Liz Goldberg is a painter, film graphic designer and animator inspired by puppets and absurdist theatre.

Her work explores the theme of the “diva” – the flamboyantly uninhibited female and the personal and political empowerment she represents.

Liz's images are often drawn from life, influenced by puppet–like characters reminiscent of Alfred Jarry’s forerunner of absurdist theater, Ubu-Roi, the buffoons of modernist playwright Michel de Ghelderode, the existentialist mime plays of Samuel Beckett, and the symbolist and political figures of European puppet theater.

"These influences give me considerable license to explore colorist and gestural solutions to the depiction of the contradictions these images embody: awkward yet fluid, wooden yet alive, constrained yet brashly extroverted personalities, often mischievous, egotistical, erotic, even magical exaggerations of human behavior."

Rev. Georgiette Morgan-Thomas founded and owns American Hats LLC along with her son, Robert James Morgan III. American Hats LLC. is one of the only US hat factories dedicated to producing couture, dress, and casual women's and men's headwear for wholesale and retail purchase. "Our goal," says Rev. Morgan-Thomas "is to manufacture the highest quality handcrafted, affordable products right here in the USA and to preserve the art of hat making.” Reverend Morgan-Thomas has been featured on The Today Show, in The Entrepreneur, Grow with Google, AARP Magazine, and has been featured on many local media programs.

Jacqueline Goldfinger (she/they) is a Visiting Professor of Theatre at UC Davis and is authoring a new book titled "Playwriting with Purpose: A Guide and Workbook for New Playwrights." She won the Yale Drama Prize, Smith Prize, Generations Award, and Barrymore Award. Her poetry-play, Bottle Fly, is published by Yale Press and was a finalist at the International Book Awards. Jackie’s plays have been on The Kilroy’s List; her stage work has been developed and/or produced by theaters including: The National Theatre/London, The Kennedy Center, Oberlin Opera, AMUSE Choral Singers (NYC), Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Unicorn Theatre, Disquiet/Lisbon, The Court Theatre/New Zealand, Kansas City Rep, Perseverance Theatre, Seattle Public, and Manhattan
Theatre Works. She is currently commissioned by Oberlin Opera, Kennedy Center, Florida Studio Theatre and Wilma Theatre. Represented by The Gurman Agency. MFA University of Southern California, BA Agnes Scott College. www.jacquelinegoldfinger.com

David Fox is a Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania in Theatre Arts, and Director of the Penn Reading Project and New Student Orientation. His areas of expertise and teaching include modern American theatre, musical theatre and opera; arts criticism; and directing.

In addition to his work at Penn, David is an active arts journalist. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Opera Quarterly, The Kurt Weill Quarterly, and others. For 15 years, he was theater critic for Philadelphia City Paper, followed by five years at Philadelphia Magazine. He now writes regularly for Parterre Box, and—along with frequent writing partner, Cameron Kelsall—maintains the arts blog, Reclining Standards. Twenty-six of his essays appear in the current edition of the International Dictionary of Opera (St. James Press).

David also lectures nationally for arts groups including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia, the Los Angeles Opera, and others. He is a frequent guest on NPR’s Radio Times. In addition, he has designed music and sound for a number of regional theatres throughout the country, including the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, and Room for Theatre in Los Angeles.

David holds degrees from UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television, and has taught and developed educational programs in the arts and humanities at Penn, UCLA, and The University of Southern California. A native Los Angelino, he was part of the staff that opened the first ever Tower Classical Records store (on Sunset Boulevard). The vast LP (and later, CD) collection he built while working there still takes up half of his living room, and much of his time.

Cameron Kelsall is a freelance journalist and critic based in Collingswood, New Jersey. Cameron specializes in writing about theater, classical music, opera, and the arts at large. His byline appears in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Gay News, American Theatre magazine, Broad Street Review, Opera News, Parterre Box, Bachtrack, Exeunt NYC, and many other publications. He maintains the arts and culture blog Reclining Standards with his colleague David Fox.

Cameron serves on the Executive Committee of the American Theatre Critics Association, and is a member of the Outer Critics Circle and the Music Critics Association of North America.

