the main floor is a gathering space for workshops and readings, where the walls are also often littered with drawings, and an ’80s vintage boutique run by Griffith’s sister-in-law in the front sitting room. Upstairs is the artist’s studio space, lined with shelves of comics, graphic novels, and magazines. There’s even a secret tiny gallery in an alcove. 

“There’s always something to do at the compound,” Griffiths says. “I just want the artists of the area, especially the cartoonists and comics makers, to feel like there’s some sort of entity that is cheering for them and continuously inspiring them.”

The 14th exhibit in the main gallery, Unhealthy Obsessions, features D.C.-based cartoonist Dana Jeri Maier, known for her syndicated comic The Worried Well and New Yorker comics. “I studied video production at Maryland Institute [College of Arts] and Dana was an illustration major there, so we’ve known each other since [then],” Griffiths says. It’s been a boon to see a hometown hero comic artist gain a national platform. “I love that she’s from D.C., and so there’s less of the augustness of New York daily life and trying to reduce that to something mundane for city dwellers up there,” Griffiths explains. “She has seeded into something very universal about wanting to be creative or just wanting to feel inspired and facing all the pitfalls of that interspersed with her daily life.”

At the exhibit’s opening, Maier will also discuss her new book, Skip to the Fun Parts: Cartoons and Complaints About Creativity, which covers the anxiety and frustration that can accompany the creative process. The book talk and gallery opening starts at 7 p.m. on Sept. 27, at DWIGHTMESS Cartooning & Comic Arts, 805 Silver Spring Ave., Silver Spring. Unhealthy Obsessions runs through Oct. 31 by appointment.

Here are some other events coming this fall that Griffiths is excited for:

Small Press Expo at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel on Sept. 14 and 15

“It’s so crazy that, like, the biggest indie comics convention is here in the D.C. area, and nobody knows that it’s here,” says Griffiths. “It’s been here for years, and all of the best artists, who are from the nationalized indie comic scene are there, and some of the best indie publishers. So you can keep aloft with all of the new books that are coming out, and see what’s being made across the board.” The expo runs Sept. 13 through 14 at Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, 5701 Marinelli Rd., Rockville. $15–$30.

Astro Boy and the God of Comics at Silver Spring Black Box Theatre opens Oct. 19

I don’t know what to expect, but I’ve heard great things. It’s about the creator of the manga Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka,” says Griffiths. “Astro Boy was a comic that was created in the ’50s. He’s a robot boy, and there’s a lot of intelligent emotional narratives going on.” (From Oct. 16 through 18, folks can attend the preview shows for $15). Astro Boy and the God of Comics opens Oct. 20 and runs through Nov. 3 at Silver Spring Black Box Theatre, 8641 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. $30.

DC Riso Print Fair at Eastern Market on Nov. 23 and 24

“Risograph printing has kind of exploded on the art scene. You have a lot of people who are making zines or prints, stuff like that, with RISO machines,” says Griffiths. We had one here for a little bit. It was a quirky machine, so we’re looking for another one. I really don’t know what to expect with this—it’s run by Philip Hutinet, who is the administrator of East City Art, which is a great portal for the gallery events in the area—but I’m looking forward to seeing what’s being made.” The fair runs from Nov. 23 through 24 at Eastern Market, 225 7th St. SE. Free.

Check out more of our 2024 Fall Arts Guide here.

When the Irene and Richard Frary Gallery opens at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in October, it will have a local arts heavyweight at the helm. Caitlin Berry, a respected curator and gallerist with deep roots in the D.C. art scene, has been appointed the inaugural director of the gallery. 

The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center has a prime location on the former site of the Newseum on Pennsylvania Ave., in the heart of downtown and overlooking the Capitol building and National Mall. “You don’t get much closer to that aspect of Washington and also to the National Gallery and the Smithsonian Museums,” Berry says. “We intend to be very good neighbors and collaborate with all of our esteemed colleagues here on Pennsylvania Avenue.” 

