Troupe

You don't get much more multicultural than a Chicano/Latino theater troupe portraying blacks, Cubans, Jews, Haitians and Anglos in a show about Miami.But politically correct as that might sound, the three men who make up this particular troupe, Culture Clash, pride themselves on their incorrectness. And indeed, there's probably something to offend just about everybody in "Radio Mambo," which is receiving a lively Washington premiere at Arena Stage.There are also, however, elements just about everybody will identify with or at least recognize, and that's one of the strengths of this 90-minute show, which tackles subjects ranging from the immigrant experience to racism and ecology.

The dialogue between the teen-agers is intimate and intense."I was wondering, have you ever had sex before?" "Yeah, once or twice." "I'm not sure I'm really ready to have sex."But the conversation is not being conducted in private. It's before a group of about 30 other youths.The occasion is an appearance by Mixed Nutz, a Baltimore-based youth theater troupe that takes on subjects ranging from AIDS to schoolwork with a free-form, rapid-fire mixture of improvisation, pantomime and audience participation.

GLEN ECHO - Courtney, 67, a widowed mother of six, is already well in her cups when she barges into the annual family reunion and demands a scotch. She carps on her nephew and harangues her youngest daughter. Within minutes, she discovers this year, five of her children have refused to come.The ingrates, she seethes. All the more reason for another drink. "You've had enough," her sister Margaret tries to soothe her."My kids have left me, my husband's dead and I've had a 15-year ongoing headache from all the rest," Courtney snaps.

David Covington thought he'd be deep into his first semester at American University by now, maybe studying for a midterm in the acting class he had signed up for.Instead, the 17-year-old Annapolis native is learning about theater first-hand as part of the national touring company Tap Dogs, an award-winning dance troupe that bills itself as "an irreverent industrial revolution of tap."He will dance tonight at the Morris A. Mechanic Theater in Baltimore on the opening of the troupe's four-night stand.

The odds that Pasadena Theatre Company will lease the old Pasadena Elementary School as a permanent home are "decent," a county school official has confirmed."

Community theater -- the grown-up version of "Hey, I know! Let's put on a show!" -- comes and goes in some places, or thrives from the start in some and nearly dies but survives in others.Actors, directors, set designers and ticket sellers all have day jobs, but they say they have fun and find an extended family in theater groups."There is a human need to perform, to tell the truth," said Ira Domser, associate professor of theater arts at Western Maryland College and director of WMC's Theatre on the Hill.

Imagine, the Pasadena Theatre Company performing in Pasadena.The 200-member theater group, which stages its shows at Baldwin Hall in Millersville, is looking for a home of its own. The old Pasadena Elementary School might fill the bill."

Shakespeare on Wheels is going up on blocks for the summer while the 10-year-old troupe tries to tune its financial engine.The University of Maryland Baltimore County has announced its roving players will not be taking the Bard to dozens of outdoor sites across Maryland this year. Instead, the troupe will be on hiatus to pursue funding for operation next year and into the future."It was an extremely difficult decision . . . but I try to look at it in an optimistic way," said William T. Brown, former chair of the UMBC Theatre Department and founder and producer of Shakespeare on Wheels.

Modern dancer Tara McNeeley, a 16-year-old Howard High school student, is packing something unusual for her dance troupe's next out-of-town tour -- a pocket French dictionary."

The Just Say No troupe from Liberty High School dramatizes the negative but stresses the positive in its skits for elementary schoolchildren.The 10-member group takes its message on the road to county schools and allows the members of its young audiences to rewrite the endings to its original dramas.During hour-long presentations at Freedom, Runnymede and Sandymount schools last week, the students acted out scenes dealing with peer pressure, substance abuse, cheating on tests, shoplifting, vandalism and other conflicts that the younger children might encounter in their growing years.

Something might be rotten in the state of Denmark, but the future is looking brighter for Baltimore Shakespeare Festival. The festival, which has a new artistic director, a revamped mission and - in its current production of Wittenberg, a modern day "prequel" to H amlet - one of the strongest shows the troupe has mounted in years. For much of the year, the troupe has taken a performing hiatus, while it tended to administrative matters, such as hiring Michael Carleton as the artistic director to replace the departing James Kinstle.