Born and raised in Beach Haven, New Jersey, Cameron received a BA from Marymount Manhattan College and an MA from Ohio University. He has taught extensively at the college level and has lectured frequently on topics related to the arts.

Jonathan Mayberg is one of New York’s leading forward-thinking dynamic entrepreneurs who has helped launch many successful enterprises including a versatile real estate business.

Jonathan hails from New York; his education includes a BS in Packaging Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology. He's applied this knowledge and talent to many notable startups in entertainment, fashion, consumer healthcare and biotechnology.

He is proud to be partnered with Nest Seekers international, an innovative real estate firm built on the power of new ideas and modern technology. With a solid platform that utilizes the power of social media, television and national publications, Jonathan leverages Nest Seekers proprietary solutions to help his clients succeed in the new era of real estate.

“Investing in real estate is one of the most important investments my clients will ever make in their lives. I am their advisor from the beginning to fruition and it is my job to provide concrete, factual data and my knowledge of the market so they can make the right decision. I will never compromise my values or moral integrity to close a deal, I am available to all of my clients 24x7 and always have their best interests at heart. This is why they hired me; I am here for them through thick and thin.”
Jonathan brings a focus on personal attention and one on one customer service. He loves the challenges of the real estate market and brings his attention to detail, alongside an energetic, results-driven approach. His artistic passions are opera and theatre, playing and composing music, and designing and executing events that bring new people together.

Tonight we dined virtually with actor, producer, environmental advocate, and defective product notification expert Todd Hilsee.

Todd is a member of the New York City area company Hudson Theatre Works. Recent roles include Aston in Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker. He was a producer on Golda’s Balcony at the Helen Hayes Theatre, the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history (493 shows).

His environmental work includes founding Althouse Arboretum, a unique collaboration with GreenAllies a non-profit organization, and Upper Pottsgrove Township. The GreenAllies mission is to empower and support students as they become environmental sustainability leaders leading the way to a more livable future by providing leadership opportunities through service programs that promote a healthier, more sustainable community.
He produced workshops of The Puzzle, an original play about clowns and an autistic child, directed by Tony Award- winning clown David Shiner.

Todd is also an internationally-recognized mass communications expert, notifying victims of defective products, and served as the regular on- camera host of “man on the street” interviews to benefit federal judicial education.

Joanna Rotté is a theatre director of non-mainstream work and a member of Actors Equity Association. As Professor Emeritus at Villanova University, she served on the faculty for 30 years, including 7 years as Chair of the Department of Theatre and 5 years as Director of East Asia Studies. Her books include Scene Change (A Theatre Diary: Prague, Moscow, Leningrad) and Acting with Adler. Her essays on theatre, art, and culture – written for The Soul of the American Actor Newspaper and Broad Street Review – can be found at http://joannarotte.com.

A longtime meditation practitioner, she’s narrated five books written by Pema Chodron. Now, in the time of Covid, Joanna periodically posts a blog called DharmaTheatre. You are cordially invited to visit http://joannarotte.com/blog/, and you can subscribe at and you may subscribe http://joannarotte.com/contact/.

Our guest for dessert tonight is John Rosenberg, the brains behind Hella Fresh Theater in Philadelphia.

Hella Fresh Theater (www.hellafreshtheater.com) is an independent, DIY theater company that has presented nineteen original plays since 2009.

Hella Fresh's concept is this: dialogue-heavy character studies are written - an hour or two in the lives of people who think they are smarter than everyone else - and usually, the plot is irrelevant.

The Papermill Theater, a theater in a warehouse in Philadelphia, is the setting for Hella Fresh’s productions.

We discussed the company and more with John, including his latest play “Frauenschlläechtere,” involving a German lawyer in 1933 Hollywood.

The play written and directed by Rosenberg, is presented in weekly installments sent via the mail, culminating in a performance in your home.

