Date: Wednesday, September 28, 1994
Section: A.M. MAGAZINE
`LOPSIDED' COMPELLINGLY IN BALANCE AT CREST
by GEOFF GEHMAN, The Morning Call
"Kafkalas handles sensitively some mighty rough dilemmas. Other authors offer a rash of confessions, then stuff them with subplots; she usually leaves well enough alone. Gail and Laurie's reconciliation is naturally rocky, capped by Gail asking to see Laurie's scar like some rubbernecking motorist. The membrane between being shallow and being human, Kafkalas gently reminds us, is wafer-thin."
Date: Tuesday, September 20, 1994
Section: COMMENT
COLLEGE SHOWS A COMMITMENT TO WOMEN
The Morning Call
With a sense of mission and a push toward justice, Cedar Crest College commissioned for its current theater season a play about breast cancer. It is not a surprising choice, not for this school.
The characters in "Lopsided," by Cedar Crest graduate Ellen Ann Kafkalas, are young women, and the fact that breast cancer affects women of all ages is just one of the messages in this drama. The script also says that while death is a possible outcome of the disease, it is not the only outcome.
Tilting the odds in favor of survival is of more than artistic interest at the college. When "Lopsided" opens at Cedar Crest's theater on Friday evening it will be only one part of a series of breast-cancer support and awareness events sponsored by the school. Last year, Cedar Crest gathered petitions bearing more than 30,000 signatures as part of the National Breast Cancer Coalition's nationwide campaign to marshal more resources to end the epidemic. College President Dorothy G. Blaney was one of the campaign's national leaders.
Cedar Crest has staked out for itself a respected niche in the shrinking field of schools for women. That role and responsibility mean more than accepting applications and tuition payments only from females. By focusing energy and resources on issues of importance to women -- like breast cancer -- it also extends its commitment beyond graduation day, and far afield of the campus boundaries.
Date: Monday, September 19, 1994
Section: LOCAL/REGION
Excerpts from CEDAR CREST TRIES TO CHANGE `LOPSIDED' VIEW OF CANCER CANCER
SHOWN FROM `LOPSIDED' VIEW
by ANN WLAZELEK, The Morning Call
Cedar Crest College didn't ask Ellen Ann Kafkalas to write a play about breast cancer because the 31-year-old alumna had the disease ... Kafkalas has never had breast cancer, the most common cancer among women. But she said she did draw from the experiences of a close friend who is battling the disease and from members of area support groups when she wrote the college's season opener, a two-hour, two-act drama titled "Lopsided."
... The story, however, has appeal for everyone, according to Kafkalas. "You don't have to have had breast cancer to appreciate the play," she said, adding that the production has been referred to as "a mini `Big Chill.'" "It's about how life throws us curve balls and we have to field the pitches, work through the obstacles." While the play explores the ugly side of breast cancer, from the scars of surgery to a damaged self-image, it also embraces a sense of strength and hope, Kafkalas said. "Cancer doesn't always mean death," she said.
... Kafkalas' friend, a Lehigh Valley resident who didn't want to be named, was told several years ago that she had a particularly deadly form of cancer that begins in the breast and spreads through the lymph glands. "She helped me in a lot of ways, even though the play is not about her," Kafkalas said.
... the friend impressed Kafkalas with her strength, determination and knowledge. "I found that most of the women who have had breast cancer are willing to talk about it to help others and have a lot of strength ... Knowledge is power in a sense and they are determined to live and beat it."
... To alter public perception that breast cancer predominantly affects older women, Kafkalas made the main character 27. "I want women to realize that just because they are only 30 and have a lump that they should not ignore it," she said. "I hope this play gets that message across."
