Rebecca Ritzel

Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C.

Arts/culture/cancer scribe. Bawlmer hon. Bylines @nytimes, @globeandmail etc. Come for the theater puns, stay for the bad jokes about ballet. [email protected]

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Articles

At Arena Stage Gala, Rutter Dances and Norton Falters

1 week ago | washingtonian.com | Rebecca Ritzel

Arena Stage honored two District leaders facing career crossroads at its annual gala Monday night. Recently deposed Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter danced to Gloria Gaynor’s disco anthem “I Will Survive,” while a frail Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton spoke feebly, departed early, and left attendees whispering about her future in office.
Bad Books Is Not So Book-Smart

3 weeks ago | washingtoncitypaper.com | Rebecca Ritzel

Thanks for being a member of City Paper! Earlier this month, a Maryland public elementary school librarian was called in to HR after a parent published an angry screed on Facebook. Her third grader came home crying and traumatized, the mother alleged, because the librarian told her son Santa Claus was not real.
Trump's Kennedy Center fantasies are chasing away its primary audiences

1 month ago | msnbc.com | Rebecca Ritzel

Don’t cry for him, America, but when it comes to his vision for the Kennedy Center, President Donald J. Trump appears to be dreaming impossible dreams. The president, who is also now the board chair for the Kennedy Center, convened a meeting of said board on Monday. In a recording of the meeting shared with The Washington Post, Trump and members said they’d like to see “Camelot,” “Cats,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Hello, Dolly!” and “The Phantom of the Opera” featured at the Kennedy Center.
Trump has big dreams for the Kennedy Center but doesn't seem to know what it does

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Rebecca Ritzel

NowNews Quiz for March 22, 2025Test your knowledge of the week’s events as reported in The Wall Street Journal. Photo: Reuters; Associated Press; The Metropolitan Museum of Art Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb85 hours agoTour the brutalist Ginza Sony Park, Tokyo's newest urban hubAt first glance, the newly opened Ginza Sony Park looks like anything but a park in the usual sense. There are no trees and not even a tiny patch of grass.
A Room in the Castle Give Ophelia a Chance to Steer Her Destiny

1 month ago | washingtoncitypaper.com | Rebecca Ritzel

Thanks for being a member of City Paper! With the exception of the star-crossed Juliet, there’s no Shakespearean woman character with a larger cultural footprint than sweet Ophelia, whose watery death has obsessed everyone from pre-Raphaelites painters to the Lumineers. But what if Ophelia, with help from a few allies, took steps to control her own Danish destiny? That’s the girl-power premise behind Lauren M.
2025 Spring Arts Guide: Dance and Performance Recommendations

2 months ago | washingtoncitypaper.com | Rebecca Ritzel |Mary Manning |Will Lennon |Brandon Wetherbee |Allison R. Shely

Thanks for being a member of City Paper! DMV choreographers are always moving. Blame the transient nature of D.C.’s job market, which too often pulls artists in and out with their spouses, or area universities that draw MFA students who depart when they graduate. Nejla Yatkin may have moved to Chicago more than a decade ago, but whenever she brings a project back to Dance Place in Brookland, this formerly local dance icon deserves a homecoming party.
What a Drag

2 months ago | what-if-arts.ghost.io | Rebecca Ritzel

Credit for this headline goes to Sarah Marloff, arts editor of (Washington) City PaperWhat I'm Writing... Trump's Truth Social posts tend to be 90 percent bloviation and 10 percent reality. So when he used "drag shows specifically targeting our youth" as a justification for the taking over the Kennedy Center, the story I most wanted to write was one that would figure out what the hell Trump was talking about. City Paper gave me a chance to do that story.
Bubbles, Lollipops, and Show Tunes: This Is the Drag Show That Offended Trump

2 months ago | washingtoncitypaper.com | Rebecca Ritzel

Thanks for being a member of City Paper! Two days before convicted felon and President Donald Trump announced his plan to take over the Kennedy Center, local drag queen Tara Hoot sat in Eisenhower Theater laughing uproariously, sans costume and bouffant wig, at the world premiere of Schmigadoon!“It was so joyful and so well done,” says Hoot.
America’s most prestigious Black dance company fills its ranks with Maryland dancers

Feb 7, 2025 | thebaltimorebanner.com | Rebecca Ritzel

She was the most beautiful dancer the kindergartner from Randallstown had ever seen: a petite African American woman, hair slicked back into a voluptuous bun, dancing a solo to a gospel number by Yolanda Adams. Jessica Amber Pinkett, wearing a sparkly tutu and standing in the wings, was watching her teacher’s former student Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell, a Baltimore-born star at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, who had returned to share the stage with Pinkett and other young dancers.
Carmen Herrera painting acquired for White House art collection

Feb 5, 2025 | theartnewspaper.com | Rain Embuscado |Rebecca Ritzel |Gareth Harris |Benjamin Sutton

Carmen Herrera, the late Cuban American painter, has joined the rarified group of artists whose work is held in the White House’s collection. Herrera is being lauded as the first woman of Latin American descent whose work is among the permanent holdings of the US presidential residence in Washington, DC. The work in question, Dia Feriado—a teal and tangerine geometric color block painting produced in 2011—is now installed in the East Wing of the White House.