Articles by: Lisa Panzer

Lisa Panzer has worked for many years in theater not only as an actor, but as a director, dramaturg, technical director, lighting designer, stage crew, and roustabout. A few of her favorite past theatrical roles include: Liz Imbrie in Philadelphia Story, Maria in Lend Me a Tenor, Mrs. Tarpey in Spreading the News, Mollie Ralston in Mousetrap, Trinculo in The Tempest, Bernice Roth in Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 and Felicia Dantine in I Hate Hamlet. In addition to theatrical endeavors, Mz. Panzer has also worked as a background performer in television’s Cold Case, Invincible, The Happening, several television commercials, and has played various roles in independent films including Project 21 productions and other commercial acting venues. (See http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3355274/ for additonal information).

Following a command from the Boss at the Genome Observation Department, two Lab Technicians spin “Woman” and “Man” into creation from a petri dish. These experimental subjects embark on a live journey of discovery that observers will find both witty and a touch of wistful. The subjects must learn to [...]

Detective story, murder mystery buffs and Agatha Christie fans in particular should enjoy this well appointed Miss Marple whodunnit classic. A notice in the Chipping Cleghorn Gazette announces that a murder will take place on a certain date at a specific time at Little Paddocks, a boarding house owned by [...]

“It’s the truth, even if it didn’t happen…” ~ Ken Kesey, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST Still fantastically crazy after all these years… and well worth seeing! Set in an unspecified state mental hospital in the early 1960s, this emotionally provocative play adapted by Dale Wasserman from Ken Kesey’s novel, [...]

Applause rang opening night for SLEUTH as the curtain rose revealing a beautiful bi-level set featuring a lovely Victorian parlor with a dash of humor, and the audience continued to be captivated throughout the performance. Written by Anthony Shaffer, this mystery play surpasses the usual whodunit, spiraling into a thrilling [...]

In this thoroughly delightful farce of the absurd, the longing for love and the desire for more than life’s less lively apects can offer is explored through one woman’s pervasive aura of melancholy. Her beautiful melancholia is such that it transcends those around her and causes them to wallow in [...]

Forge Theatre was packed opening night for STEEL MAGNOLIAS. Men and women alike laughed out loud at the well done wit, and many also quietly wept during this comedy-drama by Robert Harling which centers around an eclectic group of prominent Southern women who gather at the local hairdressing salon in small Louisiana town [...]

Stephen Adly Guirgis’s THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT, as directed by Erin Guard, challenges conceptualizations of what ‘went down’ in the days of Judas Iscariot, exploring why one of the most reviled characters in biblical times be given redemption via a retrial; why and how despair might be transmuted [...]

Theatergoers who braved the snow to see director Brian Miller’s rendition of FORBIDDEN BROADWAY at Barnstormers Theater on opening night were warmed by courtesy hot beverages (Helen Dorn). And a warm audience they were too, as their laughter rang throughout the show. Jack Frost took second billing to this fabulously [...]

Opening night for RABBIT HOLE, by David Lindsay-Abaire and directed by Christopher Wunder, met with abundant applause after each scene and a proper ovation with many on their feet in appreciation during last bows. There was laughter and eyes pooled with sadness as the audience witnessed onstage the Corbett family [...]

Ellen Wilson Dilks directs a strong cast in PCS’s PERMANENT COLLECTION, a thought provoking play inspired by controversial events that had taken place at the Barnes Foundation during the 1990s concerning conflicts over the terms of the legal will of founder Albert C. Barnes, wealthy chemist and art collector who [...]

Norman Shabel tells a story about a family who struggled to leave the poor side of town, and who are still struggling with that past thirty years later, even after living on the rich side of town and achieving the American dream. This history is dredged up for the family [...]

Director Jim Carroll invites us to step back in time to the turbulent 1860s to follow the March sisters, their family, and friends in a wholesome tale of one family’s struggle during the Civil War. We first meet the young sisters, each in various stages of approaching womanhood, at Christmastime [...]

David Mamet’s RACE as co-Directed by Colleen Bracken and Marc C. Johnson started out bracing, and maintained the rapt attention of opening night’s large audience with its rapid-fire dialogue, intrigue and twists. In this play which speculates on race issues through a multi-faceted lens, and exposes the dog eat dog [...]

The audience “eavesdrops” and titters as three different dysfunctional couples successively occupy Suite 719 of Plaza Hotel, NYC in three vignette style acts that make up Neil Simon’s PLAZA SUITE. Although this play is set in the 1960s, the humor remains applicable over forty years later. Take away the prim [...]

Opening night for King of Prussia Player’s FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at Shannondell Performing Arts Theater found the beautiful and comfortable 500 seat facility about 2/3 filled, and though many waited in lines out in the chilly mid-July drizzle for shuttle buses which kindly brought them to the theater, they [...]

Get ready to be transported back to 1938, into the world of Burton and Ruthie (lovingly played by Mark Henry and Katherine Henry), a father and daughter who run a general store in Shallowford, NC., where you can just settle in, smell the coffee and are made to feel down [...]

BILOXI BLUES, as directed by Erin Marie Friel at Colonial Playhouse, is an insightful piece that entertains away the blues! Lots of laughter in this coming of age tale about a Jewish boy, Eugene Morris Jerome (Adam Corbett), from the Bronx, who is drafted during WWII and shipped to boot [...]

Most of us are familiar with William Shakespeare’s tale of MACBETH whereupon traveling home after battling a rebellion through the murky Scottish moors Banquo (well played by Bob Toczek) and Macbeth (powerfully portrayed by Ethan Lipkin) and company are told by three eerie women (the wonderfully witchy, Julie Lacontora, Kathy [...]

Ken Ludwig combines Cyrano de Bergerac, Private Lives and the backstage dramatic antics of two aging hams, and company to create MOON OVER BUFFALO, the farcical play which brought Carol Burnett back to Broadway after thirty years. Set in 1953, Charlotte Hay (Ann Allen) and her vainglorious husband George Hay [...]

Can you spell “S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R”? Congratulations to Director Brian Seaman, cast and crew of THE 25TH ANNUAL SPELLING PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE’ at Narberth Community Theatre for a thoroughly delightful show! Even if you’ve never participated in your school’s spelling bee, you’ll be taken back into that magical yet awkward time [...]