A short distance from the Mall in Washington D.C., travelers will come across the Ford Theatre , the nation’s most famous theater, famous largely for infamous reasons dating back to 1865, which operates to this day as a theater and museum to the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. While this is the site where John Wilkes Booth shot a president, it remains an active theater, and is a fascinating place to visit not only for those who love history, but also theater. Designated a national historic site, the theater continues to produce plays each year and tickets for its 2010-2011 season will be available for purchase in August, 2010. The upcoming season consists of four plays:
Sabrina Fair, written by Samuel A. Taylor, will be performed from October 1st to the 24th. This play features a twist on the Cinderella story, focusing on the daughter of the Larrabees’ chauffeur. She returns from Paris and enchants the Larrabee brothers; originally ignored as a child, Sabrina now discovers suitors all around her, including a handsome playboy named David, a person she has always liked. The play explores the question, in essence, about whether or not this Prince Charming is actually right for her.
Another treatment of a classic is presented from November 20th to January 2nd, when the Ford Theatre presents Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, with an adaptation by Michael Wilson. This familiar tale of Scrooge and ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future stars Edward Gero, who has received past acclaim for Scrooge in a production that the Washington Post called “musically high-spirited” and “infectiously jolly.”
Horton Foote’s The Carpetbagger’s Children makes an appearance from January 21st to February 13th in 2011. The play is a series of vignettes that explores family secrets and small town life set during the South during the time of Post-Reconstruction following the Civil War. Foote is a playwright who has also won the Academy Award, as well as the 2002 Steinberg/American Theatre Critics New Play Award for this particular play.
Rounding out the season is Liberty Smith, with music by Michael Weiner and lyrics by Adam Abraham. This is a musical about the American Revolution where Liberty Smith, a childhood friend of George Washington and an apprentice to Benjamin Franklin, weaves his way through American history, not too unlike the title character in the film, Forrest Gump.
If you’re visiting over the course of next year, whether it’s with friends or one of the city’s four star hotels, Washington DC provides excellent entertainment, including the Ford Theatre, which may be visited both as a functioning theater and/or as a museum to one of the most transformative moments in the nation’s history.
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