Allan Lau
A quirky real-life event led to a new play that looks at life through the eyes of a peacock.
The Reading Theater Project will begin its 2025/26 season with “Proud” by Judd Lear Silverman at the WCR Center for the Arts, which is located at 140 N. Fifth St. in downtown Reading.
The play is inspired by an incident in May 2018, when a three-day traffic jam on the Schuylkill Expressway was caused by a pride of peacocks that had escaped from the nearby Philadelphia Zoo. “Proud” is their story from their point of view.
The cast features four actors playing peacocks: Kevin Wade plays Tom, the heroic leader; Patrick O’Neill plays Dick, the intellectual/historian; José Alejandro Román plays Harry, the beloved showman; and Molly Carl plays Pat, the youngest peacock.
Judd Silverman
Also in the cast, Erick Goldsmith plays the vain TV anchor Jim; Rebeca Dunn plays popular TV news reporter Andrea; Alison N. Lines plays the zoo official, a zoologist and Philly Zoo spokesperson; and Xiomara Linda Guerrero plays the state policeman.
The production team includes Kimberly Patterson, director; Sophia Stopper, stage manager; Jody Reppert, set construction; Mak Sherrid, costume designer; Jewell A. Brown, production manager and sound designer.
Chris Heslop composed and arranged music to be performed by a saxophone ensemble conducted by Mike Eben. The saxophonists are Kaden Baluta, Sophia Moyer, Carlos Manuel Alvarez-Mejia Jr., Aidan Kidd, Rocky Rochlin.
Silverman recently planted roots in the Reading area after having directed and designed there in the 1980s. His short and long plays have been seen across the country and internationally.
Tickets cost $25.
Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Nov 14 and 15 and at 2 p.m. on Sunday and Nov. 16.
Classic updated
Alana Rader
Cedar Crest College Performing Arts will present “Antigone X” at Samuels Theater, which is located at 100 College Dr. in Allentown.
“Antigone X,” written by American playwright Paula Cizmar, is a contemporary meditation on love, power, and war, based on the classic “Antigones” by Sophocles.
Director Alana Rader, an adjunct faculty at Cedar Crest, said she was teaching about the classic play during a section on Greek theater last fall. The theater department’s chair, Roxanne Amico, observed the class.
“We had been talking about me directing a show, and she had the idea of us working on ‘Antigone’ to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first play at Cedar Crest College, which also happened to be ‘Antigone,’” Rader recalled. “I thought it would be compelling to find an adaptation written by a female playwright, which centers on Antigone rather than Creon. Paula Cizmar does just that. Paula preserves the poetic language of traditional Greek theater while highlighting the universal themes of resistance, free will, morality, and pushing back against authoritarianism; as well as the hardships and perils of a country at war.”
She said she hopes the production will be “a powerful re-telling of a classical play framed through a modern lens, inspiring our audiences to recognize the power they possess as individuals.”
Antigone, played by Arlo Guzman, wants to properly bury her brother, Polynices. Creon, the king of Thebes, played by Will Irwin, however, has decreed that anyone who buries or mourns Polynices will be put to death, and Antigone is caught defying the king’s order.
In Cizmar’s update, Thebes is now a ruin surrounded by refugee camps and police violence, terrorists, and demagogues abound. The play explores who will dare to defy unjust laws and follow the higher law of love and decency.
The cast features Vanamarie Huhyn, Chelsi Fread, Jaslene Rios, Jahniya James, Jahnelle Nelson. David Lippincott, Emily Badman, Stella Oen, and Shahad Alnasser.
Tickets cost $15 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $5 for students.
Performances will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Pines’ holiday shows
Pines Dinner Theatre is embracing the holidays as it presents “Christmas at the Pines.”
“Christmas at the Pines” was written by Pines co-owner Oliver Blatt in 2009 and has become a staple of Pines’ Christmas offerings.
latt directs the show, which mashes up holiday favorites, including variations of “Jingle Bells,” “We Need a Little Christmas,” “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire),” “Let it Snow,” and “Home for the Holidays,” and takes the small ensemble cast to Hawaii, complete with singers and dancers in Hawaiian shirts and hula skirts, the old West with a cowboy chorus, and to New England for a Victorian Christmas.
The show also features the Nativity and a visit from Santa Claus.
The cast features Moriah Faith, Deb D’Haiti, Connor Sternberg, Deven Windisch, Lydia Walker, Ryan Domalewski, Hannah Reiniger, and Robert Rice.
Pines will host a special Thanksgiving celebration at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Nov. 27 that will include a Thanksgiving meal of ham and turkey and a performance of “Christmas at the Pines.” Tickets cost $78.
Pines’ other special event is a family show, “Santa’s Christmas Sing Along Celebration,” at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Nov. 28 that will include a kid-friendly buffet meal and a performance of the sing-along show.
