by Ruth Kirschner
WHEN: Thursdays, March 31 and April 7 at 7:30 pm; Fridays, April 1 and 8 at 8:00 pm; Saturdays, March 2 and 9 at 8:00 pm; and Sundays, April 3 and 10 at 2:00 pm.
WHERE: Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center at 715 Grand Avenue, Hackettstown, NJ on the campus of Centenary University.
TICKETS: $25.00-$27.50 for adults with discounts available for seniors, students, and children 12 and younger.
WHERE: Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center at 715 Grand Avenue, Hackettstown, NJ on the campus of Centenary University.
TICKETS: $25.00-$27.50 for adults with discounts available for seniors, students, and children 12 and younger.
For those who are unable to attend in-person, a performance of Whippoorwill will be live streamed on Saturday, April 9, at 8:00 pm. Live stream links are available for purchase for $10.00 each. For more information, go to centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company’s box office at (908) 979-0900.
Originally submitted for the 2019 Women Playwrights Series, Whippoorwill tells the story of 9-year-old Bibi and her mother in suburban Ohio. They have made a good life for themselves, but Bibi is determined to get to the bottom of what really happened with her missing father, about whom her mother tells a different story each time she asks.
Ruth Kirschner has been a finalist in the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, CulturalDC’s Source Festival, and the Humana Short Play Festival. Her full-length play Remember Me was part of Centenary Stage Company’s 2004 Women Playwrights Series, and her play Whippoorwill, also in the WPS in 2019, is now being produced by Centenary Stage Co. Ruth was sponsored by the Marin Shakespeare Company to work weekly from February 2019 - January 2020 with incarcerated veterans and civilians at San Quentin State Prison. This was an improv & storytelling workshop. On December 16, 2021, the group performed The Field, Ruth’s full-length play based on their stories. The Field is currently nominated for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.
"I once dressed as a Baked Potato for Halloween: tights plus aluminum foil wrapped around an abundance of cotton batting stuffing. All the stuffing kept falling out if I moved. Someone asked, 'Are you a robot ballerina?' When I began writing Whippoorwill, I thought I was writing a comedy.
"There’s a saying: No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the audience.
"I wrote Whippoorwill in honor of every mistake anyone ever makes in the name of love. I wrote Whippoorwill in honor of every couple that falls in love and never imagines it could possibly end. I wrote Whippoorwill because I wanted to explore the whole beautiful, dangerous assignment love gives us, whether we do it or still have an incomplete." —Ruth Kirschner
Directing this World Premiere production is Margo Whitcomb. Margo is now a theatre artist, administrator and educator living in Vermont. Some of her previous credits include the American premiere of David Harrower’s Mary Stuart (Vermont Shakespeare), directing and developing Of the Better Kind (Theatre Kavanagh), and Love Alone and The Kid Thing (VT Pride Festival). Whitcomb teaches Shakespeare and acting at CCV Montpelier and has taught at NVU, Marymount Manhattan College, American Conservatory Theatre, SF College of Art and Design, Vassar College, University of California Riverside and Santa Barbara, University of Washington, and City University of NY. She holds a BFA in Acting (University of Minnesota), MA in Theatre History/Literature (UCSB) and an MFA in Theatre Directing (University of Washington, Seattle).
Centenary Stage Company remains committed to the health and safety of our community and adheres to all requirements set forth by the State of New Jersey. For more information regarding CSC COVID-19 policies and policy updates, visit centenarystageco.org/faq.
The 2021-22 season of performing arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Sandra Kupperman Foundation, the John and Margaret Post Foundation, and CSC corporate sponsors, including Platinum Season Sponsor The House of the Good Shepherd, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Medical Center Atlantic Health System, Home Instead Senior Care (Washington), and Fulton Bank, Visions Federal Credit Union and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.
Originally submitted for the 2019 Women Playwrights Series, Whippoorwill tells the story of 9-year-old Bibi and her mother in suburban Ohio. They have made a good life for themselves, but Bibi is determined to get to the bottom of what really happened with her missing father, about whom her mother tells a different story each time she asks.
"I once dressed as a Baked Potato for Halloween: tights plus aluminum foil wrapped around an abundance of cotton batting stuffing. All the stuffing kept falling out if I moved. Someone asked, 'Are you a robot ballerina?' When I began writing Whippoorwill, I thought I was writing a comedy.
"There’s a saying: No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the audience.
"I wrote Whippoorwill in honor of every mistake anyone ever makes in the name of love. I wrote Whippoorwill in honor of every couple that falls in love and never imagines it could possibly end. I wrote Whippoorwill because I wanted to explore the whole beautiful, dangerous assignment love gives us, whether we do it or still have an incomplete." —Ruth Kirschner
Centenary Stage Company remains committed to the health and safety of our community and adheres to all requirements set forth by the State of New Jersey. For more information regarding CSC COVID-19 policies and policy updates, visit centenarystageco.org/faq.
The 2021-22 season of performing arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Sandra Kupperman Foundation, the John and Margaret Post Foundation, and CSC corporate sponsors, including Platinum Season Sponsor The House of the Good Shepherd, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Medical Center Atlantic Health System, Home Instead Senior Care (Washington), and Fulton Bank, Visions Federal Credit Union and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.
