El Hermano

Election Year ~ Set during the final months of the Reagan-Mondale presidential
campaign, the action of the play is comprised of a series of lunchtime get-togethers
between two young, unattached “yuppies”

Rachel, in her mid-30s, and apparently more concerned with food than romance is both a sharp-tongued cynic and a confirmed liberal; while her slightly younger friend Wendy, an incurable romantic who is recovering from a painful breakup with her latest boyfriend, is desperate to find another meaningful relationship

Looking for something to do, Wendy offers her services to the Mondale campaign, whereas Rachel, the supposedly committed Democrat, finds herself sounding more and more like a doctrinaire Republican

Ironically Wendy (who really doesn’t care much about politics) quickly strikes up a promising acquaintanceship with one of her fellow volunteers (a handsome young actor), while Rachel, solacing herself with the joys of chocolate cake, faces the sobering realization that she has moved far to the right of her original beliefs and opinions — and is going to vote for Reagan!

In the end their friendship survives even this jolt, and does so with a delightful blend of wit and high spirits (M1,F2)

Widely produced by America’s leading regional theatres, after its successful premiere at the Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays, this brightly witty comedy uses supposed political differences to explore the deeper thoughts and aspirations of two young female baby-boomers

“Byron puts her message in the mouths of two hip, New York single women who survey zealotry in politics and sex, and the trials and tribulations of urban living” ~ Bucks County Courier Times

“… the writing is bright and brisk, producing a steady stream of verbal byplay” ~ Dayton Daily News

So When You Get Married ~ The place is a ladies powder room, where three members of an Italian-American family, a grandmother, her daughter, and her granddaughter, retreat to discuss family business away from the distractions of a noisy wedding reception

The grandmother, an old world matriarch, is concerned that her granddaughter is not the one getting married, as it is definitely time for her to settle down and start raising a family

The granddaughter, however, has other ideas, specifically an art career and an apartment of her own — for which she needs the money her grandmother has set aside for her as a dowry

The generations clash uproariously and with much Italian “brio” as the flinty grandmother refuses to budge an inch — no money until her granddaughter agrees to find herself a husband; the granddaughter makes it very clear that marriage is the farthest thing from her mind; and the mother, caught in the middle, tries to calm things by plying the others with staggering amounts of food and drink carted in from the groaning buffet

She even arranges a visit by the glib, unctuous MC (“he’s cute, he’s single, he’s Italian”), but the granddaughter remains unmoved and the old lady retreat s into a stern-faced, stony silence. But, happily, the emotions stirred up by their dispute are counterbalanced by the strong family ties which bind them together and which, in the end, give them the means to deal with the differences which sprung up between them (M1,F3)

A lively, warmly humorous, yet very revealing study of the relationship between three generations — grandmother, daughter and granddaughter — which reaches an hilarious crisis point amid the lively hubbub of an Italian wedding