Article Text

Falls Church and nearby communities are heading into a crowded Easter weekend, with an egg hunt, free tree saplings, a mulch giveaway, holiday dining and a wide range of concerts, exhibitions and stage productions.

Easter Sunday falls on April 20, 2025, followed by Earth Day on April 22 and Arbor Day on April 25. Several local celebrations are getting an early start Saturday, April 19.

Three Events Converge on Super Saturday

Falls Church will combine its Arbor Day celebration, annual egg hunt and Mulch Mania giveaway on April 19.

The Arbor Day activities will recognize Falls Church’s designation as a Tree City USA community for the 47th consecutive year. The Village Preservation and Improvement Society will operate a Farmers Market booth from 9 to 11:30 a.m., where visitors can receive free tree saplings while supplies last.

Available species are expected to include swamp chestnut oak, black chokeberry, eastern white pine, redbud, swamp white oak, sweetbay magnolia, wafer ash and white dogwood. Recipients can take their saplings home or participate in a planting at Cherry Hill Park.

A flag raising is scheduled for 11 a.m. outside City Hall. Speakers will include City Arborist Charles Prince, Urban Forestry Commission Chair Amy Crumpton and the Virginia state forester. Forestry specialists will also offer guidance on planting and caring for trees.

Tree planting with the city arborist will follow at Cherry Hill Park from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The Urban Forestry Commission selected the swamp chestnut oak, or Quercus michauxii, as Falls Church’s 2025 Tree of the Year. The commission cited the species’ ability to adapt to urban conditions, its environmental value and its rarity within the city’s urban forest.

Visitors are encouraged to walk or bike to the celebration.

Egg Hunt Brings Games, Music and a Magic Show

The Falls Church Recreation and Parks Department will hold its free egg hunt at Cherry Hill Park, 312 Park Ave.

Arts and crafts, games, face painting and live music begin at 9:15 a.m., followed by the hunt at 10 a.m. Children will be divided into three age groups: newborn through 3, ages 4 through 6, and ages 7 through 11. Participants should bring a basket or bag.

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny will be available for photographs afterward, and Drew Blue Shoes will present a magic show at 10:30 a.m.

If rain forces a postponement, the hunt will move to 4:30 p.m. Monday, April 21, at Cherry Hill Park.

Free Mulch Returns for Spring Projects

Mulch Mania begins April 19 at the Falls Church operations yard, 217 Gordon Road.

Residents, contractors and other members of the public can collect unlimited free mulch while supplies last from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. each Saturday during the spring giveaway. The program supports the city’s goal of recycling all organic waste while supplying material for gardens and landscaping.

More Easter Activities

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, 5400 Ox Road in Fairfax Station, is offering a self-guided Spring Egg Hunt daily through April 30 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Participants receive an activity sheet at the Visitor Center, search the gardens for giant decorated eggs and draw each design they find. Completed sheets can be exchanged for a prize.

The activity costs $8 per egg hunter and includes garden admission. Standard admission of $5 to $8, or a garden membership, applies to accompanying visitors. All ages may participate, and fees are paid at the entrance.

Easter Dining in Falls Church

Godfrey’s Bakery & Cafe is accepting reservations from Good Friday through Easter Sunday. Table-service brunch will be offered from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday with a new brunch menu.

The cafe will also serve breakfast, lunch and dinner from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. A new barbecue chicken pizza will be available beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Five-packs of hot cross buns will be sold in limited quantities for customers who missed advance ordering.

Ireland’s Four Provinces, 105 W. Broad St., will serve an Easter Sunday brunch buffet from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 20.

The menu includes roasted leg of lamb, Virginia ham, roast beef, Irish oak-smoked salmon, omelets, bacon and eggs, waffles, fruit and cream, shepherd’s pie, mashed potatoes, vegetables, seafood pasta, salads and desserts. A build-your-own Bloody Mary bar will also be available. Reservations are requested.

Art Instruction and Exhibitions

Mary Riley Styles Public Library, 120 N. Virginia Ave., will host “Birth Art with Amoula the Doula” from 2 to 3 p.m. April 19 in its Lower Level Conference Room.

