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Pride celebrations, outdoor movies, major concerts, new theater productions and closing-weekend exhibitions will fill the Washington region from Thursday, May 29, through Sunday, June 1. Several longer-running events also continue into June and beyond.
Pride celebrations
Mary Riley Styles Public Library will open Pride Month with a free drop-in program Sunday, June 1, from 10 a.m. to noon. Adults and teens in grades six through 12 can build with Legos, color, assemble rainbow puzzles, listen to music, browse Pride-themed books and learn about Pride Month’s history. The event takes place in the Upper Level Conference Room at 120 N. Virginia Ave. Registration is not required.
WorldPride 2025 continues across Washington through June 8, marking 50 years of Pride celebrations in the nation’s capital. This year’s theme, “The Fabric of Freedom,” draws on fabric as a symbol of identity, expression and resistance while highlighting the LGBTQ+ community’s calls for equality, visibility and justice.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery will hold a Pride Family Festival Saturday, May 31, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 800 G St. NW. The program includes crafts, gallery activities, LGBTQ+ artist coloring sheets, a scavenger hunt and biography-based story time.
Les The DJ opens the entertainment at 11:30 a.m., followed by DC’s Different Drummers at 11:45, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington youth ensemble GenOUT at 12:30 p.m., story time at 1, another DJ set at 1:30 and GRIDLOCK Dance at 2. A movement workshop begins at 2:20, DC’s Different Drummers return at 2:30 and the festival ends at 3.
Movies and music
The Wharf begins its Sunset Cinema season Thursday, May 29, with a free sing-along screening of “Wicked” at 7:30 p.m. Movies are shown at Transit Pier, 970 Wharf St. SW, every Thursday through Aug. 28.
A limited number of Adirondack chairs become available at 7 p.m., and guests may bring blankets or folding chairs. All ages and leashed dogs are welcome. Food purchased from Wharf restaurants may be brought to the screening, but outside drinks are prohibited. Alcohol is restricted to guests 21 and older. Weather updates will be posted through the event’s Facebook page.
The Avett Brothers return to Wolf Trap’s Filene Center Friday, May 30, with Heartless Bastards opening the show. Gates at 1551 Trap Road in Vienna open at 6 p.m., and the concert starts at 7:30. Tickets begin at $61, including fees.
The Arlington Chorale will present “Envision” at 5 p.m. Saturday, May 31, at Westover Baptist Church, 1125 Patrick Henry Drive. The concert combines works by J.S. Bach with Reena Esmail’s “This Love Between Us,” bringing sitar and tabla soloists together with the Chorale and a professional chamber orchestra.
The Fairfax Symphony Orchestra will celebrate Maestro Christopher Zimmerman’s 15th anniversary with a concert at 8 p.m. Saturday at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts, 4373 Mason Pond Drive.
The program revisits music associated with Zimmerman’s 2009 debut as music director, including Elgar’s “Introduction and Allegro for Strings” and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. It also features the East Coast premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff’s “Concertante for Two Violins and Orchestra,” performed by Chee-Yun and Zimmerman’s son, Kit Zimmerman.
A pre-performance discussion with the Zimmermans and Chee-Yun begins at 7 p.m. The concert runs approximately two hours with an intermission. Tickets cost $40, $55 or $65, with $20 student tickets available before fees.
At the Library of Congress, contemporary ensemble loadbang will perform with violinist Christopher Otto and pianist Ning Yu from 8 to 10 p.m. Friday. The free, ticketed concert takes place in the Thomas Jefferson Building’s Coolidge Auditorium, with an artist conversation at 6:30 p.m. in the Whittall Pavilion.
Loadbang’s Adrian Sandi, Andy Kozar, Ty Bouque and William Lang will perform newly commissioned music by Hilda Paredes and Michael Finnissy. Finnissy’s piece draws on Walt Whitman materials held by the Library. Otto and Yu will also premiere a new work for violin and piano. ADA accommodations may be requested five business days ahead at 202-707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.
A crowded theater calendar
Creative Cauldron’s dual-language production of Disney’s “Aladdin” runs May 29 through June 15 at 127 E. Broad St. The English-and-Spanish adaptation imagines an Agrabah divided by language, with Jafar controlling translation until Jazmin and Aladdin challenge the barrier. Matt Conner directs, with music direction by Bharati Soman and choreography by Stefan Sittig.
Encore Stage & Studio presents “The Wizard of Oz” from May 30 through June 8 at Thomas Jefferson Community Theatre, 125 S. Old Glebe Road in Arlington. Recommended for ages 4 and older, the production follows Dorothy’s journey from Kansas to the Emerald City. Optional preshow events include a rainbow scavenger hunt at 2 p.m. May 31 and Dorothy’s Dance Party at 2 p.m. June 7.
Mosaic Theater’s “Andy Warhol in Iran” runs May 29 through June 29 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Set in 1976, Brent Askari’s play imagines Warhol being taken hostage by a university student while visiting Tehran to create portraits of Iran’s royal family. Serge Seiden directs. Opening-week performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.
“Kimberly Akimbo” enters its final weekend at the National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The five-time Tony Award winner, including Best Musical, has performances Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.
Signature Theatre’s “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” continues through June 22 at 4200 Campbell Ave. in Arlington. Directed by Ethan Heard, the intimate rock musical follows Hedwig’s journey from Communist East Germany to the United States and her pursuit of the former lover who took her songs. The production contains adult language and descriptions of trauma.
The Keegan Theatre stages “Falsettos” through June 15 at 1742 Church St. NW. William Finn and James Lapine’s Tony-winning musical follows Marvin, his former wife Trina, their son Jason and Marvin’s lover Whizzer through upheaval involving family, relationships, baseball, bar mitzvahs and AIDS. Kurt Boehm directs and choreographs.
