Spooky Action Theater

Name: Spooky Action Theater
Address: 1810 16th Street NW, Washington D.C., DC, 20009, US
Telephone: +12022480301
Price range: $
Rating: 4.9

Home
United States
Washington D.C., DC
Spooky Action Theater

Spooky Action Theater is an award-winning adventurous professional theatre, a hub for bold aesthetics, vital conversations and global visions.

Versatile black box theater for producing thought provoking productions.

02/15/2025

Black magic gets started, and it can’t be stopped! Rehearsals for “Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show” have officially begun. Our space is already transforming into an underground rock club through the wicked talents of this cast of actor-musicians under the leadership of music director . Composer also joined us for the first week of rehearsals, since this new musical is still in development and will have its world premiere at Spooky. If you’d like a preview of the gorgeous voices of our cast members, join us for and ‘s cabaret concerts on Feb 21 and March 1! You can purchase tickets for all three events on our website spookyaction.org

02/12/2025

Get to know the brilliant performers behind our second set of cabaret concerts, Fran Tapia and Walter Bobby McCoy! Grab your tickets for their 7 pm or 9 pm show on March 1 on our website.

FRAN TAPIA is a Chilean performing artist and singer-songwriter. She recently made her debuts with a number of theatres, 1st Stage (Laughs in Spanish), Scena Theater (Ajax), and Folger Theatre (Romeo & Juliet). She received the 2023 Helen Hayes Award and Broadway World Washington DC Award as Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Musical for “On Your Feet! En español” at GALA Hispanic, and the 2023 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical for GALA’s “Revoltosa.”Last August, she made her Kennedy Center debut at The REACH with Spooky Action’s concert of excerpts of Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show. Fran’s U.S. credits also include “Mummy in the Closet - Evita’s Return” (GALA); “In The Heights” (PSF); the “On Your Feet!” 2nd Broadway National Tour. International credits include Cats and Tirana La Leyenda (Chile), Emergenz (Hamburg), and Rite of Spring (Hamburg, Marseille, Amsterdam, Santiago de Chile). Follow on IG !

Walter “Bobby” McCoy is an award winning Washington DC-based music director, pianist, conductor, vocal coach, and educator. They have been music directing for theater in the DC area for the past fifteen years and has over one hundred and fifty productions to their credit. Bobby has worked with several professional theatre organizations (Olney Theatre Center, GALA Hispanic Theatre, STAGES St. Louis, Arizona Theatre Company, Seacoast Repertory Theatre, Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre, The Mac-Haydn Theatre, Signature Theatre) as well as universities, schools, and community organizations. Bobby’s work has been recognized with a number of awards including: The Helen Hayes Award, The St. Louis Theater Circle Award, DC Metro Theatre Arts, and BroadwayWorld.

02/11/2025

Congratulations to all Helen Hayes Awards nominees at ’s ceremony last night! We’re thrilled that and were both nominated for Outstanding Supporting Performer in ’s “Cracking Zeus!”

01/30/2025

Get to know our first Cabaret Series stars, the performers behind the electric duo here&there, Jordyn Taylor and Deimoni Brewington! Get your tickets at spookyaction.org .

Deimoni Brewington, a versatile storyteller, is halfway somewhere here&there. His credits include: Kennedy Center: “Finn;” Visionaries of the Creative Arts: “A Not So Quiet Nocturne;” Signature Theatre: “Prívate Jones,” “Passing Strange;” Imagination Stage: “A Year with Frog & Toad” (Helen Hayes Award Nomination - Outstanding Lead Performer); Faction of Fools: “A Commeria Romeo and Juliet;” Keegan Theatre: “Sweat;” Constellation Theatre Company: “Once On This Island;” Arena Stage: “Toni Stone;” Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: “Macbeth,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “The Adventures of Pericles.” He received his BFA in Musical Theater at Howard University.

Jordyn Taylor’s credits include Adventure Theater MTC: “She Persisted;” Monumental Theatre Company: “American Psycho;” Arena Stage: “Unknown Soldier;” Signature Theater: “Ragtime;” Constellation Theatre Company: “Once on This Island;” PBS: “How Great Thou Art: A Sacred Celebration.” She received her BFA in Musical Theater at Howard University. IG: TikTok:

01/25/2025

Helen Hayes Award-winning performer Fran Tapia is a Chilean powerhouse - from “On Your Feet! En Espanol” at GALA Hispanic Theater to “Romeo & Juliet” at The Folger. As a versatile singer, songwriter, actor, dancer and director, her talents have transcended borders. On March 1 only, she will put out an unreleased record, share the personal stories behind it, and revisit some of the classics that inspire her. The performance will be directed by Alina Collins Maldonado and feature Walter ‘Bobby’ McCoy on keyboard. Collage: Matías Lassen, Graphics: Ralphie Rivera

01/24/2025

On February 21, join us for a bewitching evening with the electrifying duo Here & There, composed of Jordyn Taylor (Monumental Theatre’s “American Psycho”) and Deimoni Brewington (Signature Theatre’s “Passing Strange”). Their genre-spanning setlist includes original songs alongside Beyonce, Phil Collins, Fleetwood Mac, and selections from Pippin. They will be accompanied by “Professor Woland” music director Marika Countouris. To get tickets, go to https://www.spookyaction.org/cabaret-series-2025.html Photography by Jordyn Taylor.

