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
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 …
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
*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
The set of Dead Man's Cell Phone. Sarah Ruhl is one of contemporary American theatre’s best and brightest, so I was very much looking forward to seeing Dead Man’s Cell Phone. Unfortunately, the MT Pockets production of the play was extremely disappointing. The play itself is good, but the performance was a letdown. Ruhl’s play …
Continue reading Dead Man’s Cell Phone, by Sarah Ruhl–17 Aug. 2019
*For full disclosure, I worked as dramaturg for this production* Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons is a complex, philosophical play grounded in history, theology, philosophy, ethics, and existentialism. But it’s one of the best plays of the 20th century. Bolt’s play is dynamic and challenging, raising issues that are not only relevant for …
Continue reading A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt–8 Aug. 2019
The set of Office Hours at Nittany Theatre at the Barn. The Nittany Theatre at the Barn loves putting on Norm Foster shows, and there’s a very good reason for that. Foster’s plays are funny and intricately clever. Office Hours perfectly fits that bill, and the Nittany Theatre production, directed by Andrew Saxe, did a …
The set of The Love List Norm Foster’s The Love List is a funny play about desire, perfection, and finding that special someone. Nittany Theatre at the Barn’s production, directed by Laura Ann Saxe, was an enjoyable show, though it sometimes lacked polish. The play opens with Bill—a single statistician in his 50s—and Leon—his unfaithfully …
I had never been particularly interested in Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me a Tenor, because for whatever reason I always thought it was a musical, and I just wasn’t feeling it. But the Nittany Theatre at the Barn production, directed by Frank Wilson, has definitely changed my mind. The show is funny, it deals with so …
Few modern plays are more widely known, read, or performed than Oscar Wilde’s comedic masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest. Premiering in 1895, I believe it was the most performed comedy of the 20th century. Given that repute, it is a daunting task to adapt the play, as Sterling Sax did for Nittany Theatre at …
Phillip Zapkin 