Babs Gillespie is a product; she's a product that sells product at the ShopMore Network, which should give you an idea of the kinds of things she has to sell. As the lights come up, we join Babs just as she begins the last segment of her shift. She's hawking a gold-plated angel pin, and it quickly becomes evident that Babs is not working with a script. She talks about the quality of the pin, how much it costs, she asks for a close up of the item; all the while you hear each sale being tabulated as the calls come in, business is sporadic. more ›

There isn't an actual character named Madeline in Elizabeth Meriwether's The Mistakes Madeline Made (at Washington Ensemble Theatre through March 16; tickets $10-$18), but one can assume Edna (Elise Hunt), the young protagonist with a penchant for screwing writers and not taking showers, is the one making the mistakes. Michael Place directs this quirky comedy about reconciling one's past and eventually becoming clean. more ›