Entertainment


'Mission: Impossible's' Peter Graves dies


LOS ANGELES -- Peter Graves, whose calm and intelligent demeanor was a good fit for the intrigue of "Mission Impossible" as well as the satire of the "Airplane" films, has died. Mr. Graves died Sunday just a few days before his 84th birthday outside his home in Los Angeles, publicist Sandy Brokaw said. Mr. Graves was returning from brunch with his wife of nearly 60 years and his family when he had what Mr. Graves' doctor believed was a heart attack, Mr. Brokaw said. Mr. Graves first gained the attention of many baby boomers with the 1950s TV series "Fury," ...

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Hall of Famer, actor Olsen dies at 69


SALT LAKE CITY | Merlin Olsen, a Hall of Fame defensive lineman and member of the Los Angeles Rams' "Fearsome Foursome" who followed up football with a successful television career in "Little House on the Prairie," NFL broadcasts and commercials, has died. He was 69. Utah State, Olsen's alma mater, said he died outside of Los Angeles early Thursday after battling cancer. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer of the lung lining, last year. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell issued a statement lauding Olsen as an "extraordinary person, friend and football player." "He cared deeply about people, especially those that ...

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TV cable firms seek halt to cutoffs


ASSOCIATED PRESS Cable, satellite TV and other video providers have asked the government to intervene in ongoing fee disputes with TV networks - big-money fights that are expected to escalate this year as more contracts expire. The most recent showdown between the two sides left millions of Cablevision customers around New York with a black screen at the start of the Academy Awards. About 15 minutes into the show, a scrolling announcement told viewers that a tentative agreement had been reached. As advertising revenue has weakened, TV networks have begun to demand cash for their programs rather than some of ...

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Interest in Islamic art rises


DETROIT In the heart of the largest concentration of Muslims in the United States, the Detroit Institute of Arts has opened a new permanent gallery of Islamic art, which includes among its exhibits a rare 15th-century Koran of a Mongol conqueror. "The Arab and Islamic community is significant enough that it needs to see itself in the museum," said Director Graham W.J. Beal. "Their collection had not been shown very prominently in the previous recent decades." The opening comes as several museums worldwide are broadening their collections. New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is working on a suite of Islamic ...

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Cinema

The Old Town Theatre serves up arty, independent and off-beat cinema, while the AMC Theatre at the Hoffman Center, Kingstowne 16 and Regal at Potomac Yard hosts blockbusters and more mainstream movies. [back to activities]

Theatre

Capitol Steps

Capitol Steps began as a group of Senate staffers who set out to satirize the very people and places that employed them.

In the years that followed, many of the Steps ignored the conventional wisdom ("Don't quit your day job!"), and although not all of the current members of the Steps are former Capitol Hill staffers, taken together the performers have worked in a total of eighteen Congressional offices and represent 62 years of collective House and Senate staff experience. [back to activities]

Arena Stage

The core purpose of Arena Stage is to produce huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit. Arena has broad shoulders and a capacity to produce anything from vast epics to charged dramas to robust musicals. Our focus is on theater of the Americas; we produce American classics, premieres of new plays and contemporary stories. Our Arena is a forum, a coliseum, a place for audiences to argue, discuss and meet each other over the theatrical divide. At the center is art; all other programs thrive in concentric circles supporting the art.

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Wolf Trap

As America's National Park for the Performing Arts, Wolf Trap plays a valuable leadership role in both the local and national performing arts communities. Through a wide range of artistic and education programs, Wolf Trap enhances our nation's cultural life and ensures that the arts remain accessible and affordable to the broadest possible audience.

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Nissan Pavilion

Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge is an outdoor live performance amphitheatre with a 25,000 fan capacity, the largest in the Washington Metropolitan area. The Pavilion is located in semi-rural Prince William County which is approximately 35 miles west of our neighborhood.[back to activities]

Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center, located on 17 acres overlooking the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., is America's living memorial to President Kennedy as well as the nation's busiest arts facility, presenting more than 3,000 performances each year. Touring Kennedy Center productions and its television, radio, and Internet broadcasts reach millions around the world. As part of the Kennedy Center's Performing Arts for Everyone outreach program, hundreds of free performances are offered each year featuring national and local artists; these include early-evening concerts on the Millennium Stage, dozens of performances during the annual Open House Arts Festival, and daily concerts of seasonal music in December as part of Holidays at the Kennedy Center. Since 1999, the Millennium Stage performances have been broadcast live over the Internet and digitally archived on the Kennedy Center's website.

The Shakespeare Theatre

Since its founding in 1985, The Shakespeare Theatre has endeavored to be the nation's leading force in the presentation and preservation of classic theatre. Our core mission is to present classic theatre in an accessible, skillful, imaginative, American style that honors playwrights' language and intentions while viewing their plays through a 21st-century lens. With the formation of the Harman Center for the Arts—which includes the new Sidney Harman Hall and the existing Lansburgh Theatre—the Shakespeare Theatre Company will become a national destination theatre offering a broad range of works to audiences in the greater-Washington area and across the nation.[back to activities]

Fords Theatre

Fords Theatre is a live, working theatre located in downtown Washington, DC. As a national historic and cultural site welcoming visitors from across the nation, Ford's Theatre blends its rich history with performance excellence in serving as a living tribute to President Lincoln's love of the performing arts. When Ford's Theatre re-opened its doors in 1968 - after having been closed 103 years - it truly was reclaimed as a national treasure for all Americans, and those of us who work here are mindful of that legacy and grateful that Ford's Theatre once again is a vibrant showcase for the performing arts that President Lincoln so appreciated.[back to activities]

Other Venues

Warner Theatre , The Smithsonian and the The MCI Center are nationally renown venues for theatre, sport and entertainment. [back to activities]