Rainbow Theatre Project
Our Stories. Our Voices. Our Time.
Photo by M. V. Jantzen
2017–2018 Season
Show Your Support
Washington DC is the second-largest theatre town in North America. There are very few theatres currently in DC that exclusively reflect the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) experience. We're very excited about Rainbow, but we need your help to make it happen. Please show your support.
Season Sponsor
Rainbow Theatre Project is a nonprofit organization, a registered 501(c)(3) and your donation is fully tax-deductible. If you have any questions regarding our theatre, your donation, or how to become more involved with Rainbow, please feel free to contact us at info@rainbowtheatreproject.org.
in residence at
DCAC
(District of Columbia Arts Center)
Reading
September 16–18, 2017
Blue Camp • by Tim Caggiano and Jack Calvin Hanna • Director: Christopher Janson
Tickets: $15
Blue Camp is a drama with humor that takes place on an Army base somewhere in the U.S. in the late summer of 1964, just prior to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Soldiers accused of homosexuality are kept in the Blue Barracks awaiting discharge while criminal soldiers are kept in the Green Barracks. These are the days leading into the event known as the Vietnam War.
Saturday at 3:00 p.m.
Monday at 7:30 p.m.
Reading
October 16, 2017
Kingdom of Earth • by Tennessee Williams • Director: Greg Stevens
Tickets: $15
Kingdom of Earth is a serio-comic play that focuses on Lot, a tubercular neurotic youth who is an impotent transvestite overly attached to the memory of his late mother. He has returned to his ancestral home, a decaying house on the edge of a river on the verge of overflowing, with his new bride Myrtle, a sometime prostitute and former showgirl. She dwells in a fantasy world of romantic illusions, one of which is to nurse Lot back to health so they can consummate their marriage, but soon discovers Lot only wants to use her to steal the deed to the property from his multiracial half-brother Chicken, who has lived on and farmed the property for years.
Monday at 7:30 p.m.
Reading
January 22, 2018
Rainbow Theatre Project Presents: Three readings in honor of International Women's Voices Day
Eleanor and Marilyn • by Monica Regan
Power Down • by Kate Colwell
Return of the Freebird • by Renee Calarco
Tickets: $15
Join Rainbow Theatre Project as we celebrate International Women's Voices Day (part of Women's Voices Theatre Festival 2018). Eleanor and Marilyn is about a conversation between — you guessed it — Eleanor Roosevelt and Marilyn Monroe. Power Down is about a woman navigating in a world of Artificial Intelligence. Return of the Freebird is about a lesbian going to her high school reunion. All three short plays are directed by Elizabeth Pringle.
Monday at 7:30 p.m.
Production
February 8–March 4, 2018 (Women's Voices Theatre Festival)
No Word In Guyanese For Me • by Wendy Graf • Director: Julia Hurley • Cast: Ashley K. Nicholas
Tickets: $35
No Word in Guyanese for Me is a gay Muslim's journey to reconcile her faith and her sexuality. Winner of the GLAAD Award, it is a poetic, lyrical play, a beautiful exploration of religious and sexual identity. This is the journey of Hanna. From her childhood in Guyana to her adolescence in 9/11 New York City, from a disastrous arranged marriage to her sexual awakening, Hanna struggles to come to terms with her sexual identity, her devotion to her faith, and the right to be accepted for who she is, a gay Muslim.
Thursday–Saturday at 7:30 p.m.,
Sunday at 3:00 p.m. (except Sunday, 2/18 is at 7:30 p.m.)
Monday, 2/19 at 7:30 p.m.
Production
April 5–29, 2018
Top and Bottom • by Kevin Michael West • Director: Christopher Janson
Tickets: $35
Top and Bottom is an encounter between two young men who want to explore their fantasies of a sexual bondage scene. Their only problem is they are a bit klutzy, a bit nerdy, and not totally sure what they are doing!
Warning: This production contains full male nudity.
Thursday–Saturday at 7:30 p.m.,
Sunday at 3:00 p.m. (except Sunday, 4/15 is at 7:30 p.m.)
Monday, 4/16 at 7:30 p.m.
Quote for the 2017–2018 Season from the Artistic Director:
I'm very excited where Rainbow Theatre Project is right now as we head into our fifth season. It's a great honor to be among the small group of theatres being considered by the Helen Hayes Awards for the John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company. I am doubly excited by our upcoming move into our new home at the District of Columbia's Arts Center, commonly known as DCAC.
Our next season continues our goal to highlight new work along with the classics with a world premiere, Blue Camp; a Tennessee Williams classic, Kingdom of Earth; our first full production of a play from one of our many past staged readings, No Word in Guyanese for Me; and, another full production, Top and Bottom. I am particularly proud of our participation in the upcoming Women's Voices Theatre Festival with our production of Wendy Graf's No Word in Guyanese for Me.
I like to think that we might be a small theatre but we have big ambitions in our goals to represent our LGBTQ community.
-H. Lee Gable
Venue
DCAC (District of Columbia Arts Center)
2438 18th St NW
Washington, DC 20009
