by Jess Hoffman Harbinger Theatre has brought many regional premiers to the Albany Capital District, 10 in arow, to be precise. But right now, Harbinger is showing a world premier of a play written bySchenectady local and regional theater personality Brian Sheldon. Staged at The Albany Barn,Custom Cuts is an…
by Jess Hoffman If you, like me, were a child of the 90s, you may have grown up on the 1996 film Matilda. And if, like me, you were an avid reader with tastes leaning toward the sarcastic and subversive, you may have grown up with a deep love for…
by Jess Hoffman Playhouse Stage Company has chosen a play with local roots for its second summer production. Based on a 1911 novel of the same name, The Secret Garden first premiered in 1989 in New York’s Capital District in a collaboration between Skidmore College and Capital Rep, according to…
by Jess Hoffman So far this year I have reviewed plays about such heavy topics as drug addiction, incest, revolution, and pedophilia. And yet none of those shows left me quite as disturbed as Schenectady Civic Player’s production of The Goat (or Who is Sylvia). This show put me in…
by Paula Kaplan-Reiss Editor’s Note: Director Jeannie Marlin Woods and assistant stage manager Jess Hoffman are members of our Berkshire on Stage team of critics, but since we all work remotely, Dr. Kaplan-Reiss actually does not know them very well. We decided to overlook this minor conflict of interest in…
by Jess Hoffman Albany Civic Theater–a theater with a special place in my heart that has been central to my love of theater–is currently the space for Harbinger Theatre’s production of The Motherf**ker with the Hat. The Motherf**ker with the Hat is a gritty, no-holds-barred examination of life and love.…
by Jess Hoffman The Nether originally premiered in 2013, but seems even more relevant today than it was then. The current production at the Ghent Playhouse makes it painfully obvious that we have only moved closer to the imagined future of The Nether in the last ten years. The Nether…
by Jess Hoffman The word “love” in the title Hoodoo Love might have some theatergoers mistakenly believing that it is a romantic play. This certainly crossed my mind when I went to see the Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York’s production at The Rep, as I was unfamiliar with…
