Join your neighbors in lively debates on current issues that impact your world! The Hornets’ Nest features script-in-hand performances of hot topic plays followed by conversations with community leaders.
All Hornets’ Nest events are held in Geva’s Nextstage. Tickets are free and limited to two per person. Reservations are highly recommended – many events sell out! Reserve online or Call the Box Office at (585) 232-GEVA (4382).

Rick Dollinger and Major General John Batiste at the inaugural Hornets’ Nest reading of Back of the Throat
This project was born of our passion for open and free dialogue. It is essential to us that the access to this forum – if it is to be true community dialogue – that it remain free and open to all.
But for that to happen, we need you! You have already shown us that this kind of theatre and this kind of dialogue are important to you. That you believe, as we do, that art speaks to who we are as a community and as a civilization. That we can explore the stories of our generation in an effort to make life better for the next generation.
Let’s keep the conversation alive and thriving. Support the Hornets’ Nest.
Got a suggestion for a possible Hornets’ Nest play, or a topic that you’d like to talk about? Let us know what you’re thinking by emailing us at gevatalk@gevatheatre.org. Please include Hornets’ Nest in your subject line.
The Hornets’ Nest: Think Theatre.
“Because I am a white woman, I’ve never walked in the shoes of a black man, or an Asian person, or a Jewish person. But through the theatre I can experience that in some fashion – maybe not the same way, maybe not identically – but I CAN experience it, and through those experiences I can change. I think it’s so important that we have theatre that allows us to walk in someone else’s shoes.”
Retired Judge Marilyn O'Connor
following the Hornets’ Nest reading of The Sandreckoner
By Mark St. Germain
On the day England enters World Word II, the legendary psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud clashes with the young C.S. Lewis about love, sex, the existence of God and the meaning of life – just weeks before Freud tak es his own life. Is there common ground between faith and reason? What happens when science and religion are used as justification for action?
By Bruce Graham
Illiterate but likable, Bobby Reyburn loves to do impressions. He's also a member of the Aryan nation, convicted of a horrific crime. John Brennan is a serious writer whose passion got the better of him. Both are on Death Row. Can a person be innocent though proven guilty? Is our justice system fair and just enough to include capital punishment? Is the Death Penalty a viable punishment?