This year we were blessed to have some friends give us season tickets to our favorite theater, Actors’ Summit Theater in Hudson. We were not in a position to buy them ourselves this year, but we are now able to continue a tradition that is now in its sixth season for us (I believe).

On Thursday, Nov. 5th, we went to see the opening night of For Better. Neither of us had ever heard of it, and with good reason – it is a very new play by a Cleveland-area playwright. The play explores (through near-farce) the dangers and complications of modern cell-phone/internet-dominated lives.

I enjoyed the play very much – I laughed through much of it, and there was one scene where two drunken friends were discussing women that was very funny. The characters were not deep, and the play did not radically change my outlook on life, or even give me much to think about (except to be very happy I am not a cell phone addict), but it was highly entertaining. The scenes were tightly choreographed as multiple actors carried on multiple cell phone conversations with each other. It worked very well.

One of the things I love about going to the same theater over and over is getting to know the actors. I think the actors at Actors’ Summit are quite good, and the core actors are very strong. This play had a couple of new actors in it, and they did a nice job. One of my favorite actors, Sally Groth, was in this play, and I believe it is the first time I have ever seen her in a comedy. She is a very intense dramatic actor, so I was curious to see how she would do. She did well, but was more or less the “straight man” in the play, so I do not feel I have really seen her in a comedic role yet.

The biggest negative of the night was after the play, in the car, Meredith reminded me that we had to go to work the next day. I’m so used to going to plays on Friday or Saturday that I had forgotten that it was only Thursday.