Read more: https://www.dosagemagazine.com/kensingtons-hella-fresh-the…/

“A note for brave and intrepid actors: I can’t control what you do. Most of the time neither can you. Ignore stage directions. Ignore what you think I think it means. Someone will f$*k up everytime and that is great. It is funny when people have opinions. It is neat when you say something changes meaning depending on the reaction of someone else. It is funny when people mean the opposite of what they just said. It is funny when people tempt the fates. Just because you say something, doesn’t mean it has to be true. The more serious you take yourself, the funnier you sometimes can be. Let your pettiness and self-regard reign. When you are defensive and hurt, you have no idea what you are talking about. Just because you mean it one moment doesn’t mean you mean it the next. No one pays attention all the time. The more you can be yourself, the better.” - John Rosenberg

More Links:

Hella Fresh's Osceola: https://youtu.be/Ss3bQ4ionZ4

Chosen By Committee Podcast with Josh Herren and Chris Munden: http://phindie.com/21688-idiots-delight-by-robert-e-sherwo…/

Interview with John on No Proscenium Podcast (Los Angeles):
https://noproscenium.libsyn.com/episode-60-hella-fresh-thea…

To view other episodes of Into the Absurd and other productions, visit The IRC's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc7NYk0ZSkujKEwq1jvz78w

Tonight, our guest at the table was Actor, Director and Founder/Producing Artistic Director of First World Theater Ensemble, Zuhairah McGill.

“Z” is the founder and producing director of First World Theater Ensemble, where she has produced 24 plays. Zuhairah is a three-time award winner from DC Excellence in Black Theater; a three-time Barrymore nominee, twice for her one-woman show Sojourner, and for Gem of the Ocean at The Arden in 2019. First World Theatre Ensemble has been at the forefront of 4 Town Hall Meetings in recent months (and upcoming) addressing police brutality and systemic racism. She’s a dynamo that can move mountains both on and off the stage -- we’ll talk with her about her life, her dedication to her community and her activism in the arts. Her company is at the forefront of conversations in the community about police brutality and systemic racism.

Zuhairah originally hails from New York, NY, where she trained and studied under Ossie Davis, Barbara Ann Teer, and Uta Hagen. Zuhairah is the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of First World Theatre Ensemble, under which she produced 24 plays, 5 world premieres. She is also the Creative Artistic Director for the Master Griot Project, and was formerly the Director in Residence at the Prince Music Theatre.

Zuhairah has appeared in off-Broadway and national tours, including: “Sojourner”, “Most Dangerous Man in America: W.E.B. DuBois”, “Wallop”, “ All my Sons”, “Fences,” “Gutta Beautiful”, “From Ancient to Hip-Hop: The African Continuum” in which she conceived and directed, “ Night Mother”, “Wade in the Water: A Katrina Drama”, “Julius Caesar set in Africa, “Trick the Devil”, “First Breeze of Summer”, “Blues for an Alabama Sky”, “Trouble in Mind”, “Before it Hits Home”, “Bourbon at the Border”, “ A Piece of my Heart”, “Black Girl”, “Venice”, “My Name is Sapphire.. Damnit!”, “Mojo and the Sayso”, and “For Colored Girls.” She also includes in her work numerous national commercials and films.

Celebrating Favorite Friends Week at the IRC with this Saturday's 5 pm virtual dinner conversation with actress Jane Moore.

We'll talk about Jane's rich and vast body of work in theater and television; lighting up the IRC stage in the works of Tennessee Williams, Eugene Ionesco and Jean Giraudoux, and we'll reflect on some fun and just plain silly experiences with the IRC and other stages (notably, a lesson on grace and manners on stage with Gilberte, below). Join us by registering on Zoom, links below and at the bottom of the page, or through Facebook Live @ 5 pm on the IRC's Facebook page.

In honor of the rehearsal home stretch the IRC would normally be heading down in production for our annual live Fringe show (pre-pandemic), we're instead feasting on food for thought with our favorite leading lady of the stage and screen.

It's Good Book and Comfort Food week here at the IRC dinner table as we consider writing and publishing as sustenance for the soul, the bread and butter passion in the life and soul of writer Debra Leigh Scott.

One of Debra's many projects is to serve the unserved artists around the country through her non-profit organization Hidden River Arts, named after the Schuylkill (Dutch for “Hidden River”). Hidden River Arts is an independent literary, visual and performing arts organization based in Philadelphia, dedicated to the service, support and celebration of all artists.