Berry cites Johns Hopkins University’s dedication to the arts as a part of what drew her to the role: “The more I found out about Johns Hopkins’ commitment to the arts writ large, the more I thought, ‘oh man, they’re really serious about this.’” The strong ties to the university and the gallery’s stated mission to operate at the intersection of art and democracy while fostering cultural dialogue are also key points of interest for Berry. The gallery’s first exhibit will open on Oct. 23, and will feature works from European avant-garde artists created between 1910 and 1941, a time when artists were hugely influenced by the politics and world events happening around them. “It really sets the tone for the future of exhibitions and programming and what is possible,” Berry says.

Prior to this appointment, Berry guided the opening of the Rubell Museum as the inaugural director. During her tenure, she made it a priority to highlight local artists in the collection and instituted programs like the “Style Sessions” series in partnership with the Washington Post, which featured guests such as Ava DuVernay and Mickalene Thomas. Berry has also previously served as director of the Cody Gallery at Marymount University, director of Hemphill Fine Arts, and operated her own independent art advisory. One of her many curatorial focuses and areas of expertise is the Washington Color School movement. 

Berry brings all of this rich knowledge to her role at the Frary Gallery, and her commitment to the D.C. and Baltimore area will remain a priority. “Much of our future programming in terms of supplemental programming to go along with exhibitions and the exhibitions themselves will have the D.C. and Baltimore community and audience in mind every step of the way. I’m so excited to open our doors.”

The inaugural exhibition at the Irene and Richard Frary Gallery, Art and Graphic Design of the European Avant-Gardes, opens Oct. 23 at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. washingtondc.jhu.edu.

In this action-packed election year, it seems like there’s no shortage of political theater, and anxieties about the future of the United States are at a fever pitch. A multipronged project by Pointless Theatre Co. at Transformer, Democracy’s Last Hurrah?, faces these election year worries and the decline of American institutions head-on. Part gallery show, part art workshop, and part performance, the collaborative project will culminate in a participatory parade around Logan Circle on Sept. 7 depicting the death and possible salvation of democracy. 

Transformer executive and artistic director Victoria Reis approached Pointless Theatre with the idea of keying into the ongoing political anguish with a democracy parade. It was an idea that the theater company was excited to run with. 

Pointless Theatre has long built its performances around puppetry. “The shows that we have created blur the lines between, is this a puppet show, is this a dance piece, is this a concert?” says founding member Scott Whalen. The company can add gallery exhibit to the list now, as Transformer’s walls are filled with props, puppets, masks, and other ephemera from past Pointless Theatre productions. Whalen describes it as “a bit of a retrospective of our work to familiarize the community with some of the things that we’ve made in the past.” 

Over the coming weeks these works will rotate out as Transformer becomes a studio where blueprints for the eventual parade will be drawn up and pinned to the walls and new puppets and placards are created. It’s not new for Transformer artists to use the space for creating works, but it’s unique for the public to not only get such a close look, but a chance to get involved. From now until Sept. 7, the artists will be working in the space Wednesdays through Fridays from noon to 4 p.m. and anyone can drop in and contribute, a hands-on approach that drives home the idea of participation in democracy. Inexperienced artists shouldn’t balk at getting their hands dirty. “Most of what we’re going to be building is using very simple techniques and simple materials that anybody can use to sculpt,” says Whalen. Transformer will also host workshops specifically around puppet construction and manipulation, and will do some test run rehearsals of the procession. 

If U.S. democracy is often called the “great American experiment,” then the workshop is something of a mad scientists’ lab where all are welcome to shake something up in a test tube. The organizers hope that in addition to grabbing some paper-mache or paint to work on some in-progress puppets, visitors will hang out, chat, and contribute their own ideas and thoughts about democracy’s potential demise. There’s a loose outline for some of the parade narrative so far, but much of the proceedings are being dreamed up in real time. 

“How do we visualize these things that we’re afraid that we’re losing, or that might already be somewhat lost in the current state of democracy that we are in?” says Whalen. “Figuring out exactly what those images are is something that we as the creative group are still finalizing in terms of the sequencing.” 

