Word: poreba
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Wendy Wasserstein's play portrays the emotional milestones of Heidi Holland, a self-proclaimed "informed observer" of life, and links them with the chief social issues and trends of her time. The play begins with Heidi (Janine Poreba) alone on a darkened stage, warmly personalizing her lecture on women in art. Her reminiscences of insecurity and indecision trigger the events of the play, literally inviting the audience to relate to her story on a personal level...
...lead role, Janine Poreba struck a poignant balance between her confessional relationship with the audience, her underlying isolation on stage, and the preservation of normality in her interactions with the other characters. The role of Heidi demands a juggling act between Heidi's personal problems and the many different relationships she holds with the other characters. Poreba maintained Heidi's sense of "self" while contributing to the development of others, namely Peter Patrone (Mike Efron) and Scoop Rosenbaum (Nick Gordon). Poreba's Heidi was vividly 3-dimensional. Most striking were Poreba's monologues, in which her meaningful pauses, shifting pace...
...delightful, eclectic set of The Road to Mecca and you know that you are about to embark on a journey to somewhere unusual. Paper mache animals perch on pebbles bordering a room crowded with sparkling colored candles, odds and ends of flowered furniture. As soon as Janine Poreba and Jennifer Sun walk onstage and begin to speak, however, it is their engrossing performances which overflow the room. Athol Fugard's brilliant script is given life by an extremely talented cast, who bring a piece of South Africa's karoo home to Harvard...
Helen (Sun) and Elsa (Poreba) have known each other for fifteen years, since Elsa was a teenager. Helen is an artist who creates animals and fantastical creatures from scraps and junk in her front yard, which have earned her the distrust and animosity of her neighbors, in addition to the love and respect of a few good friends like Elsa and the toleration of her minister, Marius Byleveld (Artie Wu). Now a schoolteacher in Capetown, Elsa has driven for ten hours in response to a desperate letter from Helen, who is trying to stop the church council from putting...
Shaky South African accents aside (they might better have been left out altogether), both Poreba and Sun give inspired performances. As Elsa, Poreba sharply vents her anger and frustration with the world with convincing exhaustion, while Helen's quiet, troubled presence spreads gradually around them in slow, careful gestures. While Poreba's strength lies in her moving, often powerful, expression, Sun's lies in her understated charm and ability to command the scene when necessary. Artie Wu, the third and final member of the cast, does a very good job with a much smaller role as the local minister, successfully...