Reviews for Penfold Theatre Company Performances
Review: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by Penfold Theatre Company
by Hannah Neuhauser
Published on September 14, 2025
At Penfold Theatre, director Scott Shipman and associates give us a beautifully retooled, sensitive version of the ultimate back-to-middle-school musical, teaching emotional resilience, something needed now more than ever.
The word is “empathy.” Defined by Merriam-Webster as “The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another.” Originating from the Greek word empatheia meaning “passion” or "state of emotion." To use it in a sentence – “Penfold’s production of 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee inspires empathy for our inner child through an ensemble of lovable characters and specular performances.” The ultimate back-to-middle-school musical …
Review: Anton Chekhov Is A Tasty Snack by Penfold Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 11, 2025
Are theatre people beautiful? Vulnerable? Ridiculous? (All of those?) How about Chekhov? This smart, kinetic farce will fill you in!
Quick quiz: Identify yourself: are you/were you - a theatre kid/college actor/theatre artist (struggling or not)/theatregoer? Are you nerdy enough to know who Anton Chekhov was? Do you know any of his plays? Have you acted/designed/produced any of his plays? Do you like farce? Not slapstick, exclusively; think something more like The Play that Goes Wrong but without the pratfalls. Are theatre people beautiful? Vulnerable? Ridiculous? (All of those?) Your answers don't matter; go see …
Review: I'm Proud of You by Penfold Theatre Company
by Vanessa Hoang Hughes
Published on October 15, 2024
Sit back and enjoy the story of Mister Rogers in Penfold Theatre's sweet, low-stakes show with some fine actors.
You’ve probably found yourself enveloped in the wondrous world of Fred Rogers. Whether you watched his original show or the animated spin-off Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, you remember the kindness, wisdom, and love Rogers shared with his audience. As a proud Daniel Tiger kid, I can testify to the effect Mr. Rogers had on my childhood and how his themes of friendship and important feelings shined in my five-year-old eyes. I’m Proud of You by Tim …
Review: Amadeus by Penfold Theatre Company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on April 04, 2022
Kareem Badr's performance as Antonio Salieri in Liz Fisher's rework of AMADEUS is mesmerizing. The chaos of the play succeeds impressively in reflecting the chaos of his character’s mind.
In the early 1990's Spanish chef Ferran Adriá came up with "deconstructed food," an approach in which a dish is served with its primary ingredients presented separately. The idea was that diners should be able to re-assemble them so as to experience the dish anew in an entirely personal experience. The essence of a classic dish is maintained but its form is broken down so one has greater appreciation of the parts that make up …
Review: Nevermore, The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe by Penfold Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on October 29, 2018
The performance of this work must instantly go over the top and stay there for the duration of the show if it is to work at all. And this it does. Brilliantly.
Nevermore, the musical is an imaginary biography of America’s famous nineteenth century writer. The treatment, authored by Jonathan Christensen, is brilliant for wisely and succinctly relating the facts of Edgar Allan Poe’s life—what we know of them—to some of the major works of Poe’s fantastic flights. Christenson's imagination cuts through what remains obscure about Poe to create plausible scenarios, and then he wraps it all up in music and song to make a musical. And …
Review: An Iliad by Penfold Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 23, 2017
Cami Alys as the poet and narrator of AN ILIAD is transcendent, and the staging at the historic Scottish Rite Theatre is exactly right for this superb venture into the howling heart of mankind.
We walked away afterwards stunned and wordless. My wife was moved to tears. From the interpretation of an epic poem written nearly three thousand years ago. This is the power of theatre and this is a performance and interpretation that must not be missed. Essential if you want to understand why the art form refuses to die; essential if you're not frightened by huge themes of life, death, love and war; essential if you want …