Those attending the debut of Baltimore's newest theater troupe will find a sign in the lobby reading: "Depending on how things are going, this performance might or might not contain a brief intermission." Welcome to the weird and wacky world of 9 Imaginary Cows Theater Collective. These four current and former members of the Towson University graduate theater program revel in unpredictability and make an art form of keeping the audience off-balance. "A couple of years ago, I attended a performance at Arena Stage during which the lead actress developed a nosebleed while on stage," says Tom Shade, a playwright and founding member of the troupe.

In an effort to stem a projected $300,000 budget shortfall, Center Stage will eliminate two jobs and the troupe's two top administrators will work for four weeks without pay - the latest of several local arts organizations pinched by the economic downturn. In addition, four department heads will take two weeks of unpaid leave before the fiscal year ends June 30. "Our revenues have been soft for the last several months," Debbie Chinn, Center Stage's managing director, said Tuesday. "We have gone through our budget line by line, and trimmed costs every single place we could find."

The Naval Academy's Masqueraders troupe is celebrating an unbroken 100-year history of presenting annual theater productions with performances of a fitting and timely play written by a 1966 graduate of nearby St. John's College. Our Country's Good, written in 1988 by award-winning playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, is about British military officers' attempts to rehabilitate convicts by casting them in a production of a historical play, The Recruiting Officer. Set in Sydney, Australia, in the late 1700s, this fact-based play recounts difficulties encountered by 2nd Lt. Ralph Clark in getting prisoners to work together for five months of rehearsals.

Chest heaving and voice thundering, Daphne Reid, 11, faced Dani Bryant, 11, and skewered her for stealing her man. Thief of love. Canker-blossom. Painted maypole. Her voice rose with each word volley. Suddenly, she paused, mid-diatribe. Another voice quietly supplied, "I am not yet so low ... " Taking her cue, Daphne went on, "I am not yet so low but that my nails can reach unto thine eyes." Then she lunged across the wooden outdoor stage, her long purple dress no impediment to her rage.

Scrutinize your salad. Peruse the parsnips. Better yet, concentrate on the carrots. Do you see one - and only one - vertical orange veggie brandishing a playbill and a miniature AK-47? Baltimore's newest theater troupe takes its name from a quote by the painter Paul Cezanne: "The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution." Single Carrot Theatre's opening salvo will be fired tonight at the company's official debut at Theatre Project, when Single Carrot opens a two-week, 11-performance run of Adam Rapp's Red Light Winter.

Taunting Frenchmen and a killer rabbit are at the gates of Baltimore. The touring company of Monty Python's Spamalot begins its 16-show run tonight at the Hippodrome Theatre. Spamalot, which opened on Broadway two years ago, is "lovingly ripped off" from the British comedy troupe's 1975 movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail - with other brave and strong bits thrown in. Spamalot runs today through March 18, times vary, Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center. Tickets, $30-$75, at BroadwayAcrossAmerica.

Kim Kutchins could not take her eyes off her son. She was listening to music and noticed Jack, 6, dancing along. "I thought, `You would be really good at either Irish step dance ... or the polka,'" said Kutchins, of Ellicott City. Now 8, Jack is a two-year veteran of the Polka Kids, a children's dance troupe. Although Jack participates in several sports, polka is his favorite activity. "It's a dying art," said Kutchins. "A lot of people don't even know what it is, and it's a really fun activity."

All the white dancers gathered on the right side of the stage, all the black dancers on the left. Troupe member Theresa DeAngelo recalls the stricken silence that fell over the Full Circle Dance Company when choreographer Travis Gatling separated the dancers by race during the first rehearsal of the piece called "Across the Lines." Borders Uncrossed will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Art Museum Drive at North Charles and 31st streets. $15. 410-235-9003.

One of the nation's major ballet troupes will be bringing its lavish Nutcracker to Baltimore three times in the next five years, beginning this week. Granted, the beloved Christmas classic with the score by Tchaikovsky isn't the ideal vehicle in which to see the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre at its athletic, lyrical best - or, for that matter, any other troupe. The Nutcracker is all about glitz and spectacle, with comparatively little actual dancing, especially in the first act. If you go The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre presents The Nutcracker at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, 12 N. Eutaw St., at 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Friday; and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday.