The Zero Hour: “Actors were Fantastic!”

Erika Cuenca  and Daina Michelle Griffith - Photo by Heather Mull

Mike “Buzz” Buzzelli and Lonnie the Theatre Lady ran into each other at the opening night performance of The Zero Hour.  They got together and ‘dished’ it out on 'BURGH VIVANT, Pittsburgh's Cultural Talk Magazine.

They could not say enough about the theater, its mission, the actors, the set or the director. Here’s a what they had to say about each:

The Theater: “Something special about that theater…not a bad seat in the house.”  

Off The Wall Theater mission:  “Enlivening, educating & entertaining audiences in the Pittsburgh Region…dedicated to women: playwrights, directors, actors.”

The actors:  “Beautiful women, their talent is just great!”

The Play: “Thought-provoking!”  The play makes you talk afterwards about schoolbooks, the Holocaust, and what it must have been like during the time period.

The Set:  “The set was great.”  Mike and Lonnie credited Rich Preffer and Rikki Costiloe on the set, which includes a subway train, bedroom, therapist’s office and more.

The Director:  “Robyne Parrish is fantastic. She is so talented.”  She is an actress, director, teacher, and costarring in a movie coming out soon.

In their fun-loving candid manner, Mike and Lonnie discussed the characters, in particular how Daina Michelle Griffith, a very pretty woman, successfully handled the character of O, who, in their own words, is a hardcore, butch, dyke, lesbian who is very hard, tough, angry and militant.  They were impressed with how the women seamlessly changed both clothing and characters on stage in a matter of seconds and how believable each distinctive character was.  Click here to listen to entire podcast.

The Zero Hour is about a lesbian relationship where one partner, Rebecca, played by Erika Cuenca, does not want to come out of the closet, while the other partner, the chronically unemployed O, played by Daina Michelle Griffith, is out. The play, which intertwines the theme of a lesbian relationship with the writing of a 7th grade textbook on the Holocaust, raises questions about what is the truth, what is authentic, how far is too far?  The Zero Hour begins its second week of performances this Friday, November 1st.  Click here for more information or tickets.