So far the pastiche includes aspects of a political cartoon brought to life, an array of Americana-inflected imagery, and European avant-garde influences that Pointless has deployed in other projects.

So why use puppets as a way to parse political issues and democratic debate? 

“You can do things with puppets that you can’t do with people,” Whalen explains. “You can create a tableau with puppets. You can get away with saying things, showing things that you can’t necessarily do if you were just an actor or someone giving a speech.” Puppets and visages of political figures are often used in protests—think statues of Hugo Chavez being toppled or the inflatable rats at union demonstrations. It also injects some much-needed levity and lightness into the conversations that point toward doomsday. 

“If the death of democracy is a potential, how does that look?” Whalen asks. “How do we bring some sort of hope into it?”

Democracy’s Last Hurrah? runs through Sept. 7 at Transformer concluding with the parade that starts at 4 p.m. transformerdc.org. Free.

Thursday: Mickalene Thomas at the Phillips Collection 

Best known for her complex and beautiful portraiture of Black women completed on a massive scale, New York-based artist Mickalene Thomas’ mixed-media paintings can be found across D.C. at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum, the Rubell, and now in the Phillips Collection’s newest special exhibition, Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage. Her larger-than-life work usually speaks for itself, but Thomas is coming to town this Thursday to discuss the inspirations behind her pieces in the exhibition with Multiplicity’s curator, Katie Delmez. If Thomas’ words on craft and artistic vision strike a chord within you and leave you wanting to make your own masterpiece, you’re in luck. In addition to this talk, Multiplicity is hosting a slew of free artist events and collage workshops before the exhibit closes on Sept. 22. Allow Thomas’ words inspire you to let your inner collage artist free and make some art worthy of display in the Phillips (or your living room). The conversation between Mickalene Thomas and Katie Delmez starts at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 15 at the Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St. NW. phillipscollection.org. Sold out, but standby ticketing will be offered dependent on availability on a first come, first served basis. —Serena Zets 

Friday: The Little Mermaid at the MLK Memorial

Live-action versions of beloved animated Disney classics were always inevitable. Once the technology caught up to the drawings, it absolutely made sense for the incredibly successful studio to revisit the highest-grossing films in their vaults. While Emma Watson as Belle in Beauty and the Beast was perfectly fine and Will Smith as the Genie in Aladdin was … blue, the reimagination that garnered the most attention in Disney’s transition from drawings to people was 2023’s The Little Mermaid. Interest in the film was high for its nearly five years of production (thanks COVID for the slowdown). Melissa McCarthy was perfectly cast as Ursula and Halle Bailey as Ariel helped make the young actor an icon to children around the globe. Due to those COVID delays, it also became one of Disney’s most expensive productions. Due to its quality, it became the 10th highest-grossing movie of 2023. The film once again cements The Little Mermaid as a Disney classic while—to the chagrin of racists who think a half-human, half-fish must be White—allowing kids of all races to see themselves as a little mermaid. All kidding aside, the most recent edition of Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 fairy tale is a remarkable achievement in storytelling, technology, and British tax breaks. A year after its theatrical run, it is becoming a staple of outdoor film screenings. The most inspiring of these is at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial as part of the Films at the Stone Series. With D.C. weather finally turning somewhat enjoyable rather than sweltering, it looks as if this mid-August screening will also be one of the most pleasant ways to spend an evening on the National Mall. The Little Mermaid screens at 8 p.m. on Aug. 16 at the MLK Memorial, 1964 Independence Ave. SW. thememorialfoundation.org. Free. —Brandon Wetherbee

