| ARCADIA closes on Broadway on June 19, but if you missed it, you get another chance when the Actors Shakespeare Company performs the Tom Stoppard play 3 performances only…and it’s FREE! 
PRESENTS ARCADIA
By Tom Stoppard
An ASC at NJCU Lab Project
Bethany Reeves, Project Director THREE PERFORMANCES ONLY! WHEN: Wednesday, June 22, & Thursday, June 23, 7:30 PM
WHERE: West Side Theater, 285 West Side Avenue, Jersey City
ADMISSION: Free ASC IN THE COMMUNITY
WHEN: June 26, Sunday at 1:30 PM; Pre-Show Talk at 1:00 PM
WHERE: Congregation B’nai Jacob, 176 West Side Avenue, Jersey City
ADMISSION: Free Information: 201.200.2390
www.ascnj.org Admission to all Arcadia events is free and open to the community. Arcadia is being performed as an ASC Lab Project, which enables its artists to explore new material, hone new skills and test new forms. Its Project Director is Bethany Reeves, long-time veteran of ASC whose work includes Hamlet and Macbeth. The cast includes other ASC veterans Michael Basile, Elizabeth Belonzi, David Godbey, Michael Hajek, Ms. Reeves, Paul Sugarman and Lynn Battaglia, as well as newcomers Luke Basile, Megan Gaffney, Matthew Hurley, and McNair High School graduate Jessica Perez, who adds her first acting credit to her resume after a successful directing debut earlier in ASC’s Lear Project. Ms. Perez is playing the role of Thomasina, the young genius who expands the discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton using common sense and a vivid imagination. Ms. Perez is delving into her first accent work (British) and having her first opportunity to work as a fellow actress with ASC professionals. “She’s continuing her directorial studies with ASC, in the sense that I often take time to talk with her as an aspiring director as well as working with her as an actress, explaining what I'm doing and why,” says Ms. Reeves. Arcadia explains in laymen’s terms the concepts of several math and science theories and has become a popular teaching tooling, according to Ms. Reeves. “In Arcadia, chaos theory and fractals, the limitations of Newtonian physics, entropy and the second law of thermodynamics, become sparkling areas of exploration and discovery pursued by passionate, witty characters. Math is exciting, and the people who do it are explorers,” Ms. Reeves says. “The play explores the very human impact of abstract ideas and the ways they can enrich our understanding of the world around us,” she adds. The company is exploring the possibility of inviting professors of math, physics and literature to discuss the themes of Arcadia in talk-back sessions around the presentation. “In addition to its fascination with math and physics, the play delves into the clash between classical and romantic aesthetics and temperaments, features poetry of both Shakespeare and Byron, and notes how sex, ‘the attraction that Newton forgot’, can upend just about anything, anytime,” said Ms. Reeves, quoting from the play. The “ASC in the Community” series brings the professional theatre company’s work outside the NJCU campus. Occasionally, ASC resident artists explore material outside of Shakespeare’s canon. |
