Articles by: Ellen Wilson Dilks

Ellen Wilson Dilks has been active throughout the Philly area as an actor, director, dialect coach and dramaturge for over 30 years [gulp]. Past directorial credits include The Laramie Project at Celebration Theatre in Lansdowne, Talking With at Narberth Community Theatre and The Dining Room, Wait Until Dark and Prelude to a Kiss at Colonial Playhouse in Aldan, as well as Almost, Maine, Nuts, Patient A, Independence and Childe Byron with The Players Club of Swarthmore. She served as assistant director for two Adult Theatre School class productions at People’s Light & Theatre Company and a student production at Widener University. As a performer, Ellen has worked with The Players Club, Colonial Playhouse, Calliope, Hedgerow, Footlighters in Berwyn, The Drama Group in Germantown, The Barnstormers in Ridley Park and as a founding member of Cynergy Drama Group—performing in Hamlet and King Lear. She had the pleasure of supporting Philly favorites Pete Pryor and Tom McCarthy in a staged reading at Act II Playhouse in Ambler. In addition, she was a Barrymore nominator for three seasons. Currently Ellen serves as part of the Audience Development & Marketing Committee and acts as de facto Dramaturge and dialect coach for Players Club.

Jane Austen’s books are beloved around the world; they have continued to sell well for over 200 years and her fans are legion. Rose Valley’s Hedgerow Theatre is presenting a stage adaptation of her 1813 novel PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, one of Austen’s most popular works. This version was written by the former [...]

Ambler’s Act II Playhouse is closing out their current season with Ken Ludwig’s screwball farce LEND ME A TENOR—already extended until June 7th!   Ludwig is America’s premier farceur, with several Broadway hits to his credit, but TENOR is by far the most well-known and the most frequently produced.   Former Act [...]

West Philly’s Curio Theatre Company is closing out their current season with an exceedingly tongue-in-cheek adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES.   The original, written in 1901, was the third of Doyle’s four novels featuring super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes.   As was the custom at the time, the [...]

When one thinks of Oscar Wilde, witty bon mots skewering Victorian repression immediately come to mind.   A serious telling of the death of John the Baptist as revenge by a spurned Salomé does not.  Yet, upon further consideration it makes sense. By Wilde’s lifetime, Salomé had become the ultimate icon [...]

“One crow sorrow, Two crows joy…Three crows a letter, Four crows a boy.” Childhood memories, we all have them.   And if we have siblings, we tend to relive them whenever we gather.   Some things are crystal clear, others are fuzzy.   Sometimes we disagree on how events played out; and other [...]

Hedgerow is sweeping in Spring—and starting their 90th birthday celebration—by staging Georges Feydeau’s classic farce, A FLEA IN HER EAR.   Written in 1907, at the height of France’s Belle Époque, this comic masterpiece has been performed around the world ever since its debut.   Hedgerow has opted to use a new [...]

Actor/Director Orson Welles was larger than life, so it seems fitting that he would take on the enormous task of adapting Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick,” which was originally published in 1851—all 635 pages of it.  The story is considered by many to be one of the great American novels—and has [...]

I feel I should preface this review with the disclosure that I am not a sports fan, never have been.  So, it was with curiosity and trepidation that I signed on to review this InterAct/Act II joint premiere of David Robson’s new play.   Having finished its run at InterAct, ASSASSIN [...]

Yeah, this is about right for my life—sitting alone on Valentine’s Day watching a romantic comedy… But, in a way that was kind of the perfect mindset to see Larry McKenna’s new comedy, STRICTLY PLATONIC. It’s a clever piece about that age old search for true love, something we can [...]

“No man is an island…” I’m sure many of you are familiar with that quote by 17th century poet John Donne.   It kept swirling around in my mind as I watched Torben Betts’ play MUSWELL HILL, now playing at Villanova’s Vasey Hall.  Inspired by observing a couple at a local [...]

“There are no secrets better kept than the secrets everybody guesses.” George Bernard Shaw was one of Britain’s most prolific playwrights—and one of its most beloved as well.  He was quite controversial, too; Shaw used the stage as a vehicle to shed light on the many inequalities he found in [...]

“He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.” ~ Book of Job Curio Theatre Company in West Philly is reviving Peter Shaffer’s 1973 drama EQUUS for the winter season.    The play centers on the explosive encounters [...]

Actress/playwright Jen Childs is a diminutive woman—I don’t think she even reaches five feet tall. But every ounce of her body is packed with talent. All of which is on display in her one-woman piece WHY I’M SCARED OF DANCE at Ambler’s Act II Playhouse. Working with director Harriet Power, [...]

Hmm, how does a reviewer write a review of a play that skewers theatre reviewers? West Philly’s Curio Theatre Company has chosen Tom Stoppard’s THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND as a respite from the pressures of the holidays. Directed by Dan Hodge, Stoppard’s comedic payback is running in the company’s new [...]

Doors to slam? Check.    Philandering husband? Check.   Mistaken identities? Check.   Scantily clad young lady? Check—and check.   And a poor schlemiel caught in the middle of it all? Check. Hedgerow is spending yet another summer with British master farceur Ray Cooney—and his sometime collaborator, John Chapman.    This time they’ve gone back [...]

Mary Chase’s HARVEY continues at the Lionville theatre until June 23rd.   Chase was a reporter in Colorado—and mother of three boys—when she penned HARVEY.    It took her two years, working at night, to complete her comedy, which she started in the hopes of making a grieving neighbor laugh.    HARVEY made [...]

What defines a friendship? Is it shared values?  Similar interests?  Common social background?  It’s kinda hard to pin down, isn’t it?  Another question: do all friendships run their course?  Is it inevitable that eventually we’ll drift apart?  Will life circumstances change us in some fundamental way so that we no [...]

Written just as WWII was ending in 1945, J.B. Priestley’s AN INSPECTOR CALLS is meant as an indictment of Britain’s aristocracy.  It is perhaps Priestley’s best known works [in large part due to an inventive and bold revival by Britain’s National Theatre in 1992] and considered to be one of [...]

Mounting a classic Broadway musical means lots of sets, a huge cast, an orchestra and costumes out the wazoo, right? Not necessarily. Ambler’s Act II Playhouse gets huge props for their bold move of presenting a minimalistic version of MY FAIR LADY, Lerner & Loewe’s 1956 adaptation of George Bernard [...]

As one enters the upstairs stage at the Adrienne one is greeted by Caitlin Lainoff’s simple kitchen set that immediately evokes the look of the early 60s. This is surrounded by a proscenium of a representation of Spanish moss, a clear clue that the viewer will be entering the sleepy [...]