Center Stage

"The problem with our art form: it's so ephemeral, and catching performances can be so difficult... the important thing is what happens at the moment of performance, for the people who made the effort to be there: it lives with them."-Judith Weir

When I was a child, my parents used to take my sister and me on trips to New York City where we would often see a show on Broadway. On my first ever visit to New York, we went to see The Phantom of the Opera. I wish I could say I enjoyed it, but I was three, and I just fell asleep. Nevertheless, being introduced to the theater at such a young age instilled in me a life long love of the performing arts. Yet for years, I, probably like many other people, thought that New York was really the only place to see a great performance. In more recent times, the past six or seven years, I have begun to realize what wonderful theater is available in Washington, DC, a city so much closer to my home and my heart.

I first began to appreciate DC’s theater when I was about eleven and my parents took me to see The Man of La Mancha at the National Theater Since then I have seen several other shows, mainly at the Folger and the Shakespeare Theater. Currently, School for Scandal is showing at the Folger, and Antony and Cleopatra is playing at the Shakespeare Theater. Soon, Ballet Across America will be coming to the Kennedy Center. I would love to attend all these shows, and I encourage everyone to go enjoy another aspect of DC’s arts.