In “Santa’s Christmas Sing Along Celebration,” audience members, young and old, will be taken to the North Pole with singing elves Snickerdoodle and Jingle to meet Santa and sing holiday favorites. After the show, everyone will get to meet Santa and take photos. Tickets cost $30.
Tickets for regular performances of “Christmas at the Pines” are $42 and include the show only. Food is available a la carte.
Performances will be noon dinner, 1:30 p.m. show Thursdays, Sundays; 6 p.m. dinner, 7:30 p.m. show Fridays; noon dinner, 1:30 p.m. show, 6 p.m. dinner, 7:30 p.m. show Saturdays, Nov. 8 to Dec. 28.
Pines Dinner Theater is located at 315 S. Cedar Crest Blvd. in Allentown.
UnBound Year-Round
As part of its UnBound Year-Round series, Touchstone Theatre will host a Fall Story Cabaret at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Godfrey Daniels, which is located at 7 E. Fourth St. in Bethlehem.
The audience will hear the stories of renowned local storytellers Kristin Pedemonti and Grace Adele Hochella. The theme for the evening is “Better Together,” so audience members can share their own stories about themselves and their best friend, the holidays, our community, peanut-butter and jelly, or anything else that is honest, personal, and five minutes or less.
Like the long-running New York City (and beyond) spoken-word event, “The Moth,” this live storytelling performance features local professionals and an open-mic portion. Tickets are pay-what-you-will.
Also, part of the series is a reading of “Bellavista Prison” by local playwright José Díaz at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at Touchstone Theatre, which is located at 321 E. Fourth St. in Bethlehem.
“Bellavista Prison” exposes the problems and internal corruption in a women’s prison, where business, crime, sexual harassment, and assault are the order of the day. The prison, which defines itself as a correctional and rehabilitation system, is anything but. The performance is in Spanish.
Admission is free. Call 570-657-6812 to reserve a seat.
‘Hamlet’ in Reading
Alvernia University Theatre will present Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” in the Francis Hall Theatre, which is located at 400 Saint Bernardine St. in Reading.
The production will feature Alvernia senior theater major Aliyah Daniels in the title role.
Conceived by Shakespeare, “Hamlet” is considered to be among the greatest characters ever created. As a play, “Hamlet” has been in production regularly since it was first performed.
Nathan Thomas, the director of Alvernia’s theater program, said that with all the commentary that has been written about the title character, one of the important facets is that Hamlet is a university student.
“Shakespeare shows us a person who is going through the challenges faced by many young people in any time period, family issues, romantic obstacles, questions of values and beliefs, and then a sword fight,” Thomas said.
Performances will be at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and Nov. 13 to 15 and at 2 p.m. on Nov. 16.
Tickets cost $5.
Musical joy at ASO
Saverio Truglia
The Allentown Symphony Orchestra will present musical joy and humor with “Beethoven’s 8th” at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday at Miller Symphony Hall, which is located at 23 N. Sixth St. in Allentown.
The orchestra, conducted by Diane Wittry, will be joined by the Grammy Award-winning Third Coast Percussion ensemble and vocalist Grace McLean.
The concert will open with Beethoven’s playful “Rage over a Lost Penny,” Haydn’s delightful “Surprise Symphony,” and the whimsical rhythms of Leroy Anderson’s “The Typewriter.”
The ensemble will bring energy and innovation to musician-in-residence Clarice Assad’s percussion concerto “Play!” The ensemble features David Skidmore, Peter Martin, Robert Dillon, and Sean Connors.
After intermission, the orchestra will present Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8, celebrated for its lighthearted charm and idiosyncratic spirit.
Tickets cost $30 to $81.
A free pre-concert talk will be presented at noon on Friday.
‘Earnest’ in Easton
Williams Center for the Arts will present “National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest” at 7 p.m. on Sunday at Landis Cinema in Buck Hall, which is located on the campus of Lafayette College at 219 N. Third St. in Easton.
Three-time Olivier Award-winner Sharon D. Clarke is joined by “Doctor Who’s” Ncuti Gatwa in this joyful reimagining of Oscar Wilde’s most celebrated comedy. Max Webster (“Life of Pi”) directs this hilarious story of identity, impersonation, and romance, recorded at the National Theatre in London.
While assuming the role of a dutiful guardian in the country, Jack lets loose in town under a false identity. Meanwhile, his friend, Algy, adopts a similar facade. Hoping to impress two eligible ladies, the gentlemen find themselves caught in a web of lies they must carefully navigate.
Gatwa plays Algernon Moncrieff, and Clarke plays Lady Bracknell. Hugh Skinner is Jack Worthing, and Ronke Adekoluejo is Gwendolen Fairfax. Other cast members are Julian Bleach, Richard Cant, Amanda Lawrence, and Eliza Scanlen.
Tickets cost $15 for adults and $6 for students.