Gamm Theatre’s ‘Admissions’ Brilliantly Examines Ongoing Controversy

January 22, 2020 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Jim O’Brien, Jacob Osborne, and Deb Martin in GAMM Theatre’s ‘Admissions’

by Tony Annicone

GAMM Theatre’s 35th season continues with their first show of 2020 which is the off-Broadway hit play “Admissions” by Joshua Harmon. He won the 2018 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for best play. His other plays are “Significant Other” and “Bad Jews.” Harmon’s newest comedy/drama explores white privilege in attending prestigious institutions of higher learning. It could reflect as a show torn from the headlines of the current college admissions scandals of 2019, but was actually written before it took place. In this piece, set just before Christmas of 2015 to Easter of 2016, Sherri, the mother, is the head of an admissions department at Hillcrest, a New England prep school in New Hampshire who wants to diversify the student body. Her husband is the school’s headmaster and they have been quite successful with her initiatives. However when their son, Charlie wants to attend an Ivy League university, Yale University, their progressive values and ideas collide with their own self-interests with dramatic and shocking results that leave the audience on the edge of their seats. Bryn Boice casts these five roles splendidly and elicits strong performances from each of them. The kitchen set with staircase to a second floor is hidden by a brick wall that ascends when the scene changes from the school to the home is designed by Patrick Lynch. It is outstanding as are the lovely costumes by Amanda Downing Carney.

SpeakEasy Stage’s ‘Admissions’ Pierces the Veil of White Male Privilege

November 1, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Nathan Malin, Maureen Keiller and Michael Kaye in SpeakEasy Stage’s Production of “Admissions.” (Maggie Hall Photography)

By Shelley A. Sackett

‘Admissions’ – Written by Joshua Harmon; Directed by Paul Daigneault; Scenic Design by Eric Levenson; Lighting Design by Karen Perlow; Costume Design by Charles Schoonmaker; Sound Design by Dewey Dellay; Stage Managed by Stephen MacDonald. Produced by SpeakEasy Stage Company at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts through November 30, 2019.

Joshua Harmon’s terrific new play “Admissions,” now making its Boston premiere at SpeakEasy Stage Company through November 30, packs a timely wallop. Set at and near Hillcrest, a toney progressive New Hampshire prep school, the plucky drama starts out poking fun at Sherri, Hillcrest’s white admissions director who is not happy with the draft of the Admissions Catalog she has just received.

SpeakEasy’s Topical ‘Admissions’ Intends to Make You Uncomfortable

October 29, 2019November 1, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Nathan Malin, Michael Kaye and Maureen Keiller in SpeakEasy Stage’s Production of “Admissions.” (Maggie Hall Photography)

By Julie-Anne Whitney

The Boston premiere production of Joshua Harmon’s play Admissions, directed by Paul Daigneault, offers an unsettling behind-the-scenes look at issues of class and race through the eyes of the most privileged among us: wealthy, educated white people.

The story centers on Sherri Rosen-Mason (played with thoughtful sensitivity by Maureen Keiller), the head of admissions at Hillcrest, a small New Hampshire prep school, and her headmaster husband, Bill (played by the magnetic Michael Kaye), who have worked for years to expand the racial diversity of the school’s student body, which includes their son, a senior who is anxiously awaiting his college acceptance letters. Boston University student Nathan Malin, gives a commanding, stand-out performance as Charlie, son of Bill and Sherri, who spends the bulk of the play grappling with questions about privilege, fairness, fact versus opinion, and who “deserves” what and why.

SpeakEasy’s ‘Admissions’ a Timely Masterpiece

October 27, 2019November 9, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Sheila Barth

‘Admissions’ – Written by Joshua Harmon. One-act, 1 hour-50-minute play. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company at the Boston Center for the Arts, Roberts Studio Theatre, 527 Tremont St., Boston through November 30

The timing for SpeakEasy Stage Company’s tense production of Joshua Harmon’s one-act play Admissions, couldn’t be more perfect. Educators, parents, students undergoing the college admissions process – no-one should miss it. Directed by SpeakEasy’s multiple-award-winning artistic director Paul Daigneault, Admissions delivers realistic, non-stop excitement about a contemporary controversial subject, and lingers long after the terrific cast’s final bows. The winner of the 2018 Drama Desk Award winner for Outstanding Play and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play builds non-stop momentum, targeting the fairness-unfairness of colleges’ acceptance of worthy students.