Katherine Varga

In the era of AI slop and bot accounts, it’s easy to be nostalgic for the Internet of yore — somewhere around 2015, before courts were weighing the damage social media companies have done to youth and when influencers were still somewhat novel. That long-ago year is the setting for a phone-obsessed “The Taming of […]

Rochester prides itself on being the home of Susan B. Anthony — but before you get your hopes up, you should know that the city’s favorite local suffragist is not a character in “Suffs.” While she is alluded to, the events of this touring Tony-award winning musical take place years after Anthony’s 1906 death, starting […]

How would it feel to just be? To fully belong to your body, to be free from the way the world sees and punishes you, to return to a childlike innocence before you knew death, to sit on a couch with someone you’ve loved your entire life and — just be? This is the dream […]

It would not be surprising if you haven’t heard of Teresa Deevy, a Deaf Irish playwright whose robust career in the 1930s has given way to obscurity. In 2010, the Mint Theater Company in New York City kicked off an initiative to reintroduce Deevy to the public, but her work is still rarely produced. Through […]

A teenage girl lounges in bed, writing a letter to Make a Wish Foundation punctuated with smiley and frowny faces. She refers to documentation of her short life expectancy, then trails off into a musical “do do do do.”  It’s a little moment that catches you off guard – this girl knows she’s going to […]

Nostalgia has a strong pull in times of uncertainty. Perhaps that’s why Neil Simon has been especially popular this theatrical season. His comedies seem familiar and fun, especially for theatergoers who witnessed his prolific stage and screenwriting career, which started in the 1960s. A longtime favorite of regional theater, Simon’s works have also recently been […]

Some plays focus on the larger-than-life: think Shakespeare’s kings, witches and battles. Other plays are mundane and true-to-life: think conversations about farts, radio requests and getting to know your coworkers. “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” is solidly in the second camp. Out of Pocket, Inc. lovingly stages this 1980s romantic comedy at […]

What would happen if you combined Lisa Frank, a Disney amusement park and a 90s music video? Probably something in the same aesthetic ballpark as the unabashedly over-the-top jukebox musical “& Juliet,” which is turning the West Herr Auditorium Theater into a nostalgic dance party through December 14. Set in a remixed Y2K version of […]

This month marks Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, which means there have been almost two centuries of adaptations of beloved novels that either make her readers upset or make them swoon. The Company Theatre gets it right. Their fresh and faithful theatrical adaptation of her final novel “Persuasion” plays in their new home on 28 Lawn […]

A woman — not a witch, just a woman whose town has decided they don’t like her — addresses the audience. She wonders if it would be better to burn the world down. (Who hasn’t?) She then addresses anyone who feels like they’ve lost hope, inviting them to hear a story. Such begins the clever, […]