Sunday: Dogs on Shady Lane at Songbyrd

Since forming in 2018, Dogs on Shady Lane have released only a handful of original songs, plus one precocious Beyoncé cover. But each entry in their short discography is a jewel, glittering softly with gauzy instrumentation and sharp confessional songwriting. Although the indie rock outfit began in Providence, Rhode Island, as lead singer and guitarist Tori Hall’s solo project, Hall has called upon her gaggle of musical friends for small gigs and recording opportunities since the beginning. Now riding as a four-piece band, the group still have the loose and affectionate feeling of the best jam collectives; the credits for 2022’s folky sleeper hit “Cole St.” shout out the contribution of “stomps and claps by many lovely friends.” Dogs on Shady Lane’s new EP, Knife, released by the discerning DIY label Lauren Records in February, signposts where the young group may be headed—away from those stomp-and-clap drum lines and plucky banjos and toward a more jagged, electric, soft emo sound. On standout track “Pile of Photos,” Hall’s hushed vocals are nestled amid feathery shoegaze textures that explode into teasingly short moments of catharsis, landing somewhere between Slow Pulp and Soccer Mommy. The band, which have recently made the quintessential art kid pilgrimage from Providence to Brooklyn, are stopping in D.C. as part of a late summer tour—the perfect season for languorous indie angst. They’re supported on the bill by a trifecta of up-and-coming alt acts from the DMV that have been adroitly selected to round out the wistful vibe: D.C. dream-pop duo GLOSSER, the exuberant Richmond-based band Drook, and local musician (and Songbyrd sound engineer) Ryan Plummer’s plaintive solo act Dumb Lucky. The show will prove a helpful scene sampler for any slowcore or pop punk veteran wondering what their Gen Z progeny might be listening to these days. Dogs on Shady Lane play at 8 p.m. on Aug. 18 at Songbyrd, 540 Penn St. NE. songbyrddc.com. $15–$18. —Amelia Roth-Dishy

Through Aug. 24: Belkin • Caldwell • Shull at Hemphill Artworks

A three-artist exhibit is an atypical format for Hemphill Artworks, but you can see how it came to be. Textile artists Sophia Belkin and Randy Shull and digital photographer Colby Caldwell share a large format and an appreciation for abstraction. Of the three, Shull’s work is the most different. He creates hammocks like those typical of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, where he spends much of the year; he then paints the hammocks and lets them “cure” in the sun. Shull’s finished works feature draping, spaghetti-like strands of twine whose curlicues suggest a 3D iteration of the hand-drawn contour lines in works by Linn Meyers. “Bisagras III” adds a hammock-like shape that suggests either a smiley face or the mouth of Batman’s Joker. The Baltimore-based Belkin, for her part, uses dye painting, embroidery, and textile collage while Caldwell continues the technique he has used in recent years of deploying a flatbed scanner as a camera. The works by both Belkin and Caldwell walk the line between abstraction and realism, but Belkin’s careful stitching contrasts with the seemingly random glitching of Caldwell’s scanner patterns. (In a nice twist, some of Belkin’s imagery echoes that in Caldwell’s seminal series “How to Survive Your Own Death,” which is based on a now decades-old video glitch.) What elevates Caldwell’s works is the interaction between his floral subject matter and the cubist-adjacent geometries created by the scanner glitches. In one noteworthy image, yellow flowers alternate with electronic defect patterns that suggest sharp daggers; the image becomes a fruitful pairing of beauty and danger. Belkin • Caldwell • Shull runs though Aug. 24 at Hemphill Artworks, 434 K St. NW. Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. hemphillartworks.com. Free. —Louis Jacobson

