Area News featuring Bethesda, Chevy Chase & NW Washington
The DuPont-Kalorama Museum Walk Weekend
The Annual DuPont-Kalorama Museum Walk Weekend will take place on June 6 & 7. The popular event celebrates the art, history and culture of two of Washington’s historic neighborhoods and seven museums of the Dupont-Kalorama Museum Consortium. Each of museum features free admission and special activities for all ages and interests. The museums participating are sometimes referred to as “off the Mall,” and will include:
Anderson House (The Society of the Cincinnati), Dumbarton House, Heurich House Museum, Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, National Museum of American Jewish Military History, The Phillips Collection, President Woodrow Wilson House * Please note that The Textile Museum has moved out of the neighborhood.
The Weekend Walk is a family event that draws thousands of visitors each year to the museums, and it offers a variety of activities for all ages. There will be special exhibitions, live music, food, hands-on demonstrations and more. Free Shuttles will circulate among the sites, and schedules will be available at all sites.
Rosa Mexicano closed the branch of their restaurant chain on Wisconsin Avenue in Friendship Heights at the end of March. The company had operated a restaurant there for three years. The space previously had several high-profile occupants. Rosa Mexicano is the third restaurant to leave Friendship Heights in the last year, including Indique Heights and Mi Cocina.
Homes & Gardens
Hillwood Estate Museum & Gardens will exhibit From Engenue to Icon: 70 Years of Fashion, June 6-December 31. The exhibition will be the first at Hillwood to present Marjorie Post’s full range of style, and will “examine how Post’s lifelong passion for objects that were exceptionally beautiful and impeccably constructed extended to her taste for clothing. The seven decades of apparel represented in the exhibition and the accompanying archival materials and portraits offer insights into the progress of American society from the early 1900s to the 1970s and a new perspective on an emblematic woman whose life, sense of self, and wardrobe reflect the rapidly changing times.” The exhibition “draws from Hillwood's collection of more than 175 dresses and over 300 accessories, including shoes, hats, gloves, and purses.”
Tudor Place & Dumbarton Oaks, two of the most historic and splendid estates in Washington, will present Georgetown Garden Treasures on Saturday, May 30. The estates are less than two blocks apart in Georgetown. Tours of the gardens will be led by the horticulturalists who oversee and care for them: Gail Griffin, Dumbarton Oaks Director of Gardens & Grounds, and Suzanne Bouchard, Director of Gardens & Grounds at Tudor Place. Visitors can “learn how these storied landscapes at Dumbarton Oaks and Tudor Place have evolved aesthetically and functionally since the 1800s and the challenges surrounding their preservation today.”
The Gardens at Tudor Place in Georgetown are open every Tuesday through Sunday for self-guided walks, but on the fourth Fridays in spring and fall, visitors can enjoy a 45-minute guided tour. Upcoming tours will be on June 19, September 25 & October 23. An expert on gardens and landscape history traces the history and horticulture of the estate's centuries-old trees, heirloom plants and flowers, and English boxwood.
The Washington Folk Festival will take place at Glen Echo Park on Saturday & Sunday, May 30 & 31. The festival, sponsored by the Folklore Society of Washington, will feature folk music, dance and craft traditions that are part of the greater DC area. Hundreds of the best traditional musicians, storytellers, dancers, and craftspeople from the area will participate.
Imagination Bethesda – a children’s street festival celebrating the arts – will take place at Woodmont Avenue and Elm Street in downtown Bethesda on Saturday, June 6. Activity tents will line the streets, and face painters will bring butterflies and pirates to life. There will be a stage of live entertainment that will “have the whole street dancing.” The event is produced by Bethesda UP.
Image below: An Activity Tent at a previous Imagination Bethesda
Imagination Stage will present DoubleTrouble, directed by Kathryn Chase Bryer, June 24–August 9. It’s the tale of "ten-year-old twins who are being raised separately by their divorced parents. When the girls meet unexpectedly at summer camp they discover their true relationship, and the high stakes, madcap adventure begins."
The Puppet Co. at Glen Echo Park is presenting Cinderella, thru June 21. The production reflects "the elegance of 17th-century France, with elaborate costumes and Offenbach's score to enhance the tale of the cinder girl who captures the heart of the handsome prince." The show is recommended for K-Grade 6.
