Patricia Conolly, Frances Sternhagen, et al. Set for The Cocktail Party Special Events

The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) has announced a series of post-performance special events to be held in conjunction with its production of T.S. Eliot’s The Cocktail Party, running March 7 – April 10 at the Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row.

On March 19, Dr. Patrick Query will join members of the Cocktail Party cast for The T.S. Eliot Poetry Jam, reading and discussing Eliot’s verse. On March 26, Fr. John R. Sheehan from St. Malachy’s Church and psychologist Laurence Schwartz will analyze the play’s psychological and religious themes in a post performance panel to be moderated by Dr. Matthew Bolton, academic dean of the English department at Loyola School in New York City.

The third post-performance event, The Party Continues, will be held on April 2 and feature Tony Award winner Frances Sternhagen and actress Patricia Conolly, both of whom appeared in a Broadway production of The Cocktail Party 40 years ago. The women will discuss the play and their experiences with the previous production in a conversation moderated by Scott Alan Evans, who has directed the TACT revival.

In The Cocktail Party, Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne are throwing a party at their fashionable London flat. The guests arrive only to discover that their hostess is nowhere to be found and a rather strange man, who no one seems to know, acts right at home. The company features Mark Alhadeff, Jeremy Beck, Ben Beckley, Lauren English, Cynthia Harris, Simon Jones, Jack Koenig, Erika Rolfsrud, and Celia Smith.

For further information, visit: www.tactnyc.org.