Published March 28. 2026 06:55AM<\/p>\n
The premieres of two plays are on tap in the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n
Performing Arts at Cedar Crest College presents \u201c53% of,\u201d a satire about women voters, March 26 through March 29.<\/p>\n
Touchstone Theatre is hosting a play reading of \u201cBellavista Prison,\u201d March 27 and March 28.<\/p>\n
\u201c53% of\u201d is named for the 53% of white women who voted for Donald Trump as president in 2016. The play pits the fictional conservative Women for Freedom and Family moms\u2019 group of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, against a group of liberal twentysomething women in Brooklyn, N.Y.<\/p>\n
Award-winning Brooklyn playwright Steph Del Rosso uses Bethlehem as a stand-in for Rust Belt conservative voters.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania was a critical swing state in the 2016 presidential election, where the vote of suburban white women was a decisive factor. Northampton County, which encompasses the majority of Bethlehem, was considered a \u201cbellwether\u201d county that flipped from Obama in 2012 to Trump in 2016.<\/p>\n
Del Rosso uses Bethlehem\u2019s branding as \u201cChristmas City, USA\u201d to heighten the irony of the play. The Bethlehem scenes are set in a living room overflowing with Christmas decorations, using the religion-based aesthetic to contrast with the characters\u2019 political viewpoints.<\/p>\n
In the play\u2019s first act, the women of Bethlehem are excitedly planning for a visit to the city by the president, while their husbands drink beer and insult each other. The second act switches to Brooklyn where liberal women plan a fundraiser or perhaps a march.<\/p>\n
Originally developed in 2018 to 2021, the world premiere was Off-Broadway in 2022.<\/p>\n
Del Rosso\u2019s goal is to explore white womanhood and politics, class and stereotypes.<\/p>\n
The play, directed by William Morris, has an all-female cast.<\/p>\n
Del Rosso is a playwright, fiction writer, screenwriter and educator. Her plays have been produced or developed at Second Stage Theater, The Public, Soho Rep, La Jolla Playhouse and The Kennedy Center. She received an MFA from UC-San Diego.<\/p>\n
\u201c53% of,\u201d 7 p.m. March 26, 27, 28; 2 p.m. March 29, Samuels Theater, Cedar Crest College, 100 College Drive, Allentown. 610-740-3780, https:\/\/www.cedarcrest.edu<\/p>\n
\u201cBellavista Prison\u201d or \u201cEl Reclusorio Tranquilidad\u201d is the newest play from Lehigh Valley playwright Jos\u00e9 D\u00edaz.<\/p>\n
The free play reading in Touchstone\u2019s \u201cUnBound Year-Round\u201d is presented in partnership with Touchstone\u2019s Latinx initiative and Panorama Cultural Latin News.<\/p>\n
The play looks at what happens when a lawyer defending a woman serving a long prison sentence for bank robbery is more concerned with the convicted woman\u2019s money than with her incarceration.<\/p>\n
The play is about the problems and corruption in a women\u2019s prison where crime, sexual harassment and assault are the order of the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cBellavista Prison,\u201d with adult themes and strong language, is not suitable for children.<\/p>\n
The play is in Spanish. A synopsis in English is available.<\/p>\n
\u201cBellavista Prison,\u201d 7 p.m. March 27, 28, Touchstone Theatre, 321 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem. 570-657-6812; http:\/\/www.touchstone.org\/<\/p>\n
\u201cCurtain Rises\u201d is a column about the theater, stage shows, the actors in them and the directors and artists who make them happen. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com<\/p>\n
Steph Del Rosso<\/p>\n
Jos\u00e9 D\u00edaz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published March 28. 2026 06:55AM The premieres of two plays are on tap in the Lehigh Valley. Performing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-150844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}