St Marks Players

A great little gem in the city. We went to see a very goof friend perform at a recidal with other classes. It interior of the church is simple but in its own way impressive with lovely stained glass windows. You can appreciate all the hard work everyone has done to put on the performances.

I’m surprised to find no one has reviewed a St. Mark’s Players performance yet. Dear Washingtonians, y’all are slacking!
I met my friend Calder S. in 2005 at a writing camp in the middle of nowhere, and while I’d known he was an actor all these years since, I’d never seen him in anything for myself. Last year, he invited me to see the St. Mark’s Players perform Tom Stoppard’s «Arcadia.» As much as the nerd in me wanted to see this, the stars failed to align and I did not find myself in DC until the week following the closing performance :(
Lucky for me, this year was Shakespeare! Even if you’ve never seen «As You Like It,» or don’t know the plot off-​hand (as I didn’t, as much as I like Shakespeare), you should at least know that the «All the world’s a stage» speech comes out of this, and I had the pleasure of watching my friend deliver it — I’m happy to report I will not have to lie to him when I tell him he’s a good actor now, because he is actually a good actor :) Yay!
As cheeky as I’d like to be in saying something like, «Calder was the highlight and savior of the play,» or the punny «Without my friend, ‘As You Like It’ would not have been as I liked it,» I have to be fair and say instead that I was impressed by the entire cast. It’s not easy to perform Shakespeare. The actors involved had various backgrounds both in acting and in profession, but every single one was undoubtedly talented, deeply invested in their craft and character, and focused. Not once did anyone the fourth wall by accident (the epilogue calls for an intentional break), and certainly did not break character, despite having to run around the audience for some entrances and exits. Admittedly, the audience’s etiquette could have been a little better. A handful of people were waiting around after the play, which suggests a good chunk of the audience was there because someone they knew was in it, which is fine, but I implore you to bring friends, and spread the word!
I dragged a former high school classmate with me. The night Karry L. and I went to see this, we hadn’t realized it was going to be in the church, and with the box office staff having forgotten to put up the sign at the entrance — their own admission — I spent a good five minutes chatting up a fat stray tabby cat that cuddled my legs repeatedly, hoping for a belly rub. S/​he even went so far as to flop over on his/​her back and wiggle violently… but I’m not sure whether I have a mild allergy and didn’t wish to sneeze audibly through the entire performance. Eventually, someone whisked past us and entered through a door near the bushes, and we followed. Once you sit in the venue, you forget you’re inside a church. As someone who is mildly uncomfortable in church settings/​a heathen, I am very thankful for this.
The set was lovely, simply and elegantly set up, and each transition (done by the actors and not stagehands) was smooth and didn’t disrupt the flow of the play, which does not reflect how I felt about the little boy sitting right in front of me for ½ the play, who repeatedly, and loudly, asked one sound technician (whose timing was beautifully coordinated within the scenes — you can tell the Players are serious artists), «When is the intermission?»
He must really have needed to pee.
St. Mark’s has edible and drinkable freshments for minimal damage to your wallet, including a selection of beer! I don’t actually drink beer, but Karry L. apparently needed one to get him through a Shakespeare comedy — but he also agreed that the performance was good, so if the Players ever put on one of his tragedies, I have may a friend to come back with!