Ongoing: Of Light and Shade at VisArts

Artist Alexander D’Agostino has a fascination with codes, secret symbols, and hidden messages, which becomes clear in Of Light and Shade at VisArts. The collaged images within are pulled from archival photos, broadsheets, and newspaper clippings, gay porno mags, and ritualistic texts—there’s a whiff of the illicit about them. The subject matter and the eras they come from hint at queer stories that were historically kept under wraps, as well as the usage of codes to both identify comrades and stay undetected to outside eyes. A huge array of chlorophyll prints done on real plant leaves lines the walls, and their production reveals the conundrum of revealing versus hiding oneself. Chlorophyll prints use the natural process of photosynthesis and pigments in plant leaves to create images: Placing objects or transparent images on top of leaves and exposing them to light causes the parts that are obscured to be left behind in the original shade of the leaf, while the rest of the leaf fades to yellow. Shedding light on these images brings them out, but expose the prints further and they’ll fade altogether. The walls are bedecked with tapestries printed with this collaged imagery using solar prints, which similarly use the light exposure from the sun to create prints. The most ingenious use of light comes from a series of artists’ books, accompanied on a shelf by a small keychain with a blacklight on it, which can be used as a code breaking tool. Shine the light across the pages, and reveal the hidden messages written throughout. These include some dirty little bon mots and scribbled love notes declaring the romance of Abraham Lincoln and his rumored lover David Derickson. It feels as thrilling and illicit as reading someone else’s diary by flashlight. Of Light and Shade runs through Oct. 6 at VisArts, 155 Gibbs St., Rockville. Wednesday and Thursday, noon to 4 p.m.; Friday noon to 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. visartscenter.org. Free. —Stephanie Rudig

The entire premise of the theatrical arts is pretty silly when you take a step back from it: grown-ups pretending to be people they’re not, playing make believe for the amusement of other grown-ups, who watch in judgment. Such is the premise of Noises Off, the delightfully meta, classic comedy now playing at the Keegan Theatre. In this tale, a group of actors rehearse and then twice perform a fictional play to increasingly disastrous ends. Along the way, they turn the play inside out, showing the seams, and eventually tear the whole thing to shreds. If A Chorus Line forces the audience to confront and sympathize with actors and bit players as full humans with their own complex inner workings and backstories, Noises Off avers that those actors are full humans, sure, as deeply flawed and absurd as anyone else. 

The play opens on a dress rehearsal of the play within the play, Nothing On, a fluffy sex farce featuring a never-ending series of misunderstandings, characters narrowly missing bumping into each other, and people forced to run about in their knickers. The cast is having a very rough time remembering their lines and complicated blocking, and the director (Jared H. Graham) is at his wit’s end from where he sits in the audience. Watching the fictional rehearsal start and stop and repeating certain segments, the audience becomes acutely aware of the real-life rehearsals that had to have preceded this performance (hopefully with fewer calamities).  

With each act, more is revealed as the backstage drama and mishaps pile up. Ryan Sellers as leading man Garry LeJeune keeps his barely suppressed rage simmering all through the first act before it hilariously boils over in the second. He’s having a secret fling with Dotty Otley (Susan Marie Rhea), an emotional woman who easily falls to pieces. Veteran actor Selsdon (Timothy H. Lynch) must be kept away from alcohol at all costs, but the other actors keep passing around bottles of booze. The resident bimbo, Brooke (Brigid Wallace Harper), can’t stop losing her contact lenses or doing dynamic movement exercises, and she’s a kick to watch. Valerie Adams Rigsbee has a tricky role to play as Belinda Blair, who is both the company’s peacekeeper and biggest pot-stirrer, but she serves as a bit of a counterweight to the bedlam on set. And if all that wasn’t enough chaos, nobody can keep track of the many plates of sardines populating the set. 

After the first act, Matthew J. Keenan’s ingeniously designed set rotates around to show a performance a few months later from “backstage,” before rotating back around to watch a performance that completely implodes for the third act. It’s a dizzying choreography with incredibly complicated blocking, and it’s impossible not to think of the cacophony of cues the actors behind the actors must remember, not to mention they often have to do different things on the same cues in each of the three acts.

Noises Off, which premiered in 1982, has often been hailed as one of the funniest stage comedies of all time, and with Keegan’s production it’s easy to see why its appeal has endured. Visual gags and puns can sometimes be spotted from a mile away, but the impeccable comedic timing, physicality, and commitment of the cast make the punch lines land perfectly. The setting for both the play within the play and Noises Off is England, and the cast admirably navigates the accent work in both modes, making it all the funnier when they slip between believable British accents and “oi, guvnah” style line readings. Isn’t it absurd for people to gather in a room together watching a silly wild goose chase, and isn’t it neat to do so?

Noises Off, written by Michael Frayn and directed by Mark A. Rhea, runs through Sept. 8 at the Keegan Theatre. keegantheatre.com. $54–$64.

