Museum & Theatre Weekend in Washington, DC
A Capital Memorial Weekend
May 27 - 30, 2005





This 3 day 2 night weekend trip to DC features theatre at the Kennedy Center. This cultural tour includes: 3 nights at Crowne Plaza Hotel, 2 performance tickets including Hecuba at Kennedy Center and  Anna Christie at Arena Stage, daily breakfast, 1 lunch, 1 brunch, 2 dinners, Museum tours per itinerary and transfers between airport and hotel.  
 
Trip price: $1369 (double occupancy), details below.  



For the Memorial Day weekend tdf Travel has arranged a visit to our nations' capitol where the theatre treats begin at the Kennedy Center . Acclaimed actress Vanessa Redgrave makes her eagerly anticipated Washington debut in a new Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hecuba, Euripides' gripping Greek tragedy about the captive Queen of Troy. We also have tickets at the Arena Stage for a production of Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize winning drama, Anna Christie. Our weekend adventure also includes visits to outstanding museums including the National Gallery of Art and the award winning Holocaust Museum . We visit the newest attractions: the World War II Memorial and the American Indian Museum . Our hotel is conveniently located within walking distance of capital attractions, including the Mall and the Smithsonian. We provide a trolley pass that takes you to the Capital's premier attractions.






1.  Friday, May 27     Hillwood Museum and Gardens
Our non-stop Delta Airlines flight departs LaGuardia at 10:30am and arrives at Washington 's National airport at 11:35 am where we meet our guide and board our private motor coach taking us into the heart of Washington. Our tour begins at Hillwood House, cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post's 40-room Georgian mansion, which contains a large collection of 18th- and 19th-century French and Russian decorative art that includes gold and silver work, icons, tapestries, porcelain, and Fabergé eggs. Also on the estate are a dacha (summer cottage) filled with Russian objects and an Adirondacks-style cabin that houses Native American artifacts. The 25-acre estate grounds are composed of lawns, formal French and Japanese gardens, greenhouses, and paths that wind through plantings of azaleas, laurels, and rhododendrons. After the tour we check into the recently refurbished first class deluxe Hamilton Crowne Plaza , located at Franklin Square only four blocks from the White House in downtown Washington at 14th and K Street. The hotel is an historic Beaux Arts building, dating from the 1920's, and featuring an ornate lobby with detailed, vaulted ceiling designs. Tonight, we enjoy a welcome dinner.  



2.  Saturday, May 28     National Women’s Museum, Folger Library, Kennedy Center
Today, following breakfast, we visit the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to recognizing the contributions of women artists. The permanent collection of more than 3,000 works provides a comprehensive survey of art representing a wide range of styles and media—from Renaissance paintings to modern photographs. We continue to the Folger Library and Museum to view the renowned collection devoted to Shakespeare’s life and times. Actor, writer and one-time international celebrity, David Garrick is the subject of the library’s current exhibit. Garrick revolutionized acting and the English stage in the eighteenth century. After lunch (on your own) you may choose to tour on your own the award winning Holocaust Museum or the Smithsonian Museum. The permanent exhibition at the Holocaust Museum spans three floors, presenting a narrative history using more than 900 artifacts, 70 video monitors, and four theaters that include historic film footage and eyewitness testimonies. Nearby is the Smithsonian National American History Museum, which is observing the dedication of the new National World War II Memorial with exhibitions, displays, hands-on activities, and music. You may see a special exhibit, drawn from the Museum's World War II-era photography collections. The images by Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White, the Scurlock Studio, and U.S. Navy photographer John Wesley Stipe, together with family photographs, provide an overview of the war effort. After dinner on your own, we have tickets at the Kennedy Center for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Euripides’ Hecuba. Legendary actress Vanessa Redgrave makes her eagerly anticipated Washington debut in this gripping Greek tragedy about the captive Queen of Troy. One of the RSC’s most illustrious alumni, the Emmy, Olivier, and Academy Award® winner recently added a 2003 Tony Award® to her list of accolades for her spellbinding performance in Broadway’s Long Day’s Journey into Night. After 43 years, Vanessa Redgrave returns to the company that made her a Shakespearean star to portray the long-suffering yet headstrong matriarch Hecuba, in this classic drama directed by RSC Associate Director Laurence Boswell that promises a tour-de-force performance from one of theater and film’s greatest luminaries.



3.  Sunday, May 29     World War II Memorial, National Gallery of Art
In the morning we visit the new National World War II Memorial on the Mall. The Memorial honors the 16 million who served in the armed forces of the U.S. during World War II, the more than 400,000 who died, and the millions who supported the war effort from home. Symbolizing the defining event of the 20th Century, the memorial is a monument to the spirit, sacrifice, and commitment of the American people. We enjoy a jazz brunch at the National Gallery of Art before viewing the premier exhibit, Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre. The fascination that various artists had with the decadent spirit and glamour of bohemian life in the Parisian district of Montmartre at the turn of the 20th century is the focus of this major exhibition of more than 275 works primarily by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). Paintings, drawings, posters, prints, sculptures, zinc silhouettes from the Chat Noir shadow play, and printed matter, such as illustrated invitations, song sheets, advertisements, and admission tickets, are presented alongside depictions of similar subjects by fellow artists, including Toulouse-Lautrec's predecessors Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet; his contemporaries Pierre Bonnard, Vincent van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso; and poster artist Jules Chéret. There is time to visit the concurrent exhibit of nearly 100 exceptional works by Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), the most successful portraitist of early American history. The exhibit demonstrates his tremendous natural talent and wit in the representation of likeness and character. Stuart painted virtually all of the most famous men and women of his era in America . Tonight after our farewell dinner we have tickets for a performance at the Arena Stage, one of the first not-for-profit theaters in the United States as well as a pioneer of the regional theater movement. Tonight’s production, Anna Christie, is the second Pulitzer Prize winner from master playwright Eugene O'Neill. This poignant portrait of a Swedish barge captain and his estranged daughter is brought to a climax with the stormy love affair of Anna and an Irish sailor. Arena Stage has a reputation for producing plays that reveal all that is passionate, exuberant, deep and dangerous in the American spirit and tonight’s production is sure to be exciting.  



4.  Monday, May 30     
This morning, after breakfast, we tour the Capitol’s newest museum, the National Museum of the American Indian. Set against the dramatic backdrop of the U.S. Capitol building on the National Mall, the museum's location symbolizes a deeper understanding and reconciliation between America 's first citizens and those who have come to make these shores their home. The opening of this museum marks a unique cultural achievement as Native Americans from North, Central, and South America realize a long-awaited dream to share and honor their vibrant cultures with visitors from throughout the world. We continue to Reagan airport, for our Delta Airlines flight, departing at 1:30pm pm and arriving at LaGuardia at 2:30 pm.  





This engaging experience includes:

  • Round trip air New York-LaGuardia/Washington-National
  • 3 nights at Crowne Plaza Hotel
  • Hecuba at Kennedy Center
  • Anna Christie at Arena Stage
  • Daily breakfast
  • 1 lunch
  • 1 brunch
  • 2 dinners
  • Visit to Hillwood House and Garden
  • Visit to National Museum of Women in the Arts
  • Visit to National Gallery of Art
  • Visit to World War II Memorial
  • Visit to National Museum of the American Indian
  • Visit to Folgers Museum
  • Transfers between airport and hotel
PROGRAM PRICES  
Per person (double occupancy) from New York:$1369  
Single Supplement: $205  
Air Taxes: $50