Category: DISTRICTLAND - Bucharest Inside The Beltway

Bucharest Inside The Beltway

Fringe Wants More DISTRICTLAND – We’ve Added an Additional Show!!!

7/18/2014

On Tuesday evening the cast of DISTRICTLAND performed to their third sold-out crowd of the Fringe Festival. By Thursday, with our Saturday matinee nearly at capacity, the Fringe Festival asked the DISTRICTLAND team to add an additional performance to the Festival.

We’re delighted and honored to share that DISTRICTLAND will be performed Saturday, June 26th at 8:30pm at the Mountain – Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, 900 Massachusetts Ave, NW. Tickets to recently added show are available here.

DISTRICTLAND has three remaining performances scheduled in Capital Fringe’s Redrum Venue. Remember to purchase tickets before they sell out!

Saturday, July 19, 2:15 pm
Wednesday, July 23, 9 pm
Sunday, July 27, 6:15 pm

The DISTRICTLAND Team

A Second Sold-Out Show and a Review in the Washington Post; Cristina Bejan: “Dreams do come true… I am proud and honored to be a Washingtonian”

7/15/2014

Bejan and DISTRICTLAND director John Dellaporta

Excitement still abounds in DISTRICTLAND. We performed for our second sold-out house on Sunday and woke up Monday morning to a review in the Washington Post! The Post called DISTRICTLAND “hilariously and painfully true”, writing:

“In its best moments, “Districtland” hilariously taps into the kinds of D.C. experiences that only a Washingtonian will understand: Frank furiously and unsuccessfully tapping and retapping his SmarTrip card, Charity proclaiming “I curse the day they put Internet on phones,” Dave’s aggressively schmoozy girlfriend constantly asking, “So, what do you do?” These are the moments that will have audience members with tears in their eyes — either because they’re laughing so hard, or because it’s all a bit too real.”

Following the incredible opening of the play and subsequent positive reviews, I asked playwright Cristina Bejan to reflect on what it all means to her:

“Being reviewed by the Washington Post is a milestone for me as an artist. Up until now, my creative work has mainly been covered in Romania (interviews on Romanian national TV, radio, and the national newspaper Evenimentul Zilei). Romanian by heritage, I was born in the USA and grew up going to the Kennedy Center. And very recently I decided to make Washington DC my artistic homebase.

“When I first moved to DC from Bucharest in 2009, I absolutely hated it. The "What do you do?" chorus and DC-CV building treadmill stressed me out. I missed sitting in Romanian cafes and collaborating on plays with movie stars and university students. DISTRICTLAND came out of that utter bewilderment and love. The play is an attempt to interpret a reality that at first seemed utterly bizarre.

“But Ionesco thought that a foreign language (English) lesson was bizarre - so he wrote a play about it. Caragiale sat in Bucharest cafes such as Caru cu Bere and wrote down what he heard, producing some of the most entertaining local comedy in Europe. Theatre of the Absurd is a genre familiar to the Romanian playwright and I am honored to bring that tradition to the Capital Fringe Festival.

“I can honestly say that our production of DISTRICTLAND has made me happy. Collaborating with such brilliant and daring theatre artists has made me fall hard in love with the District. Performing to sold-out houses and being reviewed by one of the most distinguished newspapers in the world is proof that dreams do come true. I never thought I'd say this but I am proud and honored to be a Washingtonian.”

Remember to buy tickets to DISTRICTLAND before they sell out!

DISTRICTLAND Opens to a Sold-Out House, Is Named "Best of Capital Fringe" by DC Metro Theater Arts

7/13/2014

It's been an exciting weekend in DISTRICTLAND. We opened Friday night to a sold-out crowd and received our first review, which labelled the production one of the "Best of Capital Fringe".

The cast and crew are delighted by our first audience's response to the play and we're looking forward to five more performances of DISTRICTLAND!

DISTRICTLAND will be performed in Fort Fringe's Redrum venue at the following times:

July 13th @ 8pm
July 16th @ 6:30pm
July 19th @ 2:15 pm
July 23rd @ 9pm
July 27th @ 6:15pm

If you haven't already, be sure to buy your tickets now -- this is a show you don't want to miss!

In the meantime, check out some stills of DISTRICTLAND in action!

It's Charity!

7/6/2014

Don't forget to compost!

Charity (Ruthie Rado) is DISTRICTLAND'S very own poetry-composing, bisexual, indigenous rights advocate and former Peace Corps volunteer who rises with the sun.

Stranded in DC by a development economist she picked up in the South Pacific, she's just trying to get her high school best friend and housemate, Maria, to talk to her.

And don’t you dare try to throw your food waste in the trash can in front of charity – she’s serious about composting.

The actress who brings Charity to life, Ruthie Rado, is a performer from the DC area. Ruthie’s recent credits include: Tragedy Averted and Hello, You Assholes at Capitol Fringe 2013; Hedda Gabler in Hedda Gabler with Mason Players; and Afterward, a Series of Ten Minute Plays with the Source Festival 2013. Ruthie is also a freelance photographer and graphic designer.