Constellation Theatre Company’s “Head Over Heels” reaches its final weekend at Source, 1835 14th St. NW, closing June 1. Built around songs by the Go-Go’s, the jukebox musical blends Renaissance romance, Greek comedy, fantasy, queer identity and gender-bending humor. Allison Arkell Stockman directs.
Also closing June 1 is Woolly Mammoth Theatre’s world premiere of “Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt (with live & active cultures!),” at 641 D St. NW. Julia Izumi’s play uses an imagined Kurosawa lecture—and his persistent discussion of yogurt—to explore media, memory, cultural imperialism, consumption and artistic creation. Aileen Wen McGroddy directs.
“Twelfth Night” continues through June 22 at the Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 E. Capitol St. SE. Mei Ann Teo directs Shakespeare’s comedy of shipwrecked twins, disguises and tangled romance. Weekend performances run Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8, Saturday at 2 and 8, and Sunday at 2 and 7:30.
Tickets range from $20 to $84. The production lasts two hours and 15 minutes, including intermission, and contains sexual innuendo, stylized intimacy, adult language, simulated alcohol and tobacco use, haze and strobe effects.
The world-premiere musical “Senior Class” runs through June 22 at Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road in Olney. When school arts cuts make “My Fair Lady” unaffordable, two Broadway-obsessed students create their own “Pygmalion” adaptation. Their improvised company soon encounters the same class and gender divisions found in the original story. Amy Anders Corcoran directs the approximately two-hour-and-15-minute production. Tickets range from $41 to $101.
Arena Stage presents Tarell Alvin McCraney’s new queer love story “We Are Gathered” through June 25 at 1101 Sixth St. SW. The play follows W. Tre and Free as a milestone anniversary forces them to confront their relationship, their fears and a secret that could divide them. During selected performances, couples can exchange marriage vows onstage through the “Love Takes Center Stage” experience.
Shakespeare Theatre Company’s “Frankenstein,” adapted and directed by Emily Burns from Mary Shelley’s novel, has been extended through June 29 at the Klein Theatre, 450 Seventh St. NW. The production centers the inner lives of Victor and Elizabeth Frankenstein while examining creation and the capacity for human cruelty. Runtime is approximately two hours and 20 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.
Games, books and cats
Adults can explore modern tabletop games at Mary Riley Styles Public Library from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Experienced players will teach the games, and newcomers are welcome. The free monthly gathering is presented with the Northern Virginia Board Game Group. No registration is required, but admission is first-come, first-served until the Lower Level Conference Room reaches capacity.
Old Town Books begins a summer Jane Austen reading series with a “Pride & Prejudice” tea party from 4 to 5 p.m. Sunday at 130 S. Royal St. in Alexandria. Later discussions will cover “Emma” on July 6 and “Persuasion” on Aug. 3 as part of a celebration of Austen’s 250th birthday. Each session costs $10 and includes tea and refreshments.
Meow Maison at 1336 Wisconsin Ave. NW will offer yoga with adoptable cats from 10 to 11 a.m. Sunday. The Georgetown cat café’s gentle session is open to all experience levels, and participants should bring their own mats.
Visual art around the region
“Legendary: An Exhibition of Women Artists” remains on view through Aug. 30 at the Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center, 3740 Blenheim Blvd. in Fairfax. Featuring women artists from across the Washington area, the exhibition responds to disparities in gallery representation and earnings. A women’s workshop roundtable is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon June 21.
Rosemarie Forsythe’s retrospective “Illuminations” runs May 31 through June 29 at Reston Arts Gallery, 11400 Washington Plaza W., Suite B. Forsythe’s manuscript-inspired paintings incorporate scientific equations, algorithms, symbols, ornament and puzzles. Her subjects include female scientists, influential equations, medicinal plants and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Before becoming a full-time artist, Forsythe worked as a U.S. diplomat, policymaker and international business executive, living in seven countries and visiting more than 60. Her work has been displayed through the State Department’s Art in Embassies program in Jordan, Bolivia and Austria, as well as at NATO’s Brussels office.
Mixed-media artist Claudia Aziza Gibson-Hunter will join a virtual Art Clinic Online discussion from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The Philadelphia-born, Howard University-trained artist works across painting, printmaking, collage, papermaking and assemblage, exploring identity, memory, agency and spiritual consciousness. Her work is held by institutions including the Library of Congress, National Institutes of Health and Washington’s Art Bank.
ArtRave’s Dupont artisan market returns from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at 1913 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Local vendors will offer paintings, sculpture, carved objects, jewelry, baked goods, fashion, home décor and other handmade products. The market is scheduled to continue every other Saturday and is accepting vendors for its expanded Christmas series.
The National Gallery of Art’s free exhibition “Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World” continues through Nov. 2 in West Building Gallery 23. Nearly 75 paintings, prints and drawings appear alongside specimens and taxidermy from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
The exhibition considers how 16th- and 17th-century artists including Joris Hoefnagel and Jan van Kessel helped spread knowledge of insects and other animals during the emergence of European natural history. It also includes a new film by Dario Robleto.
“Faces & Figures” closes Sunday at the Falls Church Arts gallery, 700-B W. Broad St. The juried exhibition brings together folk, naïve and primitive art with photography, figure drawing and sculpture focused on the human form. Washington-based painter Teresa Oaxaca served as juror.
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. The exhibited works are also available for purchase.
Nearby arts offerings include Asia Anderson’s work connected to the Marian Costner Selby Peace Garden at Meridian High School, Pamela Huffman’s “In the Absence of Nurture… Nature” at Rare Bird Coffee Roasters through June 15 and courses at Artworks Fine Art Studios on West Broad Street.