Sophia Howes

2 weeks ago | dctheaterarts.org | Sophia Howes

Twelfth Night at the Folger is so innovative that you might mistake it for the latest work of that talented young playwright William Shakespeare. Love transcends gender, grief contains the promise of healing, and the joy of creativity transports us into a world alive with desire. Director Mei Ann Teo invites us to “fall in love with the differences between us.” Currently an artistic leader at Ping Chong and Company in New York, she approaches Twelfth Night as a new play, with spectacular success.

1 month ago | dctheaterarts.org | Sophia Howes |Callie Kimball

At first in WSG’s irresistible comedy, Sofonisba Anguissola (Amanda Tudor) is under interrogation. The stern but in his own eyes fair Bishop Espinoza (Peter Boyer) is gauging her possible fitness as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Isabel (O’Malley Steuerman) at the 16th-century Spanish court of the Catholic Philip II (Gabriel Alejandro). Philip, who once was married to the late Queen Mary, sister of Elizabeth I, now has a teenage French Queen who will need sensitive attendants.

2 months ago | dctheaterarts.org | Sophia Howes

Uncle Vanya, directed by Simon Godwin, and co-produced by STC and the Berkeley Repertory Company, is an indispensable production. The author is Anton Chekhov, the Russian literary genius who died at the tragically early age of 44. It is the story of one of those unanticipated shocks that can rip a family apart. In the hands of Godwin’s incandescent cast, it is sometimes poignant, sometimes frightening, sometimes irresistibly comic. Vanya is the perfect play for our Alice in Wonderland era.

2 months ago | dctheaterarts.org | Sophia Howes

WARNING: This court report is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental or stolen from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818). We could all use a good laugh at this point, and STC is here to save the day. The Mock Trial 2025, which took place at the High Court of Transylvania (also known as the Harman Theatre), was a hilarious homage to Mary Shelley, AI, and most of all, the rule of law.

Feb 24, 2025 | dctheaterarts.org | Sophia Howes

John Kani’s Kunene and the King, a U.S. premiere, brings us two great actors in a great play that explores the complex relationship between two South African men on different sides of the racial divide. The play takes place in 2019, 25 years after the first post-apartheid elections, which were won by Nelson Mandela and his party. Jack Morris, a famous actor with terminal cancer (Edward Gero), lives in a wealthy white suburb of Johannesburg.