Daily through Sunday: Awa Sal Secka’s Ladies of Jazz at Signature Theatre 

Inside Signature Theatre, the songs of Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, and Sarah Vaughan are being channeled and echoed through the voice of Awa Sal Secka. The performer and playwright, who was born in New York and raised in a Gambian household, has been performing locally since she moved to the area in 2005—her first show at Signature was roughly seven years ago, when she played an apostle in Jesus Christ Superstar. Today, She and her powerhouse vocals that span two-and-a-half octaves are paying homage to the women who defined jazz. Secka opens the show with “Take the ‘A’ Train,” which was written by Billy Strayhorn and performed by Vaughan alongside other jazz greats, including Duke Ellington. Another classic Secka performs is “I Put a Spell On You,” along with other songs from Simone’s discography filled with anthems for the Civil Rights Movement. That includes “Mississippi Goddam,” which was originally written in response to two 1963 events: the murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama; many of the lyrics were censored upon its initial release. Secka will also sing from the repertoire of Nancy Wilson, whose musical career spanned five decades. The 16-song set highlights some of jazz’s most prominent and prolific musicians over the past century. Awa Sal Secka’s Summertime: Ladies of Jazz runs July 31 through Aug. 4 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. sigtheatre.org. $46. — Heidi Perez-Moreno

Saturday and Sunday: The Latinx Movement Festival at Dance Place 

People of the Latine diaspora tell their stories from infinite angles, which is exactly what Mexican American movement artist and choreographer Gabriel Mata hopes to champion with his inaugural Latinx Movement Festival. The two-day event features performances from six dance collectives and movement artists, including Carne Viva Dance Theatre, Xochipilli Dance Company, and Latina Jewish interdisciplinary artist Amelia Rose Estrada. These performances tell stories of identity, the restless feeling of being displaced in unfamiliar environments, and seeking connection to one’s history and culture. Mata, who moved to the D.C. area seven years ago and has since graduated with a master’s in fine arts from the University of Maryland, will perform a duet with Estrada that the two choreographed with the hope of reclaiming their bodies and identities as queer people and immigrants. Another performance, titled “Nepantla: Magia Ancestral,” looks at Mexican folklore’s connection to nature, but also bodily expression and magic, while also examining how it relates to the present day. Choreographers Julio Medina and Salome Nieto, performing as a duo, seek to tell a larger story of what it’s like to feel displaced as people of Mexican descent living in the United States. There will also be free community workshops led by some of the performers teaching bachata, butoh, and sabor, which will take place Friday, before the festival officially starts. It took a year and a half for Mata to bring his vision of creating a safe space to celebrate the diversity of the local Latine dance artistry to life. Such spaces, he says, are rare in the D.C. area. Being in its first year, Mata hopes to see momentum from the festival create support, feedback, and guidance for the next one. He’s also open to feedback and discussion around using the term “Latinx”—a source of sociopolitical and cultural tension—in their name. The Latinx Movement Festival runs Aug. 3 through 4 at Dance Place, 3225 8th St. NE. danceplace.org. $30. —Heidi Perez-Moreno

Sunday: The Mountain Goats and New Pornographers at Wolf Trap

Every year Wolf Trap manages to bring together a unique pairing that audiences didn’t know they needed. A highlight of this season is the one-night-only co-headlining show featuring North Carolina’s the Mountain Goats and Vancouver, BC’s the New Pornographers. The two bands take different approaches to what falls under the large umbrella of indie rock. The Mountain Goats’ erudite bent comes from prolific singer-songwriter John Darnielle’s high-concept riffs on underexplored subcultural corners. What type of person is into collecting knives? How does it feel to be an old professional wrestler? They’ve got an album for just about any tangent. The New Pornographers, however, take a much more straightforward approach, layering their saccharine pop hooks on top of wry, complicated sentimentality. Together, the evening can be seen as a coronation of the mid-’00s indie-rock boom that finds itself continuing to thrive and settling nicely into the green manicured pastures of the amphitheater establishment. The Mountain Goats and the New Pornographers play at 7 p.m. on Aug. 4 at Wolf Trap, 1551 Wolf Trap Rd., Vienna. wolftrap.org. $43–$133. —Matt Siblo

