DC Area Premiere! Perisphere will present The America Play, by Suzan-Lori Parks, with performances from January 31-February 15, 2025. The America Play centers around an African-American gravedigger and Abraham Lincoln impersonator and his estranged family. Parks found one of her early career successes in this play that explores the way Blackness Read more…
Founding Perisphere Theater in 2014 and running the company over the past few years has been an exciting adventure. Starting my own theater company has long been a dream of mine, and I was continually touched by the support of friends in making it a success, amazed by the high Read more…
On Jan. 23, Amber James took over Perisphere Theater’s Instagram account during our week of tech and dress rehearsals to share a day in the life of an actor, as she prepared to play Mariane in Tartuffe. Here are a few of her posts: Going through my script and realizing how Read more…
By Bridget Grace Sheaff, Director Our rehearsals got under way on December 11, and in a short amount of time, we have unearthed a great deal about this play. The open dialogue of the rehearsal room around the themes of privilege and agency have been deeply productive. Every person is Read more…
“Faced with a fate so hideous and absurd, Can you not utter one dissenting word?” —Dorine, II.iii For our inaugural season, Perisphere Theater offered two relatively contemporary plays, with very small casts. This year, we take a leap into the classics with Moliere’s Tartuffe, the 17th century French farce. Part Read more…
On Dec. 4, after our matinee performance of Copenhagen, the audience gathered on the stage and in the front rows to discuss the historical and ethical implications of the 1941 meeting in Copenhagen and the way that the playwright presents it. Georgetown University professor and historian of science Kathryn Olesko Read more…
On Nov. 19, Benjamin McRae took over Perisphere Theater’s Instagram account to share a day in the life of an actor as he prepares to play Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen. Here are a few of his posts: I do crossword puzzles in pen. Also blocking notes. #badideas #CopenhagenPlayDC #actorlife A photo Read more…
Margrethe Bohr in Copenhagen is a grounding force for the two men, her husband Niels and Werner Heisenberg (Niels’s colleague and protegé). A description from MIT of her role in this play says that she functions as a Greek chorus to help the audience understand the physics, but also embodies the feminine Read more…
Actor John Decker shares his thoughts about playing the Nobel prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr and what he hopes audiences will take away from Perisphere Theater’s production of Copenhagen.
The historical and scientific implications of the play Copenhagen have been debated. Many historians have weighed in since the production first opened on how they view the accuracy of the characters’ statements and the motivations that Frayn has given them (both researched and imagined). Frayn himself issued a postscript after the London Read more…