Eve Ensler's The Good Body Program Sock & Buskin’s recent charity performance of Eve Ensler’s The Good Body—benefiting Centre Safe—was a great performance of a generally powerful play about the psychological and physical difficulties women experience in their own bodies. Stephanie Whitesell’s directorial debut was a triumph, and the performers were each amazing. Ensler’s most …
Tag: American Drama
The Will to Kill, by Sock & Buskin—23 Mar. 2024
Sock & Buskin’s The Will to Kill was a new one for my partner and I, because we had never attended one of the company’s murder mystery parties before. Part performance, part cocktail party, part whodunit, the murder mystery party is an interesting, interactive, hybrid genre. Unlike most theatre, the majority of the action is carried out between “audience members” and the performers, rather than amongst performers themselves.
The Final Rose, by Stefanie Austin—10 Feb. 2024
The program of The Final Rose It’s always a treat seeing Sock & Buskin perform, since the company consistently produces high quality community theatre for central PA. Seeing their production of Stefanie Austin’s The Final Rose was particularly interesting for me, because—by way of full disclosure—I participated in a late stage readthrough of the script …
Continue reading The Final Rose, by Stefanie Austin—10 Feb. 2024
Bonnets: How Ladies of Good Breeding are Induced to Murder, by Jen Silverman—1 Dec. 2023
The cover of the program for Bonnets Jen Silverman’s Bonnets: How Ladies of Good Breeding are Induced to Murder was written as part of a Big Ten initiative to produce more plays by women and with strong roles for college age female actors. This is a really good initiative, not only for getting the work …
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, by Aaron Sorkin—14 June 2023
The big draw of the Rochester Broadway Theatre League’s production of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, by Aaron Sorkin, was undoubtedly Richard Thomas in the role of Atticus Finch. Thomas, famous as John-Boy in The Waltons, was certainly a big factor in my mother’s excitement to see the production—and considering that many of the …
Continue reading Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, by Aaron Sorkin—14 June 2023
Jay Hopkins and John Hunter’s The Iliad, The Odyssey, And All of Greek Mythology in 99 Minutes or Less—13 May 2023
Jay Hopkins and John Hunter’s The Iliad, The Odyssey, And All of Greek Mythology in 99 Minutes or Less (IOGM from here on out) has to be an incredibly taxing play to perform, as each of the five actors plays a multitude of roles, each demanding its own character. The actor with the fewest number …
Moon Over Buffalo, by Ken Ludwig—29 Apr. 2023
The Sock & Buskin Theatre Company’s production of Ken Ludwig’s comedy Moon Over Buffalo was an enjoyable performance marked by excellent comic timing. Under the direction of Stefanie Austin—a co-founder of Sock & Buskin—the full force of the farce came to the fore through Ludwig’s trademark wit and series of happy accidents. Moon Over Buffalo …
Continue reading Moon Over Buffalo, by Ken Ludwig—29 Apr. 2023
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, by Moises Kaufman-2 May 2021
There are few subjects more fit for the stage than Oscar Wilde. He was a larger than life personality, who fundamentally changed the way many think about art, about society, and about sexuality. And of course he was best known in his lifetime as a playwright, so the stage is doubly appropriate. Moises Kaufman’s Gross …
Continue reading Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, by Moises Kaufman-2 May 2021
Angels in America, Part One: Millenium Approaches, by Tony Kushner, 3 Mar. 2020
Tony Kushner’s Angels in America is one of the most culturally significant pieces of gay theatre in history. Set during the AIDS crisis of the mid- to late-1980s, the play explores issues of gay identity, disease, economic/political privilege, race and ethnicity, and religion, all set within an apocalyptic and messianic framework. The Penn State theatre …
Continue reading Angels in America, Part One: Millenium Approaches, by Tony Kushner, 3 Mar. 2020
Dial “M” for Murder, by Frederick Knott–6 Sept. 2019
*For full disclosure, I worked as the dramaturg for this production.* Frederick Knott’s Dial “M” for Murder is a noir mystery in the style of Agatha Christie, a murder plot which hinges on a tiny clue that leads to the unraveling of an almost perfect crime. It has had many lives—as a BBC television production, …
Continue reading Dial “M” for Murder, by Frederick Knott–6 Sept. 2019
Phillip Zapkin 