New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House is inspired by parties that took place every New Year’s Eve at playwright John Frank’s grandmother’s house in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Park Slope in 1960 wasn’t the trendy young family mecca it is today. Rather, it was a typical New York melting pot neighborhood where established […]
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Dave’s Italian Kitchen, which has evolved into Dave’s New Kitchen, was the first sponsor for the first show the 2nd Act Players ever did in 2013. And he’s back with us again this year for New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House Nov. 3-18. In fact, we just recently had Dave’s pizza to help us celebrate […]
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New Year’s Eve was perhaps the biggest feast of all because it was not unusual to have several meals over the course of the party, the first before midnight, a second after midnight and a third in the wee hours of the morning.
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When you come to see New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House Nov. 3-18, you’re going to be hearing about the Waldorf. Specifically, you’ll hear about dancing in a Waldorf ballroom. What’s that all about? The Waldorf Astoria Hotel is a well-established New York City landmark which now has locations in other cities as well, including […]
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Stickball was a quintessential New York City street game in the 1950s and 1960s. A version of baseball, it’s played with a skinny bat and a rubber ball. In the Depression of the 1930s, talked about in the nd Act Players’ November show, New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House, bats were often broom or mop […]
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Ravioli is a traditional southern Italian favorite. In 1960 and 1961, Italian families like the Smaldones who you’ll meet in New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House this Nov. 3-18, would make their own from scratch rather than buy them pre-made or frozen as people do these days. Within the family, there was always a debate […]
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Roughly 16 million Americans served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II, which last for the United States from December 1941 until August 1945. But our story takes placed on Dec. 31, 1960 and Dec. 31, 1961, so why is World War II a part of it? The reason the war is spoken […]
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For almost half a century, beginning in 1929 and going through the early 1970s, Guy Lombardo was Mr New Year’s Eve for millions of Americans. Before Dick Clark and now Ryan Seacreast, it was Lombardo Americans listened to and watched as they prepared to bring in the New Year. He and his band first played […]
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