The program is open to adults, including people trying to conceive, expectant or current parents and those who have experienced pregnancy loss. Participants will use nonverbal art practices to explore emotions connected to pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period. No previous art or drawing experience is necessary.

The session will be led by Amal Hammoudeh, also known as Amoula the Doula. Hammoudeh is a bilingual Arabic- and English-speaking full-spectrum doula and childbirth educator who has trained with Birthing Advocacy, Birthing from Within and Spinning Babies. Registration is required.

Falls Church Arts will open its juried “Faces & Figures” exhibition with a free meet-the-artists reception from 7 to 9 p.m. April 19. The Juror’s Choice Award will be announced that evening.

Running through June 1, the exhibition explores the human form through photography, drawing, sculpture and folk, naïve and primitive styles.

Juror Teresa Oaxaca is a Washington-based painter whose work has appeared in American and international galleries and collections. Her training includes the Angel Academy of Art and Florence Academy in Italy, an apprenticeship with Odd Nerdrum in Norway and study at The Art League in Alexandria.

The exhibition is at the Falls Church Arts gallery, 700-B W. Broad St. Admission is free. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Works will be offered for sale both at the gallery and online.

Other visual-art exhibitions around the region include:

• “City Stories,” featuring Steven John Fuchs, remains at Fred Schnider Gallery, 888 N. Quincy St., Suite 102, in Arlington through April 26. A closing event with Fuchs is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. that day.

• Joshua Challen Ice’s “Something to Do With My Hands” runs through May 25 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, 3550 Wilson Blvd. The kinetic and light-based installation resembles an abandoned, surreal construction site where someone appears to have been building a chair. Plans, tools and three workspace frames invite consideration of labor, maintenance, care and the boundary between fine art and practical craftsmanship. The gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

• “Spring Solos” continues through June 14 at McLean Project for the Arts, 1234 Ingleside Ave. An opening reception is set for 7 to 9 p.m. April 17, followed by an artist talk at 11 a.m. May 10 and a Tea & Talk at 11 a.m. June 4.

The McLean exhibition features Jackie Hoysted, Emon Surakitkoson and Heidi Fowler. Fowler’s “Detrimorphose” uses discarded materials—including junk mail, plastic and old computer components—to examine brokenness, redemption and waste. Hoysted’s interactive “Rudimental” combines geometric imagery and meditative sound to evoke humanity’s connection with nature and the universe. Surakitkoson’s “Crossing Culture” uses joined canvases, wood panels and sculpture to explore collective identity and her experience as a Thai immigrant in the United States.

• “A Life in Art: The Work of Sandra C. Dovberg” is on display through April 28 at Reston Art Gallery, 11400 Washington Plaza West. A meet-the-artist event is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. April 27.

• “Matriculture,” the 2025 Mary B. Howard Invitational, runs through May 18 at Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art, 12001 Market St., Suite 103, in Reston. Guest curator Liz Ensz brings together work by Devin Harclerode and Nadia Nazar examining craft, motherhood, reproductive labor, nurturing and resistance. Harclerode works with handmade silk and SCOBY curtains, while Nazar uses braided steel sculpture, drawing and animation to consider ties to her mother, grandmothers and motherland. The exhibition coincides with the Reston Town Center Earth Day celebration April 26.

• Marie B. Gauthiez’s “We Dwell in Between” continues through June 29 at Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art, 11805 Freedom Drive in Reston. Gauthiez treats the house as a metaphor for the subconscious, using relief paintings, mixed-media drawings, grid paintings, brick-sized fragments and an immersive plaster wall installation to explore memory, wear and accumulated layers of time.

• Pamela Huffman’s solo exhibition, “In the Absence of Nurture… Nature,” remains at Rare Bird Coffee Roasters in downtown Falls Church through June 15.

• “A Brighter Light,” an Arlington Artists Alliance member-juried show, continues through May 4 at Alliance Gallery, 2700 Clarendon Blvd., Suite R 330. The exhibition uses color, texture, light and shadow to examine hope, clarity, resilience and renewal.

