Shakespeare Plays

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st- through 4th-level characters. It's time to explore! With the Society coming off of their recent victory in finally defeating an old enemy, they choose to turn to refocus on the goals of the Pathfinder Society: Explore! Report! Cooperate! As a celebration for such a successful year, there's a party being hosted with all sorts of friends both new and old in attendance. However, when one of Fola Barun's dear friends needs to be entertained in order to prepare a surprise, it's up to the Pathfinders to show him around the famous Maze of the Open Road. When he starts to encourage exploration, new doors appear and new adventures await! *Intro: Year of Unfettered Exploration* is the introduction to the plot of the Year of Unfettered Exploration. This scenario presents characters and themes that will feature in Year 5's metaplot, and so it is is a natural starting point for players looking to jump into the action. Written by Sen H.H.S. **Scenario tags**: Metaplot (Unfettered Exploration), Faction (Envoy's Alliance), Repeatable

# Happy Birthday, You’re Dead Written and Directed by Terry Smith Produced by Jerri Wiseman ***You are invited to a surprise birthday party for Candy Crush, a D-list actor. She’s the hottest ticket in town. But her birthday party isn’t the only surprise she will get tonight! Someone’s about to be murdered. Only you can prevent this from happening before it’s game over. To miss this would be a crime.*** February 14 at Casanel Winery in Leesburg (with dinner) Casanel Winery, 17956 Canby Road, Leesburg, VA 20175 6:30pm Doors open and dinner buffet starts. 7:15pm Show starts. There will be a 15-20-minute intermission. Tickets: $77 plus ticketing fee and sales tax / $72 for Wine Club members plus ticketing fee and sales tax (see Casanel Winery for promo code) includes the show, catered dinner and dessert by Pure Perfection Catering. Menu: Baby Greens Salad with Truffle Croutons, Dried Tart Cherries, and Confit Tomatoes with Pesto Vinaigrette Dressing. Baked Salmon with Saffron Sauce. Herb Seared Chicken with Mushroom Sauce. Roasted Mixed Vegetables. Scalloped Potatoes. Rolls with Butter. Chocolate Cheesecake. Unsweetened Iced Tea. Coffee. Special meals can be accommodated with 48 hours’ notice. Wine will be available for separate purchase. ### [Buy tickets for Casanel Winery. ](https://www.stagecoachtc.com/happy-birthday-youre-dead/) You must buy a ticket to attend. An RSVP here will not save you a seat.

Come meet other 20s and 30s and play board games at The Spot Asian Food Hall in Rockville Town Center. We'll play from 1-3 pm but could go later if folks are interested. Bring games you'd like to play if you've got them. Since The Spot has limited seating, please keep your RSVP up to date.

[Profs and Pints Northern Virginia](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“Love and Monsters,”** on the inescapable bond between romance and horror, with Joshua Barton, scholar of horror and lecturer in English at Virginia Commonwealth University. [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nv-love-monsters](https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nv-love-monsters) .] Romance and horror might seem like opposite genres, but they share a deep emotional core, and the combination of them has captivated audiences across time and culture. Put even your worst Valentine’s Day in perspective by hearing this strange relationship discussed by Joshua Barton, who has earned a big following among Profs and Pints fans with his past talks on cryptids, American horror, and Christmas ghosts. He’ll explore the undeniable and unsettling intersection of romance and horror and examine how and why love and fear intensify each other and combined to create tension, drive narratives, and explore human vulnerability. We’ll look at works that have blended passion and terror, including Gothic literature like the vampire novella *Carmilla* and modern films like *Spring* and *Crimson Peak*. We’ll study the fine line between obsession and adoration running through Stephen King’s “I Know What You Need,” Adrian Lyne’s *Fatal Attraction*, and the timeless *The Phantom of the Opera.* We’ll discuss the seeds of monstrous love that were planted with *Beauty and the Beast* and *Creature from the Black Lagoon* and bloom ferociously in works like *Twilight* and *The Shape of Water*. Through it all, we’ll find the threads of otherness and the taboo that intertwine horror, love, and reflections on identity. Join us for a journey through storytelling that combines the grotesque and the scintillating as we uncover why romance and horror are a match made in the dark. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image: From the original 1954 advertising poster for *Creature from the Black Lagoon* (Artist: Reynold Brown / Public Domain).

