Why Marry?
New York Times Review (1917)
By Jesse Lynch Williams
Nov. 9th, 10th and 11th, 2007

Performance Photos

Two sisters under the protection of their brother are being pressured to wed for money by their older brother.  The oldest sister, the “New Woman,” has found work as a lab assistant and has fallen in love with the scientist who is her boss.  The brother tells her,  “Scientists make no money.”  So, much to the chagrin of her family, the sister responds that she will never marry, but instead, will just live  and work with her scientist.  The struggle that ensues is fodder for high comedy as the family plots to get the couple married. Why Marry? was written in 1914 and was the winner of the first Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1918. Women’s rights, the theme of this funny play, was as important a topic then as it is now.

All The Way Home
New York Times Review (1960)
By Tad Mosel
February 15, 16 and 17, 2008

All the Way Home, based on James Agee’s A Death in the Family, is the touching examination of how a young wife and her family react to the sudden death of her husband. This Pulitzer Prize and Tony winning play from 1961 exemplifies the type of coordination PAC hopes to develop with the Historical Society.  At present, the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society is hosting a major exhibit on how different cultures mourn and grieve that is now available for viewing.  PAC and the Historical Society hope that each presentation illuminates the other.

Tomorrow…The World
By James Gow and Arnaud d’Usseau
April 25, 26th, 27th, 2008

Fascism and intolerance are also, unfortunately, part of our past and present.  Tomorrow…The World is a drama about an American family who has found their lost 12-year-old nephew, the son of a German scientist who spoke out against Nazism. They think they are getting the son of the man who opposed Hitler. Instead, they get a child who has been raised (and brainwashed) in the Nazi Youth Organization.  Their struggle to reach this lost young man forms the basis for this fine melodrama.  This play ran on Broadway for 500 performances when it was first produced in 1943 with Ralph Bellamy and Shirley Booth in the leading roles.