Puppetry and Live Music

Applause Unlimited will perform “The Magic of Hans Christian Andersen” at Glen Echo Park, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., April 17-20 and April 24-27.

The approximately hourlong show combines storytelling, songs and more than 20 hand puppets, rod puppets and marionettes. It features “The Ugly Duckling,” “Thumbelina” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and is recommended for ages 4 and older.

Performances begin at 10:30 a.m. Thursdays and Fridays and at 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

The NOVA Symphony Orchestra will present “Colors of Spring” at 8 p.m. April 19 at Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall, 4915 E. Campus Drive in Alexandria. The all-ages program features music by Brahms, Koussevitzky and Ellington, with a reception after the performance.

Everyone Asked About You will perform at 6:30 p.m. April 17 at The Atlantis, 2047 Ninth St. NW in Washington.

The group emerged from Little Rock’s 1990s DIY punk and emo scene. Collins Kilgore, Chris Sheppard and Lee Buford began playing together in 1996, later adding vocalist Hannah Vogan. Matt Bradley joined on bass in 1998, and John Beachboard added synthesizer and keyboard the following year. The six-member lineup produced the 1999 album “Let’s Be Enemies” and its accompanying tour. In 2022, the band’s rare catalog was remastered and reissued digitally and physically.

Theater Across the Region

“In the Heights,” the Tony Award-winning musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes, runs through May 4 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave. in Arlington.

Set in New York’s Washington Heights, the musical follows residents confronting gentrification, personal ambitions and the possibility that someone in their community holds a life-changing lottery ticket. Latin music and hip-hop shape a story centered on home, hope, loss and love.

The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s production of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” continues through April 19 at 600 Wolfe St. Joey Pierce directs the comedy, which relocates the sparring romance of Beatrice and Benedick to modern-day New Orleans.

Performances begin at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. The production runs about two hours with an intermission. Reserved tickets are $26, and every attendee must have a ticket.

“Annie” plays through April 20 at the National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW in Washington. Directed by Jenn Thompson, the production features the musical’s original book and score by Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin. It runs approximately two hours and 30 minutes, including an intermission. Children younger than 4 will not be admitted.

Sharyn Rothstein’s “Bad Books” continues through April 27 at Round House Theatre, 4545 East-West Highway in Bethesda.

The play begins when the mother of a troubled teenager confronts a librarian over a controversial book. Their conversation escalates into a dispute with unforeseen consequences, examining political division, parental concern and assumptions about other people. Ryan Rilette directs Kate Eastwood Norris and Holly Twyford in the in-the-round production, part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere.

Audrey Cefaly’s “The Gulf” runs through April 19 at Nova Nightsky Theatre, 225 E. Broad St. in Falls Church.

Directed by Elyse R. Smith, the drama stars Hannah Ruth Blackwell as Kendra and Sarah Baczewski as Betty. During a fishing trip in the Alabama Delta, Betty’s criticism of Kendra’s stalled life turns a familiar outing into conflict. The play won the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Drama.

Synetic Theater and Theater J are presenting “The Immigrant” through April 27 at 1529 16th St. NW in Washington.

Directed by Paata Tsikurishvili, the production adapts Charlie Chaplin’s 1917 silent comedy into an account of immigration and the American Dream, following a journey through arrival, love, family, achievement, failure and redemption. The performance includes flashing lights, haze and Nazi imagery, including portrayals of Nazi soldiers.

“The Arlington Players” will stage “Legally Blonde: The Musical” at Thomas Jefferson Community Theatre, 125 S. Old Glebe Road in Arlington. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. April 18 and 19 and 3:30 p.m. April 20.

Directed by Sabrina McAllister, the musical follows Elle Woods after her boyfriend leaves her for Harvard Law School. Her effort to win him back takes her to Harvard, where challenges involving classmates, professors and her former boyfriend eventually push her to recognize her own abilities. The show features music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin and a book by Heather Hach, based on Amanda Brown’s novel and the film.