The Silver Spring Penguin

As a New York Mets fan, I hope for good weather this weekend. If you’re a Nats fan, pray for rain. Here’s what else is going on this weekend:

Friday. Gretchen Dunn performs the modern dance piece “placeDISplace” at Space 7:10, Kefa Cafe’s gallery space (963 Bonifant St). Nosh at 6:30 p.m., then take in the performance at about 7:10 p.m.

Friday. Montgomery College’s Jefferson Cafe hosts a discussion on the good and bad of Silver Spring’s “urban renaissance.” The talk goes down at Gateway’s Heliport gallery (8001 Kennett St) starting at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday. The Arts Alley at Blair Mill (next to 8030 Georgia Ave) hosts the Mojo@SoPo spring festival. There’s entertainment for the kiddies, plus music and an artists’ market for adults. The free event goes from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., rain or shine.

Saturday. The group Save Our Seminary gives a tour of the National Park Seminary historic district. The 90-minute walk starts off Linden Lane at 1:00 p.m. (Click here for directions, or phone 301-589-1715 in case of questionable weather.) Toss your tour guide a $5 donation and wear comfortable shoes.

Play ball!

Here are a few tips to surviving Leslie Kobylinksi’s new one-man play on director Elia Kazan.

First, read Kazan’s biography in the program. Get a grip on how he studied method acting with Lee Strasberg, dallied in communism, abandoned it to become an Oscar-winning director, and then sang like a bird in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

This information is vital to following playwright Kobylinski’s lyrical yet lifeless script. The monologue swirls Kazan’s life like cotton candy around a paper cone, but in the end, it’s all fluff.

It makes no attempt to explain Kazan’s motives for anything, like why he joined the Communist party, left it, and then defended it in front of Congress, only to submit to his inquisitors later on.

Kobylinski assumes that it’s enough for the audience to know that these things happened without context. What results is a drawn-out linear narrative, a long walk for a short drink.

Next survival tip: Arrive sober. Chemical substances only prolong the agony of having to watch actor Rick Foucheux’s monotonous performance.

It’s true that Foucheux (above) is burdened with a weak script, but he shows off handicaps that are distinctly his own. Foucheux’s emotional range swings from angry drunk to tearful drunk. His face expresses two states: maudlin and constipated.

He shrinks into a heavy wooden chair (the only furniture on the set), swallowed by a suit jacket too big for his shoulders. Whether this is intentional metaphor or just bad design isn’t clear.

Foucheux also could use some help with dialects. His portrayal of Kazan’s Greek parents takes its cue from the Kwik-E-Mart’s Apu (of “Simpsons” fame), and his effeminate Tennessee Williams drawl is equally cartoonish.

The final survival tip: Don’t bother. At $25 per seat, the money’s better spent on a movie, extra-large popcorn and Junior Mints at the Majestic.

“The Director: The Third Act of Elia Kazan”

Starring Rick Foucheux (Elia Kazan). Written and directed by Leslie Kobylinski. Performances run weekends through May 13, 2007, at the Round House Theatre (8641 Colesville Rd).

Photo by Danisha Crosby for the Round House Theatre.

Updated Apr 26, 2007, at 9:30 p.m.

It’s doubtful that 20-year-old Nubia Dickerson (above) would remember the spandex shorts, flat-top fades and Dwayne Wayne sunglasses of old-school go-go. But the JFK High alum has a good time resurrecting those rump-shaking beats and infusing them with serious soul.

In “I Feel the Beat,” Dickerson channels EU and Digital Underground, and tears it up with chops on scale with Christina Aguilera. The track’s “Grown and Saxy” remix is seasoned with a pinch of Ethiopian jazz, perhaps as a nod to part of Dickerson’s heritage. (Her mother, who works for World Space satellite radio on Georgia Avenue, is originally from Ethiopia. Her father is African American.)

Dickerson’s album, “Let Me Introduce Myself,” drops this June. However, the William and Mary sophomore says school — and evidently, self-preservation — are her priorities.

“My family would kick my behind if I didn’t finish school,” she said in an interview with the college’s newspaper.

Hear a sample of “I Feel the Beat” and learn more about Nubia Dickerson from her CD Baby website.