Rick Hammerly News

Round House Theatre's The Legend of Georgia McBride will leave you amped-up and ready to take on the outside world.

This evening, the 34th Annual Helen Hayes Awards celebrated Washington's diverse and vital theatre community with a gala event at The Anthem, recognizing 258 Helen Hayes Award nominees and 48 award recipients drawn from 202 eligible productions presented at 64 theatres in 2017. GALA Hispanic Theatre's Spanish-language production of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes' In The Heights received nine awards, putting them at the top of a list of 20 theatres receiving Helen Hayes Awards this year.

The nominees for the 2018 Helen Hayes Awards were announced on February 5, 2018. One of the country's most prestigious cultural honors, The Helen Hayes Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in professional theatre throughout the Washington metropolitan area. The National Theatre's Helen Hayes Gallery set the scene for the announcement of nominees in 47 categories for artistic excellence, and the theatre companies eligible for the 2017 John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company. The recipient of the 2018 Helen Hayes Tribute will be announced shortly.

AcclaimedWashington actor Craig Wallace returns to Ford's Theatre to perform the role of Ebenezer Scrooge for the company's holiday production of 'A Christmas Carol.' Performances of the classic Charles Dickensplay began November 16 and continue for a six-week engagement through December 31, 2017. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Beginning November 16, acclaimed actor Craig Wallace returns to Ford's Theatre to play Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol a production heralded as a rich visual and vocal treat (TheaterMania) and infectiously jolly (Washington Post). Performances continue through December 31, 2017.

As effervescent and fun as it is filled with the world of ideas (and equations), 'Emilie: La Marquise du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight' is a heady evening, bringing a great women back to brilliant life both onstage and in our collective memory.

Avant Bard begins Season 28 with Lauren Gunderson's Emilie: La Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight - a witty reincarnation of a passionate and defiant woman who in 18th-century France dazzled Voltaire and blazed a trail for women in science. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

The exhilarating musical The Gospel at Colonus returns, Lauren Gunderson's fiery genius Emilie makes her DC debut, and Shakespeare's fantastical The Tempest takes the stage by storm

The exhilarating musical The Gospel at Colonus returns, Lauren Gunderson's fiery genius Emilie makes her DC debut, and Shakespeare's fantastical The Tempest takes the stage by storm

Avant Bard announces full casting and creative team for its first production of the season, Lauren Gunderson's Emilie: La Marquise Du Ch telet Defends Her Life Tonight--a witty reincarnation of a passionate and defiant woman who in 18th-century France dazzled Voltaire and blazed a trail for women in science.

The riveting story of 'Lela & Co' occurs in a country that is not named; it could and, sadly, probably is going on in a number of places.

On Saturday September 16, 2017, Factory 449, a Helen Hayes Award-winning theatre company in residence at Anacostia Arts Center, opened the East Coast premiere of 'Lela & Co.' by Cordelia Lynn. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production, which runs through October 1st, below!

Playwright Cordelia Lynn's is well aware of the intense, yet important journey examined in LELA & CO. "I knew that the play could be horrifying and shocking and upsetting - and all those things you can get out of visual violence, without actually showing it," says Lynn. "I want the audience to leave and think there are things happening that I don't see -- maybe because I don't want to see".

For its 28th season making theatre on the edge, Avant Bard proudly announces the regional premiere in October of Emilie: La Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight by Lauren Gunderson, one of America's hottest, most produced young playwrights

The exhilarating musical The Gospel at Colonus returns, Lauren Gunderson's fiery genius Emilie makes her DC debut, and Shakespeare's fantastical The Tempest takes the stage by storm

WOWEE WOW WOW!! Junie B. Jones and all of her friends are inhabiting Adventure Theatre this summer for a fun-filled tale of missing gloves, true loves, and fast feet. Fueled by a super colossus performance from pint-size dynamo Megan Graves in the title role and helmed by master director Rick Hammerly, Junie B. Jones is Not a Crook proves that you can enjoy a Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) show at any age.

Today's subject Megan Graves is currently living her theatre life on stage at Adventure Theatre as the title character in Junie B. Jones is Not a Crook. The production runs through August 14th at the company's performance space in Glen Echo Park.

Adventure Theatre MTC (ATMTC), recent recipient of three Helen Hayes Awards, brings to the stage Junie B. Jones is Not a Crook, directed by Rick Hammerly (founder and producing artistic director of Factory 449) in his first time directing for Theatre for Young Audiences and starring Helen Hayes Nominated Megan Graves as Junie B. Jones. Based on New York Times Bestselling book series by Barbara Park, this hilarious tale of Junie B. Jones losing her beloved mittens is recommended for all ages and opens June 16, 2017. Tickets are $19.50 each and can be purchased online at www.adventuretheatre-mtc.org or by calling 301.634.2270.

Today's subject (click on the name for lots of great music) Josh Schmidt is currently living his theatre life at Signature Theatre as the composer/co-lyricist and orchestrator of the world premiere musical Midwestern Gothic. The production runs from March 14 to April 30.

Actors from all over the country come to the nation's capital each year to share their holidays with us. Both local and visiting performers are here in DC over the holiday season, sharing their talents in Ford's Theatre's A Christmas Carol, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas at the National Theatre, and Arena Stage's Carousel. We reached out to ask them what holiday songs made the top of their nice list!