ARTS Pick: The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?

When Martin, a 50-year-old husband and father, confesses his love for a goat, it sets off a wild chain of events in the architect’s successful and seemingly perfect family life. Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? reflects on moral judgment, crisis management, and sexual psychology, in an absurdly harrowing story that is subtitled […]

ARTS Pick: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

In The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the Herdman kids—a bunch of foul-mouthed smokers, thieves, and drinkers—are uncontestedly the worst choices to cast in their church’s annual Christmas play. Other children are shocked at the news of their involvement: There’s no way these six unruly delinquents can lead the production to success, short of a miracle. Released […]

ARTS Pick: Rufus Wainwright

When Rufus Wainwright’s second album, Poses, came out in 2001, the singer-songwriter extraordinaire was in the throes of critical adoration, collecting awards and accolades, but lacking commercial success and struggling with addiction. Good pal Elton John helped him into rehab, and Wainwright quickly got back on track, defining himself over the next 15 years through […]

First Fridays: December 7

While working on her newest series of paintings, Uzo Njoku learned the importance of telling a story through portraiture. The story Njoku tells with “Out of the Shadows,” on view this month at the New City Arts Welcome Gallery, is one that has global reach and widespread effects, and is perhaps not told—or heard—nearly enough. […]

Owning it: Comedy performer L.E. Zarling finds happiness in improv

It’s a Saturday morning in Richmond, and L.E. Zarling has ordered a chocolate croissant to go with her latte at Lamplighter Coffee. She looks at the pastry, covered in a heavy-handed sprinkle of powdered sugar. Then she looks at her black turtleneck sweater. “Fuck it,” she says before taking a bite. “I’m going to enjoy […]

Author Soraya Chemaly encourages women to own their anger

Ask Soraya Chemaly why she wrote Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger, and she will say with a laugh, “First, I was mad.” Chemaly works by day as director of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project in Washington, D.C., an initiative developed to “raise awareness about the way women’s freedom of expression, freedom […]

ARTS Pick: Tartuffe

Orgon and his wife Elmire face a disastrous spiritual crisis, and the swindler Tartuffe is definitely not helping. Orgon’s children understand the truth: that the supposedly pious man doesn’t actually possess divine ability, and when a wounding announcement takes the stunt too far, the family must dislodge the impostor before more damage is done. Tartuffe […]

ARTS Pick: Steve Earle & The Dukes

It’s been 30 years since the release of Copperhead Road, an album that revived the gritty rebelliousness founded in the early days of country music. Steve Earle & The Dukes pay homage to his Austin, Texas, roots with a special anniversary set that, in addition to celebrating the album, offers a retrospective of Earle’s career, […]

ARTS Pick: Chatham Rabbits

Southern duo Sarah and Austin McCombie have a bright soulful love for old-time music. It’s the reason they formed Chatham Rabbits, a name inspired by a string band out of their hometown of Bynum, North Carolina. The couple crafts lively melodies and lyrics ripe with metaphors—picking through the U.S. as they live a musical life […]