We’re still working to get more people into these Meetups, but our goal is to give PlayYourCourt members a few social tennis outings each week in addition to your practice sessions and Challenge League matches. These Meetups are co-ed, super laid back, and all skill levels are welcome. Post your skill level and a suggested court in the comments section so we can round up as many players as we can for some tennis fun! Also, if you’re looking to meet new practice partners or play some matches and you aren’t already in the PlayYourCourt Community, you can go here to see what we’re all about and sign up: https://www.playyourcourt.com/tennis-community/leesburg-va/meetup/ If you love tennis, we’d love to have you! Be sure and watch the quick video that explains how everything works. Happy hitting! - Scott

Join Squad8 Volleyball for **indoor open play** in **Manassas** on **Sunday, Feb 8th from 5:00–8:00 PM**. This run is best for **B/BB-level players** (intermediate to high-intermediate). We keep it **social and welcoming**—competitive enough for good games, but not overly intense. Our focus is more on **community and having fun** than winning every point. 💲 **$15 per person** 👥 **Limited spots available** — please RSVP/confirm early. Questions? Contact **Shirley: (571) 480-2910**

[Profs and Pints Northern Virginia](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“The Hidden Cleopatra,”** an excavation through myth and slander to uncover the real Egyptian queen, with Jacquelyn Williamson, an Egyptologist and associate professor of archaeology and ancient art at George Mason University. [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/hidden-cleopatra](https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/hidden-cleopatra) .] Depictions of Cleopatra are abundant in popular culture. A long list of painters have depicted her, Marilyn Monroe and Kim Kardashian have posed as her, and Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor famously portrayed her in Hollywood films. At the end of the day, however, what most of us think we know about Cleopatra is wrong, the product of the ancient Rome’s “fake news” and anti-Egypt propaganda. Learn about the real Cleopatra—and how our understanding of her came to be so distorted—with Professor Jacquelyn Williamson, scholar of women and power in ancient Egypt, teacher of courses on ancient Egyptian art and archaeology, and author of *Nefertiti’s Sun Temple: A New Cult Complex at Tell el-Amarna.* Dr. Williamson will walk us through how the first Roman emperor, Octavian, created the distorted image of Cleopatra as seductress that we know today as part of his political scheming to defeat his rival Antony and end the Roman Republic once and for all. Cleopatra has been the subject of debate and controversy ever since. William Shakespeare later relied on ancient Roman sources such as Horace and Plutarch in writing *Antony and Cleopatra*, and his play helped give rise to countless other works offering a distorted picture of her. Professor Williamson argues that “Cleopatra was a human being, like you and I,” and “deserves the dignity of being represented as accurately as possible.” Her efforts to set the record straight have met frustration, however—after being extensively interviewed for the recent Netflix historical docuseries Queen Cleopatra, she concluded that it, too, had missed the mark. You’ll gain a much deeper appreciation of the challenges of researching and accurately depicting the ancient past from Dr. Williamson, who also has taught at Harvard, Brandeis, and the University of California at Berkeley and is involved with an ongoing archaeological investigation of Queen Nefertiti’s sun temple. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image: Layla Taj portrays Cleopatra VII as part of an Egyptian Cultural Performing Arts Society production. (Photo by Amos Gvili / Wikimedia Commons.)

Face-to-face Role Playing Game Session

Meet at the group at Sterling Middle School at 7:00 pm Time: 7:30 pm showtime! Cost: $18 Tickets can be purchased here: [https://secure.givelively.org/event/sterling-playmakers/the-misfit-players/the-misfit-players-february-27](https://secure.givelively.org/event/sterling-playmakers/the-misfit-players/the-misfit-players-february-27) Join Kari and Terra for a night out supporting your local community theater, with Sterling Playmakers' production of “The Misfit Players,” a backstage romantic comedy. Show Synopsis: Everyone deserves a second chance... When Tessa is called to a broken-down auditorium to produce a play, she’s all too aware the crew is unified by one common quality – they’re all banned from at least one community theatre, including her.​ Taking a chance, Tessa joins Jack, the laid-back director, to keep the Misfits on track despite arguments galore, slightly shady techies, competing divas and pesky vermin. But when a mishap endangers both the show and the Misfits, can Tessa overcome and embrace her fresh start or will they all be left broken hearted?

Come out to the Reston Community Center and play some games! Party games? Strategy games? Tabletop role-playing games? This massive space can accommodate games for every interest. While the event starts at 5pm, feel free to roll in whenever you are able! If you have games to bring that you'd like to share or run, please do! Food and drink are not provided within the venue, but you are allowed to bring in anything you need from outside locations, just please be considerate of other people's games and the tables when doing so. Park anywhere in the parking lot. The Community Center building is located directly behind Ledo Pizza. Walk straight back to the main room once you enter the building. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to either David Gray or Bill Parker through Meetup, or you can email Bill at william.parker@fairfaxcounty.gov. Hope to see you all there!