CARROLL GARDENS

3 Stars! “When Your Past Shows up at Your Party” Chicago Tribune, Kerry Reid

“This nuanced, tightly paced production fits snugly into the theme of Season 9 at 16th Street: Loyalty. We witness the challenge of maintaining a lasting relationship when both friends’ lives have gone in different directions. Playwright Williams, a New York writer, sets his insightful, often quite funny new work in Carroll Gardens, an older but lately gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn.” Oak Park Wednesday Journal, Doug Deuchler

“To wrap up a year of smash-hits, the 16th Street Theater is producing the world premiere of A. Zell Williams’s Carroll Gardens, a ‘comedy’ about an interracial childhood friendship in working-class Stockton, and how it changes when one of the parties becomes a New York creative professional.” Buzz News Chicago, Jacob Davis

“Carroll Gardens uses issues of class, education and gentrification to explore what it means to grow up versus grow apart. It’s a modern story of friendship that challenges what to hold onto and what — or who — needs to be let go.” New City Stage, Mary Kroeck

“The play raises interesting, important questions about integrity and cultural authenticity… Gregory Geffrard shows considerable range as the play’s conflicted protagonist, as does Minita Gandhi as the sharp-eyed wife of a film professor/wannabe producer.” Chicago Reader, Jack Helbig