Description
Fall Monday Night Theatre
Appreciation Seminar Series
Performed on the Theatre 40 stage.
October 16: The Firestorm by Meredith Friedman.
Set in Ohio, Patrick Henderson is hot on the gubernatorial campaign trail with his Ivy League-educated, attorney wife, Gaby. He’s white, she’s Black. They’re an interracial power couple who look good on paper and in photographs. But even in post-Obama America, their marriage is at once a selling point and a weak spot, according to their campaign manager, Leslie. To complicate things, Patrick wasn’t the most open-minded fraternity brother during his college years, and a prank from his past doesn’t just threaten his campaign, but also his marriage.
October 23: The Ice Cream Sunday by Frank Salisbury. Directed by Larry Eisenberg.
In 1955, set on the grounds of the Massenet Estate, an actress is determined to celebrate her son’s 25th birthday, while her husband is intent on introducing her to his mistress. Salisbury’s farcical and irreverent comedy is a melange of mistaken identities, promiscuity and exaggerated personalities, reminiscent of madcap comedies of the 1930s.
October 30: Beatnik Girl by Leda Siskind. Directed by Leda Siskind.
It’s 1957 New York and the Beat Generation is creating new poetry, jazz, and art on the Lower East Side. It’s exactly where twenty-two year old Edie Gordon wants to be. But can she find her creative voice while she struggles with misogyny, antisemitism, and an unwanted pregnancy?
November 13: Writing on the Wall by Jill Remez.
In November 1938 in the ethnically German “free city” of Danzig, following Kristallnacht, a Jewish couple—Helen and Jesko—make plans to emigrate to the United States as soon as possible. They, and the entire Jewish community of Danzig are helped by businessman, Hermann Zvi Segal, an historical figure, who had connections in high places. Meanwhile, in a parallel narrative following the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, Helen and Jesko’s granddaughter, Susan, fears that history is repeating itself and considers emigrating in the opposite direction from the United States to Europe. Susan’s husband and adult daughter, argue she is being hyperbolic and suggest that the second impeachment will staunch the rise of authoritarianism in America but perhaps Susan’s fear is justified and it’s time to pack up. With magical realism elements, grandmother and granddaughter meet in a dreamworld and try to warn each other of the ensuing dangers in their respective worlds.