The San Antonio College Theatre Department performed Ken Ludwig’s “Moon Over Buffalo” Feb. 1-11 at SAC’s McCreless Theater.
Former SAC Professor Jim Mammarella guest directed the 1995 comic play set in Buffalo, New York in 1953.
SAC Theatre Program Coordinator Laura T. Garza, who learned from Mammarella when she was a student at SAC, invited her former professor to direct the play. Garza served as associate director for the production.
Moon Over Buffalo centers on Charlotte and Greg Hay, a married couple and former Broadway actors who end up in Buffalo, working for a run-down theatre company. The production is packed with situational comedy and physical and slapstick humor.
Garza said she and Mammarella chose the play because they wanted to do a comedy, and because they like Ludwig’s style.
“I absolutely love this play,” said Troy Daily, a theater teacher at Jefferson High School. “It was so funny. It kept me on the edge of my seat.”
The audience and student actors fed off each other’s energy during the play. The actors delivered an energetic performance, and the crowd laughed along accordingly.
“I think people underestimate college students,” Micah Wolfe, who played Charlotte, told SAC Student News. “I’ve seen a lot of that with this show — people telling me, ‘I wasn’t expecting a college production to be that good. I wasn’t expecting to see all that talent.’ Then people come out and see us and understand.”
Jonathan Cordaway, who played a stage manager named Paul in the play, was on crutches before the show but concealed his injury throughout his performance. When a woman commented that she didn’t know Cordaway was hurt, he smiled and said that was “the biggest compliment y’all can give me.”
Technical Director Nathan Thurman told SAC Student News, “There’s so many different stories to be told and so many different voices that need to be heard. The way we do that and communicate with each other is often through theater and art and being able to express ourselves and our stories.”
SAC Theatre’s next production, Cabaret, is scheduled to run April 4-14 at the McAlister Auditorium.
Armani Martinez contributed additional reporting.
