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Dear Reader, we are creating a more specific structure for our TheaterVision-PlayTime Blog, including a new name and a new focus.  In pursuit of our aim to ‘Raise the Bar of Technique Awareness:’  We invite you to send us your acting question or a link to your reel.  We will provide a candid, honest critique/response.  Free.

I learn something every time I go to PlayTime!

We were impressed with this performance. The actors [Burnadaire] Lipscomb-Hunt and [James] Hunter. The director [Jessica Sherr] made Hathaway’s words able to connect and be felt by the audience. I was so incredibly touched and moved to tears.

Absent mothers can be terrible in childhood and not any better in adulthood.

Bravo Stanley. It was so real

jen

BEST OF DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE FEST

Hello-

I attended the Friday June 13th production and saw three different plays for a very reasonable price. I attended the show with my husband and it was a breath of fresh air. We both have very hectic schedules, and it was nice for us to be able to relax and laugh for a solid hour and a half (even though we arrived at different times) We saw three shows: A Day: Rome, Double Fear, and 1-900-get-G-I-R-L and were really happy with all three. We found both A Day: Rome and Double Fear to really hold our interest. Our favorite was the last show, 1-900-get-G-I-R-L we laughed the entire time. What a great story. My husband didn’t want it to end! We even made friends with a couple sitting in front of us since we were both commenting on the last show together. My husband and I went out Saturday night to dinner and told our friends about the show and they decided it’s something they would want to get involved with soon. Keep up the great work, we’ll be in touch!

Sincerely,

MK

VP Axon Solutions

FRIDAY 8PM DOMESTIC DISTURBANCES ORIGINAL PLAY FESTIVAL

Hi

I attended for the first time one of your productions last Friday night..and was very impressed…I sometimes attend events at the Abbington and have spent the morning singing your praises….I was very impressed with all the actors and the pieces themselves most especially Amanda Mesaikos with Seth Lombardi.

thanks for the first of I hope many evenings.

L. Coly
Executive Director
Parapsychology Foundation, inc.

“First of all, let me once again thank you for the wonderful opportunity given me by TheaterVision-Playtime to pursue a lifelong goal. I consider the hands on, NYC experience you provided me with to be more valuable than a hundred directing classes at any school in the country.

My cast and I were delighted to hear that you were pleased with our work and grateful for the lucid, constructive feedback you had for all of us.” –Joseph Raik, Director of The Creditors, by August Strindberg

Wednesday May 14^th, at 8pm Outcasts & Renegades Festival

Dear TheaterVision/Play Time staff:

Wow, what a great night of theater! Thank you! I’m an independent documentary filmmaker and I’m usually out supporting my friends and colleagues at their screenings. For that reason, I was so looking forward to this night and the change of pace. Please know how very much I enjoyed the entire evening. I was most taken by Michael Cortez’s performance in Thirst. In fact, the way he delivered the madness of his character made some of the audience squirm as one could

hear ripples of nervous laughter as he approached insanity. Also,

albeit all too brief, the lovely, lovely performance of Eliza Mack in The Hairy Ape. Obviously, they are very gifted actors.

I’ve been before and I’ll be back!

Congratulations on your mission and a fine evening of theater.

–Leonard E. Cox

I was at the Sunday March 30th 3PM Performance at the West 78th Street Theater. I saw Sheba Mason, Our Dear Dad and Madness and Joy. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the afternoon. I had expected, frankly, a dreary avant garde unwatchable modern play translated from Polish. Instead, it was one of the more enjoyable theater experiences I have had, given the Disneyfication and throat-miking of Broadway

Sheba Mason was truly funny. Only at the end, when she mentioned that she was the daughter of Jackie Mason did I see the facial connection and similarity in the “schtick.” In that sense, I thought she was much, much funnier when I didn’t know that she was Jackie Mason’s daughter and just a very smart, very funny Jewish girl from New York. She is a great talent and I enjoyed her stand-up routine.

For the two plays: First off, theater is an actor’s medium. And the quality of theater is highly dependent upon the quality of the actors. I was very pleasantly surprised at how professional, engaging, and, above all, watchable all the actors were. Frankly, as good as anything I’ve seen on off-Broadway.

Our Dear Dad was a post-modern take on a troubled relationship between a father and at least one of his sons. When the young actor playing David blurts out the family secret–that he missed out on college and a family because he had to clean up after his aging father and really hated him for that–that hit home for me, as I am closer to the father’s age than David’s. The way in which the playwright limns the backstory sparingly was very professional. But what made the moment emotional was when David pulls out the sheet of paper upon which he had written his prepared remarks, after his siblings had left, so that this was only between his dead father and himself. Frankly, it was very emotional for me. What made it very post-modern and frankly, saved the day from mawkishness and sentimentality was–he didn’t read what was written on the sheet. It was just the fact of his love for his father–unstated–that remained and that, I thought, was very powerful. The three actors looked like: Ben Afleck–except a far better actor than Ben Afleck; Laura Linney–except sexier; and a young Sal Mineo. Very good theater. Very powerful theater. So kudos to the playwright for being able to set out a scene sparingly and double kudos for the director who choreographed and directed a very powerful, intense, almost claustrophobic scene that drew you into the play very quickly and deeply.

Madness and Joy: The Englishman/Australian/New Zealander,  whatever, who played B is a true find. He was as engaging, watchable, and charming as Colin Farrel or Hugh Grant or Russel Crowe–and from three feet away. Frankly–I was taking notes to remember what worked for him. The girl was into her role completely and over time, became very ripely sexy. The interplay between discussing Elizabethan plays, the nature of acting, and two very attractive young people trying to hook-up drew me into the scene. The actor playing “Brad” has the New York investment banker down pat–and yet was able to wring some sympathy for him. An entertaining snippet and you’re left wondering what will happen to each of these three young people you’ve just met. Again–good playwriting and good directing.

Arthur Petrou (And I’m related to absoluely no one in any of the productions, although I’d prefer you not post this. Just for your information.)

Many thanks!  I am most grateful anytime you plan to produce the play. Just to let you know, it is likely that my wife & I will be away from NYC-NJ area from mid-Jan through mid-March, in the event it’s important for me to attend.   Also, FYI, my one-act “Coffee With God” (recently acquired by Dramatic Publishing) is being produced by schools in several US states.  Click below for details.  Kind regards & Happy Thanksgiving.  Kal Wagenheim

Coffee With God