Talker has two tickets to Geva. Seeking connoisseur of the arts

Talker has two tickets to Geva. Seeking connoisseur of the arts
From Phnom Penh with love

From Phnom Penh with love

Scanned courtesy of the the Central Library of Rochester

Scanned courtesy of the the Central Library of Rochester

Outside Geva [Photo: David Kramer, 1/06/19]

Outside Geva [Photo: David Kramer, 1/06/19]

Recently, Talker received a gift from Cambodia.  Now stationed in Phenom Pehn, Dr. Bruce Howard Kay answered  our fundraising call — pleasing us and himself — by sending two tickets to Geva.

In return, Bruce requests that Talker cast aesthetic judgment on the upcoming performance of Hard Cell:

A madcap new comedy of errors and mistaken identity. When college professor Nick Abtahi finds himself lost in a small Midwestern town, the welcome mat doesn’t exactly get rolled out by its crazy collection of locals. This laugh out loud comedy makes its world premiere at Geva.

So says Gevatheatre.org, but Talker will render the verdict.

Bruce sent two tickets, leaving one seat unfilled. Recently, Talker has been all work — editors, creditors, fickle readers and prima donna writers — and no play.  So, in what ought not be a hard sell, Talker offers a ticket to Hard Cell. 

Afterwards, Talker will get us a table at Noz where we can hobnob with the cast. Rochester Democrat and Chronical, Sunday, 1/6/19

Afterwards, Talker will get us a table at Nox where we can hobnob with the cast. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Sunday, 1/6/19

We seek a connoisseur of the arts, one with a dramatic eye and a clever pen. Ideally, our evening escort might be comely, vivacious, and sweetly articulate. While Talker is open minded, we do prefer a companion of the feminine persuasion. Any interested parties can respond to David Kramer, [email protected]

If all goes as hoped, this will be our seventh Geva review.  As seen in Revisiting Rochester theater the Geva series began with Seeing Red. Did we violate “sacred space” backstage at Geva? After the performance, the audience was invited backstage and on the set, sparking a lively discussion about theatrical boundaries.

In Deconstructing (and admiring) Geva’s “Miracle on South Division Street”through the looking glass. we looked at how playwright Tom Dudzick set his play in an almost entirely all black neighborhood but one in which all the characters are white and race is never mentioned.

A finely executed performance of Mockingbird at Geva. And on the “white trash” Ewells focuses on representations of the “white trash” Ewells and how they become scapegoats obscuring middle class white racism.

What critics said about Moon for the Misbegotten from 1947 onward contributes at least something to Eugene O’Neill studies. The essay charts critical response to the Moon for the Misbegotten over several decades.

The office as therapy in Geva’s The May Queen looks at how playwright Molly Smith Metzler problematizes the concept of narcissist personality disorder by creating a sympathetic character who could easily be clinically diagnosed as narcissistic.

In Thumbs up for Geva’s “Thurgood”, we dicussed three Geva plays been based on the lives of historically prominent African-Americans: Mountaintop (2015), Martin Luther King Jr., The Agitators (2017), Frederick Douglass, and Thurgood (2018), Thurgood Marshall.

SEE ALSO Shadi joins outpouring of support for Gilda’s Club; Talker gets thumbs down.

SEE ALSO Revisiting Rochester theater

SEE ALSO On Match.com and niche dating sites

About The Author

dkramer3@naz.edu

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle  blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C  ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones.  So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.

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