Carson Valley Community Theatres play, “Social Secutiry,” focuses on family dynamics and relationships. Giovanna Jones as Barbara Kahn, Jim Dezerga as David Kahn, Rachelle Resnick as Trudy Heyman, Harriet Cummings as Sophie Greengrass and Kyle Littlefield as Martin Heyman.
Photo by Sarah Drinkwine.
Upscale New York billboards at the CVIC Hall in Minden on July 14-23 with the Carson Valley Community Theatre’s new production “Social Security.”
Having nothing to do with benefits for the elderly or disabled, the Broadway comedy written by Andrew Bergam, focuses on the family dynamics and relationships of an aging parent and a rebellious college kid, sibling rivalries and mid-life crisis.
“Security is social, it’s what we do as humans,” said Director Toni Tomei. “Parents get left behind as their children grow and don’t get visited as much, siblings grow apart and life changes, so this play really highlights that while bringing something new through relationships because thats when things happen, in a social environment.”
Crowned the “Unknown King of Comedy” by New York Magazine, Bergman is an American screenwriter, film director and novelist. After writing, “Social Security,” it soon became a critically acclaimed Broadway comedy, produced by David Geffen and the Schubert Organization at Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City on April 17, 1986. After that he received his first screenwriting credit for the Mel Brooks blockbuster “Blazing Saddles and went on to write such memorable comedies as “The In-Laws,” “Fletch,” “Soapdish,” “The Freshman,” and “Honeymoon in Vegas.”
Social Security centers around Manhattan art gallery owners Barbara and David Kahn, Barbara’s goody-good sister and her uptight CPA husband, and their archetypal Jewish mother.
The Kahn’s lives are upended when Barbara’s Mineola housewife sister, Trudy, deposits their eccentric mother, Sophie, on the couple’s doorstep while she and her husband head to Buffalo to rescue their sexually precocious college student daughter.
Things really begin to unravel when Sophie meets the art dealers’ best client, a suave elderly artist who offers to paint her portrait and changes her life in ways she never expected in her twilight years.
“It’s about relationships and family and the growth of the characters,” said Rachelle Resnick who portrays Trudy Heyman. “It’s about love, love found and love loss.”
Assistant director Karen Mason said “Social Security” is about not prejudging and finding passion in any stage and age of life.
Though comedic many of the references may not be suitable for young children.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Mason. “It’s a comedy, but not a slap stick, silly one. It’s intelligent and relatable.”
Curtains open 7:30 p.m. July 14 in Minden.
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