01/22/2025

You asked, and we listened! Due to the success of Stew Stewart’s concert in December, we are launching a brand-new series to showcase the talents of some of DC’s most exciting singers and actors. We’ve transformed our space into an intimate underground cabaret with drinks and refreshments; you can choose between a table right by the stage or a general-admission riser seat. Stay tuned for the announcement of our featured artists! Photo by

01/14/2025

As we start 2025, the staff and board of Spooky Action Theater offers our deep thanks to all of our patrons for their support for attending shows, spreading the word about our work, donating to help us continue to do dynamic and provocative theatrical work in Washington, DC. This was our most successful end-of-year fundraising campaign in the theatre’s history! We appreciate your engagement with us.

01/01/2025

What a treat to start the new year with more love for our production of “Frontieres Sand Frontieres!” “The extent of this production’s daring creativity left me in awe. Its extravagant performances and immersively stylized environment were unlike anything I have ever seen — and I am so excited to see more of what Spooky Action has in store” (UnProfessional Opinion). theatre

12/31/2024

Your gift to Spooky Action before the end of the year wards off evil spirits. How? Read this message from Artistic Director Elizabeth Dinkova to find out. Today is your last chance to make a tax-deductible contribution to Spooky for 2024! Go to https://www.spookyaction.org/support-us.html

12/30/2024

For the second year in a row, Spooky has been on ‘s list of best theaters for 2024! There’s so much powerful work happening in town, and it’s a special honor to be recognized for our contributions to DC’s theatrical ecosystem. Congratulations to for topping this category, and to fellow honorable mentions and . Don’t miss your chance to support us before the year is out!

12/26/2024

We’re honored to be in ‘s list of production designs of the year with both of our productions! “There’s no telling what I will find whenever I venture into the basement of the Universalist National Memorial Church. Under Elizabeth Dinkova’s leadership of Spooky Action Theater, that basement has become the most dynamically imaginative black box in Washington, DC. Their impressive theatrical worldbuilding reached new experimental heights with the whimsical abandon of Frontières Sans Frontières” (UnProfessional Opinion).

12/25/2024

Happy holidays from our Spooky Action family to yours! To celebrate, just a few weeks ago we transformed our space into an underground cabaret for a performance by a very special guest. Tony-award-winning playwright and composer Stew Stewart is known for his groundbreaking musical “Passing Strange,” his lengthy career as a rock musician, and even stings as a songwriter for Spike Lee and Spongebob Squarepants. Stew was accompanied by Marika Countouris, who will be the music director for “Professor Woland” in the Spring.

12/24/2024

In August, we returned to the Kennedy Center again, this time to show a concert of excerpts from our new rock musical in development, “Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show.” A reviewer attending the Local Theatre Festival praised it as “a rock opera so breathtaking that it’s bound to reap rhapsodies of praise when it opens at Spooky Action Theater in March of 2025” (DC Theatre Arts). September ushered in our home-grown world premiere of “Cracking Zeus,” led again by Mosaic’s Reg Douglas, hailed by local critics as “a theater lover’s high” (DC Theatre Arts).

12/23/2024

In April, we opened the DC premiere of “Frontieres Sans Frontieres,” Phillip Howze’s fantasia on cultural imperialism. This Helen Hayes-recommended show performed at 90% capacity and garnered accolades for being “enchantingly sardonic” and “a brilliant production” (DC Theatre Arts; photo by Ryan Maxwell). In May, we produced the first English-language reading of exiled Russian playwright Mikhail Durnenkov’s noir thriller “Eisenstein,” directed by Yale School of Drama Directing Co-Chair Yuri Kordonsky, followed by a panel on censorship and artistic freedom in oppressive states.

12/22/2024

In February of 2024, we were thrilled to receive a Social Impact Residency at the Kennedy Center to develop a madcap new play, “Cracking Zeus” by Atlanta-based playwright Christopher T. Hampton. Director Reginald L. Douglas and choreographer Tony Thomas led this workshop with some of DC’s most beloved and seasoned actors and Howard acting students, who performed to a packed house at the Reach. In our fall installment, you’ll see how that turned out!

12/20/2024

We ushered in our 20th anniversary season under the theme “the Birth of Myth,” and now the Roman God Janus comes to mind - often depicted with one face looking backward to the past and one looking forward to the future. One year may yield to another, but one thing is certain: the thrill of attending a show at Spooky Action is evergreen. As we close 2024, your tax-deductible gift is essential to ensuring many more seasons of wonder and surprises. You can go to our website or the link in our bio to donate. Over the next few days, we’ll remind you why: we’ll revisit all the Spooky experiences that made 2024 a thrilling theater year.

12/18/2024

Part 2 of recent cast sightings for the extremely versatile ensemble of “Professor Woland”: Camilo Linares in “Laughs in Spanish” at 1st Stage (photo by Teresa Castracane Photography); Jeremy Crawford in “Prayer for the French Republic” at Theater J (photo by Ryan Maxwell Photography); Fran Tapia in “Romeo and Juliet” at the Folger (photo by Erika Nizborski). If you want to see how they’ll transform in “Woland,” grab your tickets now at our website.

Address

1810 16th Street NW
Washington D.C., DC
20009

Opening Hours

Monday

9am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+12022480301

Website

http://www.spookyaction.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Spooky Action Theater posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Spooky Action Theater:

Videos

Get to know CRACKING ZEUS playwright Christopher T. Hampton, a multifaceted artist based in Atlanta, whose work blends a variety of genres and ideas to explore contemporary concerns through a mythic lens. Delve into Christopher’s inspiration and process for this brand new play starting performances Sept 19 under the direction of Reg Douglas of Mosaic Theater. https://www.spookyaction.org/current-show.html