Keep the Spirit of July 4th Alive in August While Supporting Local Theaters.
Even though July 4th is already a distant, smoke-filled memory, theaters in DC are still contemplating the contested concepts underpinning the holiday and what they mean right now. August is a great month to support local theaters by buying tickets to shows that grapple with ideas of independence, resistance, equality and freedom. Read on for our recommendations.
In the Spotlight
Tucked away on Church Street NW just off the buzzing 17th Street corridor, Keegan Theatre has been dishing up satiating servings of stage art to DMV audiences for 30 years. Artistic director Susan Marie Rhea ‒ who co-founded the mid-sized theater along with creative partner Mark Rhea – says she’s reflecting on three decades of plays and programming that “speak across divides” and “tease out what I want people to be talking about without hitting them over the head.”
From humble beginnings and staging their first major production (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”) in what was then the gym for a local high school, Keegan Theatre is now one of the city’s heavyweights. It was their rendition of “RENT,” performed in early 2010, that cemented Keegan Theatre’s place on DC’s performing arts map, and since then the small yet solid team under Rhea’s capable leadership has formed a robust network of connections, programs and partnerships that has seen the playhouse through both tough times and good.
program. Courtesy of Keegan Theatre
What screams resistance to the status quo more than the Tony Award-winning punk rock musical “American Idiot,” part of Keegan’s upcoming 2026-27 season? Rhea says she’s working on exciting new updates to this very American tale of disaffected youth, alienation and addiction that Keegan Theatre first staged 10 years ago. “I think ‘American Idiot’ will really be loudly speaking to the moment, to what’s happening.”
“The Believers” by Audrey Cefaly will open to audiences for the first time in early spring next year on Keegan’s mainstage. “I wanted a play that was about a small group of people still reaching for each other despite extreme differences,” Rhea explains. “We’ve got a flat-earther, a Christian, a Greta Thunberg type character, all coming together on the Florida panhandle. It’s brilliant. It’s exactly what I hope theater can do.”
Cefaly’s play is part of Keegan Theatre’s Boiler Room Series piloted by artistic director Josh Sticklin, which has become a critical tool for supporting stage work by emerging playwrights from concept through to execution. Rhea says “The Believers” is a great example of how resistance can be both nuanced and layered. “It’s really exciting to birth something that speaks to the moment but does it in a way that’s both subtle and complicated.”
There are many other ways Keegan Theatre responds to the moment while staying true to its founding principles through the work it stages and the community connections it nurtures. Keegan PLAY-RAH-KA is the theater’s education program for pre-K, elementary and high school students. It gives kids across the region access to important skills like learning to work as a group, cultivating creativity and improving communication through summer camp and after-school programs. “I’m endlessly proud of who we are in every way, as a community partner, as an arts organization, as a mentor and carer of people and artists,” Rhea says. “The most important thing to me are the human beings in the space. That’s there’s unending respect and kindness and that everyone’s idea is worth hearing. It’s the DNA of who we are.” www.keegantheatre.com
On Right Now
“Woody Guthrie’s American Song,”
Theater Alliance
Showing Aug. 6-29
www.theateralliance.com
“Woody Guthrie’s American Song” is not a Woody Guthrie autobiography. Neither is it your typical summer musical. Conceived and written by Peter Glazer in the late 1970s and first performed in 1988 with vocal and orchestral arrangements by Jeff Waxman, this infrequently produced yet uniquely American lyrical tale reimagines scenes from Guthrie’s life and career through the perspectives of the eclectic melange of Americans who so often featured in his music.
“It really feels like a play and a concert mashed up with storytelling elements. It’s these cool little vignettes of what inspired him to write his songs,” explains director Tim Seib, who worked with Theater Alliance’s executive artistic director Shanara Gabrielle to make “Woody Guthrie’s American Song” come to life at The Wharf Waterfront Park in Southwest. This performance will cap Theater Alliance’s 2025/26 season and is the final work the company will produce before moving into the Arts Hub ‒ their shared interdisciplinary space at 340 Maple Drive SW ‒ along with creative partners IN Series operatic theater company and the 4EYE Film Center (see below). 
Assistant artistic director Aria Velz says that producing the play was motivated by wanting to stage an outdoors summer musical while the permanent home was under construction, in addition to presenting a work that corresponds with Theater Alliance’s view of art as a tool of social justice. “We’ve never done a musical before. There’s something joyous about gathering people together to enjoy music outdoors. Woody Guthrie’s work is also aligned with a lot of the values of Theater Alliance in terms of speaking for and uplifting marginalized groups.”
Radical neighboring – curating activations for the surrounding community outside of conventional performance spaces and letting them decide how much they’re able to pay for a ticket – is also one of Theater Alliance’s core values, and something that Guthrie himself would no doubt have approved of.
Widely acknowledged as an American folk music icon and the forefather of artists like Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, Guthrie was born in Oklahoma in 1912 and grew up in the heart of the American Dust Bowl. While his early life was beset by tragedy (his home burned down, his sister perished after setting herself alight and his mother died of Huntington’s Disease), he got his first break after moving to California and performing on a local radio station. It was also in California that Guthrie acquainted himself with communism and socialism, movements that would influence his music and life forever.
“Woody Guthrie’s American Song” follows “the Oklahoma Cowboy” from Oklahoma to Texas, then on to California and New York, where he immersed himself in the pro-worker movement and wrote perhaps his most recognized song, “This Land Is Your Land,” penned as a critique of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” Seib says that each member of the ensemble plays a role in telling Guthrie’s story. “We explore the idea that a diverse group of storytellers can all embody Guthrie’s persona and voice. They’re using his words and voice but through the lens of a group of modern people.”
All the action takes place in a purpose-built outdoor set that incorporates the wind, sunshine and water that Guthrie himself found endlessly inspirational. “There’s a wonderful scene when Guthrie’s on a train and he feels rain for the first time in a long time. I can’t help thinking, wouldn’t it be great if it started raining at that moment?” Seib laughs.
As right-wing nationalism and democratic socialism sweep across the nation and the world, Woody Guthrie’s legacy has never been more relevant. Go watch it now.