Sunday: Donnell Floyd at MGM National Harbor 

When Donnell Floyd officially retired from go-go at the end of 2019, his farewell show exceeded all expectations. Along with an array of local stars, Stevie Wonder and rapper Doug E. Fresh joined Floyd on stage to celebrate his 40 years of contributions to go-go culture. During his 18 years with Rare Essence, Floyd rapped on and co-wrote the band’s biggest hits of the ’90s: “Lock It,” “Work the Walls,” and “Overnight Scenario.” Initially a saxophone player for the band, Floyd also became Rare Essence’s second mic rapper. Dubbed “The King of the Go-Go Beat” after another Rare Essence hit, Floyd went on to lead 911 and other popular go-go groups. In 2017, he took his band Team Familiar to Nigeria to perform for the Yoruba king known as the Ooni of Ife. While his retirement from go-go felt inconceivable to longtime fans, for Floyd, it was inevitable, mostly due to his aggressive vocal style. But even after Floyd debuted his well-received R&B band, Push Play, occasional returns to go-go have also been inevitable. In 2022, Floyd joined Rare Essence at the MGM National Harbor for a 45th-anniversary reunion show. On Sunday, Floyd returns to go-go one more time for a night billed as “King of the Go-Go Beat: One Night in All White” featuring the fabulous Ms. Kim, Rappa Dude, Frank “Scooby” Marshall, Jasen “O” Holland, Darrin “X” Frazier, Michael Arnold, Marcus “dotcom” Young, Sean Geason, and Darryl “Blue-Eye” Arrington. Driving the beat will be Eric “Bojack” Butcher on drums and Milton “Go–Go Mickey” Freeman. According to Floyd, he has received nearly 50 solid offers from area promoters eager to put together a go-go concert. He chose Tricky, Inc.’s Mark Pendergrast due to his interest in an elaborate production. “I wanted to have a great state-of-the-art production,” says Floyd. “I saw this as an opportunity to increase my legacy while putting together an incredible show for people.” One Night in All White starts at 6 p.m. on Aug. 4 at MGM Grand Ballroom, 101 MGM National Ave, Oxon Hill. markpendergrastevents.com. $65-125. —Alona Wartofsky

Ongoing: Isabella Whitfield’s Best Regards at Hamiltonian Artists

There’s an uncanny quality to the works of D.C.-based artist Isabella Whitfield, currently displayed in a delicately balanced arrangement at Hamiltonian Artists. Many of the sculptures depict commonplace objects rendered in incongruous materials, often paper. Subtly surprising, her works come across as sleight of hand or pulling one over on the viewer: a paper life vest seems to actually be inflated, and a sea of papercast utility signs in pastel Tupperware hues looks as sturdy as the real thing. Call it pulp fiction. Whitfield is also a papermaking associate at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center and seems to delight in inverting expectations, creating objects that are harder or softer than their real-life counterparts and making permanent things temporary (or vice versa). One piece is particularly unexpected; it’s easy to miss if you’re not cross-referencing with the image list. Tucked tight into a corner up in the ceiling, “How to stop a cycle” is a tiny cutout of scrap metal showing a horse and a pegasus facing off. It begs for a closer look, but it’s tantalizingly out of grasp. All the works in the show warrant closer inspection, both to figure out how they’re constructed, and to pick up on some of the finer details of their presentation. The show’s title, Best Regards, is a nod to a commonly used email sign off that can be genuine or passive-aggressive, used to express actual goodwill, annoyance, or thinly veiled disgust. Getting such a salutation can be destabilizing—does this person hate me or are they just professional?—and similarly, Whitfield’s works leave the viewer turning over the seemingly simple things. Best Regards runs through August 10 at Hamiltonian Artists, 1353 U St. NW. Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. hamiltonianartists.org. Free. —Stephanie Rudig