DISTRICTLAND opens on Friday, July 11th. If you haven't already, purchase tickets here.

Say Hello to Maria

7/2/2014

Maria (Aaren Keith) is your Cuban-American powerhouse Rhodes scholar at the State Department who can't wait to go to Yale Law School. But, rest assured, she is not uptight nor is she on her iPhone all the time.

She's in love with a terribly handsome Indian dude at the IMF and she is no domestic goddess.

The actress behind Maria, Aaren Keith, is a Savannah, GA native, who moved to DC after graduating with her BFA in 2012. She has been performing in the area since. Aaren was last seen in The Rocky Horror Show at Studio Theatre as well as Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson the summer before. She is currently studying at the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory & is looking forward to an exciting summer with Fringe!

We're going to be introducing you to DISTRICTLAND characters all week -- stay tuned!

If you haven't already, purchase tickets to DISTRICTLAND here.

Here's Dave!

6/26/2014

Isn't he handsome?

Oh, Dave. All the ladies in DISTRICTLAND know Dave.

Our Dave (Johnny Day) is the resident unemployed Georgetown Law grad and online dating expert -- Tindr is his specialty.

Dave intends to run for office one day in DC. Starting the Progressive Leadership Network with his Yale classmate Katherine (Andra Belknap) is all part of his plan for world domination.

The actor behind Dave, Johnny Day, is a DC-based actor and graduate of James Madison University, where he studied English and Criminal Justice. He performed at this Fall's Fringe Festival as Will in The Immortal Jellyfish. You might catch him on AMC's Turn, and the upcoming feature film The Whyte Album.

We're going to be introducing you to DISTRICTLAND characters all week -- stay tuned!

If you haven't already, purchase tickets to DISTRICTLAND here.

Meet Frank

6/24/2014

Frank (Andrew Quilpa) is the intern. DISTRICTLAND would be nothing without its interns!

Frank just graduated from Georgetown and before he starts his PhD in Political Science, he's interning in his Minnesota Congressman's office. Frank is desperately in love with the lone DC native, A'isha, who he sees every day on his way to work.

The actor who brings Frank to life, Andrew Quilpa studied acting at the University of Virginia, graduating with a BA in Psychology and minor in Drama. In 2011, Andrew moved to Districtland as an Americorps member at Byte Back, a non profit dedicated to bridging the digital divide. He has served as an Inclusion Facilitator at Imagination Stage children's theatre in Bethesda for nearly 2 years, fostering love of the performing arts to children of all ages. Recent credits include: Lieutenant Alphonso of the Bellboys in The American Century Theater's production of Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad and Dogberry in The Fat & Greasy Citizens Brigade's production of Much Ado About Nothing (June 2014)

We're going to be introducing you to DISTRICTLAND characters all week -- stay tuned!

If you haven't already, purchase tickets to DISTRICTLAND here.

Interview with Cristina Bejan, Founder of Bucharest Inside the Beltway and DISTRICTLAND Playwright

5/6/2014

Hi Cristina! Thanks for taking the time to chat. Can you tell us why you decided to write DISTRICTLAND?

CB: I wrote this play in direct response to the bizarre experiences and intense expectations I experienced as a 20-something trying to make it in the District. I come from a culture that celebrates absurdity (e.g. Eugene Ionesco) and I realized that everything around me was just too ridiculous. So when two friends asked me to write a satire of DC, I jumped on it. The writing was cathartic - everything in the play had either happened to me, or to a close friend of mine. It felt good to put those absurd expectations in the heads of the characters and to realize that I was actually doing just fine - writing my plays, doing my research and just enjoying life.

So, this is a play directly borne out of your experiences in DC -- can you share why this story, or collection of stories, are particularly important to you?

CB: "Districtland" captures the myopic privileged rat-race that so many young people in DC feel compelled to engage in. What I know for sure, now that I'm safely in my 30s, is that I am not a rat nor my LinkedIn profile.

I think it's too simple to say that Americans work too hard. I like to work hard. It's more this expectation that we should all conform to pursue the perfect DC-CV, whatever that is, that bothers me. Washington DC attracts some the most ambitious and idealistic people in the world, yet these transplants are totally out of touch with the local politics and people. We are so ready to pour our noble ideals into internships, law school, fellowships and activism but when was the last time you broke out a bottle of wine and just talked to the people you live with? "Districtland" is a loving portrait of trying to make it in the center of the universe and a cry for everyone here to relax, breathe and listen.

That's an interesting insight -- that people in DC are proudly politically active, yet completely disengaged from local politics. Can you tell us why you think this is a play suited for this moment? Why it's important to start this conversation now?

CB: We are doing the play right now because it is about right now. It positively drives me crazy when plays become dated in a way that they are inaccessible to future audiences. Districtland is current, it's real, but in five years from now people won't be using their iphones in the way they do in the play. If there will be iphones .... by then we'll just have chips in our brains, like our passports.

I think that's a great place to end, thanks Cristina!