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When medical resident James (Namir Smallwood) is assigned an acting class to improve his bedside manner, he bristles at the idea, describing it as “dishonest.” The teacher (David Cromer) gently pushes back. “Don’t your patients lie sometimes?” he asks. “They might,” James replies. “Their bodies usually don’t.”

The irony is that James will spend the bulk of Rounding obsessed with the idea that one specific body might be, if not lying, at least telling less than a complete truth — all while his own body betrays the fictions he tells himself, namely that he’s totally fine and in control. Those tensions make for a tense, occasionally terrifying thriller that’s hard to look away from, though what it’s ultimately trying to accomplish with all that energy isn’t always so clear.

Rounding opens with what will turn out to be...

Namir Smallwood and Sidney Flanigan will star in “Rounding,” a new dramatic thriller from “Saint Frances” director Alex Thompson. “Rounding” follows a driven young medical resident (Smallwood) who transfers to a rural hospital for a fresh start. There, the demons of his past start to catch up to him when he becomes consumed by the case of a young asthma patient (Flanigan). The film was shot in secret in Chicago and just wrapped production.

Smallwood is an ensemble member at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He has also appeared in the television shows “Rust” and “Chicago Fire.” This is his feature film debut. Flanigan had critics raving with her work in “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” a drama about a young woman’s efforts to obtain an abortion. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit nomination for best female lead and won prizes from the Boston Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle.

The early 1990’s was a landmark time in the world of American cinema, particularly the independent scene. With names like Tarantino, Linklater and various others finding a foothold with groundbreaking film achievements at the early part of the decade, the first years of the ‘90s would go on to launch the careers of some of today’s most beloved and critically lauded auteurs. However, some of the greatest films from this time period came from visions that were not only completely singular, but also filmmakers who would rarely get another crack at the type of filmmaking that launched their careers.

One of those filmmakers was Julie Dash. Now working primarily in the world of TV and short filmmaking (although she does have a new documentary entitled Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl in some stage of production), Dash launched onto the scene with a film entitled Daughters of the Dust.

For a 25-year-old period drama about a multigenerational African-American family concerned with preserving its past while heading into an unknown future, Daughters of the Dust couldn’t be timelier — and the 1991 movie may finally be having its moment. Chronicling the Peazants, who in 1902 are departing their beloved Dawtuh Island off the East Coast to venture to the U.S. mainland, this poetic, poignant indie has long been overlooked — a movie more rhapsodized about than actually seen. That changes when Daughters returns to theaters on Novemember 18th in a gorgeous restoration,...

Arena Stage and Georgetown University's Theatre and Performance Studies Program will present a special presentation of Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith, a performance honoring the life and work of life and work of Studs Terkel, on December 7, 2009 at Georgetown University's Gaston Hall.

Adapted from Studs Terkel's own writings by Artistic Director of Davis Performing Arts Center and Georgetown Associate Professor Derek Goldman, this production is a poignant evening of song, story and celebration that the Chicago Sun-Times hailed as "unforgettable."

This production will feature Theodore Bikel (Academy Award nominee for The Defiant Ones), Cheryl Lynn Bruce (Helen Hayes Award for From the Mississippi Delta at Arena Stage), Kathleen Chalfant (Tony Award Nominee for Angels in America: Millennium Approaches), Rick Foucheux (Helen Hayes Award for Edmond at Source Theatre Company), Keith Randolph Smith (Broadway's Come Back, Little Sheba) and David Strathairn (Academy Award...