The Puppet Co. will present Snow White & the Seven Dwarves June 25-August 9. The production, based on the Grimm fairytale, “takes the Puppet Co.’s usual sideways view of the popular story, giving it timeliness and humor for adults as well as kids.”
Adventure Theatre MTC will present Garfield, The Musical with Cattitude, directed by Nick Olcott and starring Evan Casey, June 19-August 23. The show is based on the characters created by Jim Davis. The focus is on the chubby and sarcastic tabby cat as he fantasizes having an amazing birthday only to have it forgotten by his friends. Feeling rejected, he ventures out to find adventure but learns that “home is where the heart… and the food is.” The show is recommended for all ages.
Adventure Theatre MTC will present Oliver: The Musical, July 24-August 16 at Round House Theatre in Bethesda. The classic show with book, music & lyrics by Lionel Bart will be directed by Joseph Ritsch and will star Felicia Curry and Rick Hammerly. Set in London in 1853, it’s the tale of a young orphan who finds “the key to his mysterious past.”
Heritage Montgomery will host the annual Heritage Days Celebration, a free-of-charge, county-wide festival, on June 27 & 28. The event offers visitors an opportunity to sample over 30 sites representing the history, culture, and natural beauty of Montgomery County.
Image below: "J.E.B. Stuart" makes a charge in a previous Heritage Days re-enactment
Music
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop, and the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, directed by Kevin Newbury, will perform Leonard Bernstein’s Candide in the Music Center at Strathmore on Thursday, June 11. The soloists will be: Dr. Pangloss: Joshua Hopkins Candide: Keith Jameson Paquette: Marie Lenormand Cunegonde: Lauren Snouffer Maximillian: Mark Diamond
The comedic operetta based on the classic Voltaire tale will be semi-staged.
Washington Conservatory of Music at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ in Bethesda will present a concert by pianist Michael Adcock - pictured below - on June 5. He is on the Conservatory faculty and has received numerous awards and honors.
The Kreeger Museum in Northwest Washington will present their 2015 June Chamber Festival June 5, 9 & 12. The festival will feature Miles Hoffman, Artistic Director, and the American Chamber Players. Founded in 1985 by Miles Hoffman, the ensemble “performs repertoire ranging from familiar masterpieces to neglected gems to newly commissioned American works…………”
Glen Echo Park will offer a Summer Concert Seriesin the Bumper Car Pavilion June 18-August 27. Visitors are encouraged to “bring a picnic or visit the Glen Echo Café while you enjoy a free summer concert.” In addition, Blues Alley and the Glen Echo Park Partnership will have a Family Jazz Day on Sunday, July 20 in the Bumper Car Pavilion. The event will include "Maryland Summer Jazz," the Blues Alley Youth Orchestra and the US Army Blues.
The Victorian Lyric Opera Company (VLOC) will present Gilbert & Sullivan’s Ruddigore, directed by Helen Aberger, at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre at the Rockville, MD Civic Center, June 11-21. “The rollicking story of Bad Baronets and young love threatened by a witch's curse” dates back to 1882. Maestro Joseph Sorge, the show's music director, has said “Ruddigore’s music brings true emotion and personality to each character. This allows the audience to really connect to them all, more so than any of Sullivan’s previous operettas.”
The Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids closed their shops in Mazza Gallerie on May 25 as planned and will reopen on June 6 at a new location on the lower level of the new Darcy Condominium at the corner of Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues…..opposite Barnes & Noble Bookstore. Underground parking will be available in the new Capital Crescent Garage.
Le Village Marche plans to open a boutique featuring vintage home décor and chic accessories on June 1 in the new Cathedral Commons development on Wisconsin Avenue, NW near Washington National Cathedral. The company’s flagship shop in the Village at Shirlington in Arlington, Virginia sells everything from French glassware and soaps to gold-leafed frames and vintage-inspired furniture. Owner Angela Phelps fell in love with Paris years ago and was inspired to open a shop that would reflect her admiration for the city.
Round House Theatre is presenting the American premiere of British playwright Lucy Kirkwood’s NSFW (Not Safe for Work) - directed by Meredith McDonough, thru June 21. The comedy “is about power games and privacy in the media and, in particular, how magazines objectify women.” The cast will feature Danny Gavigan, Laura C. Harris, Deborah Hazlett, Brandon McCoy, Todd Scofield, and James Whalen.
Round House theatre in Bethesda will present Impossible! A Happenstance Circus, June 26-July 12. The show has been described as “a kaleidoscopic homage to classic circus characters and images from the 1930s and 40s.” The show is for people of all ages.
The British Players, an organization which has been bringing high-quality traditional British theatre to the Washington area since1964, will present their annual Old time Music Hall, at Kensington Town Hall in Kensington, Maryland, June 12-27. The show will be produced and directed by Charles Hoag.
Montgomery County has posted the following details about the ongoing installation of Parking Meters at select locations in Friendship Heights:
“Parking meters are being installed for better overall parking management, to control traffic congestion by reducing the availability of free parking, and to enhance pedestrian safety in the Friendship Heights neighborhood. Parked vehicles tend to slow the through traffic and create a safety buffer for pedestrians. Meter revenue will also fund more consistent parking enforcement and provide funding for transportation and pedestrian safety improvements in Friendship Heights.
Meters will be installed as follows: Wisconsin Avenue northbound from Willard Avenue to Somerset Terrace. There will be 2-hr limit, $1 per hour, no parking during rush hours.
Meters eastbound from Baltimore Avenue to Friendship Boulevard on Willard Ave will be long term at $0.65 per hour, no parking during rush hours.
Meters southbound Friendship Boulevard (next to GEICO property) from Willard Avenue to Western Avenue will be 2-hr limit, $1 per hour, no rush hour restrictions."
Image below: Posts on which Parking Meters will be installed on Willard Avenue
Image below: Cars illegally parked and blocking the sidewalk on Friendship Boulevard.
Redevelopment & Renovation
Georgetown Day School (GDS) representatives met with the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) in May and presented an update on their plans for redeveloping the former Volvo and Safeway sites on/near Wisconsin Avenue in Tenleytown. Their plans, drawings and traffic studies reflect feedback and conversations they've had with the ANC, but the plans remain a work-in-progress. The School proposes moving their elementary and middle schools to the Safeway site from their current location on MacArthur Boulevard. The Volvo site would be used to build a retail/residential project comprised of two eight-story buildings that would generate revenue for the school; the northern-most building could be used for a grocery store. The GDS will present the next phase of their plans in June. To follow development of the plans, visit http://www.gds.org/page/News-Detail?pk=980646&fromId=212277
As previously reported, Equity One, the New York-based company which owns the Westbard Shopping Center and much of the surrounding property is making plans to redevelop the area. Meanwhile, the Montgomery County Planning Board, with community input, is preparing a new Sector Plan which will specify how the area can be redeveloped over the next twenty years.
The aerial photo below shows the location of Westbard in relation to River Road & Friendship Heights.
PEPCO continued excavation, pipe and manhole installation and roadway restoration along Western Avenue and Jenifer Street – past Lord & Taylor – in May. The work will continue along Jenifer Street to Wisconsin Avenue and south to the Harrison Street PEPCO Station. The former car lot next to the substation has been demolished and is being cleaned to serve as a temporary substation site as the old substation is redeveloped.
Image below: PEPCO cable installation at the corner of Western Avenue & Jenifer Street.
Screenings at AMC Theatre in Mazza Gallerie
AMC Theatre at Mazza Gallerie will screen several extraordinary shows in coming months, including:
June 25: The Audience, starring Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II, live from National Theatre in London.
James Fitzgerald, retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent, criminal profiler, member of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, and forensic linguist, will discuss his new book, A Journey to the Center of the Mindat Friendship Heights Village Center on Thursday, June 4. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.
Art historian Vanessa Badré will give a slide lecture titled The 18th Century, Far West and Far East: From China to Versailles at the Village Center on Wednesday, June 10.
Nazila Fathi, New York Times correspondent in Tehran until 2009, when she left after receiving threats against her safety, will discuss her book, The Lonely War: One Woman’s Account of the Struggle for Modern Iran on Thursday, June 11. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.
Registration is requested for events at the Village Center; call 301 656-2797.
