Weekly Margin 2025, W34: Six, Death Becomes Her, Operation Mincemeat

 8/22/25: Six

a repeat visit, but five years later (it was the last musical I saw before Broadway shut down in March 2020).

8/23/25: Death Becomes Her

a repeat visit

8/24/25: Operation Mincemeat

a repeat visit

A few more publications

My luck continues with getting pieces published! These are my most recent ones:

Decanonize O'Neill! (a rant in parentheticals)

published by The Republic of Letters

A humorous rant about my frustrations with Eugene O'Neill's place in the theatrical canon.

The Boxes are Still Empty

published by Instant Noodles in their Sanctuary issue

A reflection on the physical memories we accrue over time: what we take with us and what we leave behind.

Weekly Margin 2025, W30: Sacco & Vanzetti are Dead, A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Summer Day

7/23/25: Sacco & Vanzetti are Dead

What: Good Crack Productions presents a satirical bent on the 1921 trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.

And? full review here.

Matt Ferrera as Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Joey DeFilippis as Nicola Sacco.
Photo by Bay One Entertainment and Kevin Mora.

7/25/25: A Midsummer Night's Dream

What: Ensemble Shakespeare Company presents Shakespeare's comedy of love spells, forest sprites, and an amateur theater troupe.

And? full review here.

Streaming Theater

• Wilma Theater's A Summer Day.

Margin Notes: A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Seen on: Friday, 7/25/25.

Plot and Background

Ensemble Shakespeare Company presents Shakespeare's comedy of love spells, forest sprites, and an amateur theater troupe.

What I Knew Beforehand

I know Midsummer very well, having acted in it multiple times in various roles.

Thoughts:

This was an absolute delight of a show. I'll admit to being worried: after many years of overexposure to this play, I wasn't sure if I wanted to see another production, but I'm so glad I did. Dylan Diehl (who also, aptly, plays Oberon) directs this production with a deft hand, guiding the cast through the intricate hoops of the overlapping hijinks in the forest as surely as her Oberon puppets both humans and his fairy queen alike to do his bidding. That phrasing makes it seem like I'm not giving the cast enough credit for their work, and I don't mean to: the consistently strong text work, as well as the synergy among all the players, makes it clear this is a united ensemble, joyously performing this fairy tale.

The visual landscape of the production, particularly that of Lauren Helpern's evocative scenic design and Kate Hartigan's stunning costume design, draws homage to Peter Brook's white box version of Athens, while not directly copying it. What becomes clear here is that the pristine white of Theseus's court allows for little joy and even less love. It is only when we venture into the forest that streams of fabric festoon the space with color and possibility, and Oberon and Puck clap powdered dye to the wandering Athenians, until they too are as multihued as their surroundings. Here in the forest they are free to indulge, to escape, to imagine. Here in the forest the "rude mechanicals" come to rehearse and here their rehearsal is dispelled by Puck's manipulations. Bottom, his face painted with enchantment and ass ears on his head becomes the paramour of Queen Titania (her own face painted with Oberon's enchantment). And here it is the complicated love quadrangle of Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena may finally sort itself out, with a little help from the unseen fairies watching them. And so when all return to Athens the next day, these bright colors are allowed to follow them, even influencing Duke Theseus himself to break with his pure white suit to add tapestried belt, tie, and pocket square, to better match his new bride and her hybrid wedding dress.

Margin Notes: Sacco & Vanzetti are Dead!

Sacco & Vanzietti are Dead!

Matt Ferrara as Bartolomeo Vanzetti and
Joey DeFilippis as Nicola Sacco. Photo by
Bay One Entertainment and Kevin Mora.

Seen on: Wednesday, 7/23/25.

Plot and Background

Good Crack Productions presents a satirical bent on the 1921 trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Following a robbery turned murder, two anarchist Italian immigrants are arrested and charged with the crime. Though they proclaim their innocence until the end, the combination of an incompetent showboating defense attorney and a biased judicial and law enforcement system railroads them through their trial and subsequent appeals.

What I Knew Beforehand

Very little, though I did some subsequent reading up on Sacco and Vanzetti's trial.

Thoughts:

Joey DeFilippis and Matt Ferrera, wrote, directed, and star in this production. Clearly a passion project dedicated to redeeming the names of Sacco and Vanzetti, it portrays two victims of a corrupt judicial system (regardless of their guilt or innocence, it is clear that the trial was handled badly). In creating this work, DeFilippis and Ferrara join the ranks of a long-standing advocacy to demand justice: at the time of Sacco and Vanzetti's trial and following, there were global protests--and bombings--as well as celebrities weighing in. Even after the execution of these two men, advocates continued to fight for justice against their persecution. As the Scottsboro Boys would later become a beacon for the Civil Rights Movement, Sacco and Vanzetti were an earlier rallying cry against persecution of political radicals.

The work itself is perhaps a bit uneven: it bills itself as a satire but has yet to develop its point of view beyond the starting point that bigotry is evil. Even so, it plays with humor in an interesting way, mixing anachronistic jokes with over the top clowning. I think the production would be better served by leaning into this angle more aggressively, along the lines of Urinetown or other Brechtian pieces critiquing the status quo. Each moment needs to be sharp and clear for the humor to land, and that in turn will make the pathos, the tragedy of what befell these men, all the more poignant in contrast.