Theatre can entertain, but it can also make people think and engage with one another. For more than 10 years, Geva Theatre Center has hosted a play-reading series, the Hornets’ Nest, which encourages dialogue not just on stage, but amongst audience members at these one-night-only events. To discuss the series and what they have learned – about theatre and about human nature – Skip Greer, Geva’s director of education, will appear along with Jenni Werner, Geva’s literary director, at the Department of Theatre and Music Studies’ Stage Whispers panel on Tuesday, February 27 at 10 a.m. in The College at Brockport’s Tower Fine Arts Center Black Box Theatre, 180 Holley Street. The talk is free and open to the public. The duo will discuss how audience reactions can potentially affect the playwriting and production process.
The next Hornets’ Nest reading takes place on Monday, April 9, in Geva’s Fielding Stage, focusing on Michael Weller’s Buyer Beware.
According to Geva, the play revolves around “Ron, a Brandeis College student, who discovers the work of Lenny Bruce. He’s eager to share this boundary-pushing comedic material with his fellow students. But some of them don’t appreciate Bruce’s politically incorrect language, and soon Ron finds himself at the center of a controversy that threatens his friendships, his scholarship and the college’s fundraising efforts. In this age of extremism, what kinds of conversations can we have on college campuses? What role do artists play in provoking conversation and progress?”
Becoming part of the conversation can be invigorating for anyone, but “students love it,” touts Greer, especially the “ripped from the headlines” aspect of some of the featured plays. In order to get responses from all sides of an issue, Hornets’ Nest readings can be a catalyst, investigating the most controversial ethical dilemmas of our time. Following each reading, audience members will have the opportunity to engage in an open, collegial discussion with key figures from the Rochester community about the issues raised by the play at hand. Since its inception in 2007, “the Hornets’ Nest series of readings has become nationally recognized and lauded as one of the most innovative theatrical initiatives in the country.”
The “Stage Whispers” series is sponsored by The College at Brockport’s Department of Theatre and Music Studies as part of its alliance with Geva Theatre Center. The series gives community members insight into the process of professional theatre artists. For information, please call 395-2787.
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