UPCOMING SHOWS
NEW JERSEY FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA & Music Director
David Wroe presents
SUMMERTIME FOLK FANTASIES
Celebrate summer with a selection of folksy fantasies
presented by New Jersey Festival orchestra and special guest Metropolitan Opera
star Stephen Gaertner! Delius’ “Brigg Fair” is a hauntingly beautiful take on
the old English Lincolnshire folk melody of the same name and Copland’s
Appalachian flavors shine in a performance of his Old American Folk
Songs. Rounding out the concert is Gershwin’s ultimate American folk
opera… Porgy and Bess Fantasy.
September 17 at 2:30PM
Jessica Sherr in Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies
Hollywood icon Bette Davis broke the glass ceiling for women
in the entertainment industry. Trapped by the movie studios who owned her,
Bette wrestled with movie moguls, and fought against their unfair system of low
pay and meager roles. See Bette triumph over the studio heads’ misogyny to win
starring roles and compensation on par with her male counterparts. Her story
inspires and empowers audiences to fight for fair and equitable treatment, and
to never let themselves be defined by someone else’s expectations!
Actress and playwright, Jessica Sherr, powerfully channels Bette Davis in her fight against the male-dominated studio system. On the night of the 1939 Oscars, Bette returns home knowing she’s to lose Best Actress to Vivien Leigh’s Scarlett O’Hara, because the press has leaked the winners. Miss Davis takes us on the bumpy ride of her tumultuous rise, as this tenacious actress fights her way up the studio system to reach the top of her profession.
Through conversations with her mother Ruthie, scenes of her
friendship with Olivia De Havilland, her love affairs with revered film
director William Wyler and eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes, her dysfunctional relationship
with her daughter, her four failed marriages, her groundbreaking court case
with Warner Brothers (which she lost), and being subject to ageism in
Hollywood, we experience Bette’s most defining and most vulnerable moments: her
courageous battle against sexism and inequity.
Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies, directed by Karen Carpenter, gives audiences a humanizing experience into the mind of a global icon whose voice could not remain silent. Her battles and victories were generations ago, but her story is an inspiration for today, empowering audiences to stand up and fight for what they believe in. Forever!
September 29 at 7:30PM
September 30 at 7:30PM
October 1 at 2:30PM
October 6 at 7:30PM
October 7 at 7:30PM
Trilogy Repertory Theater presents A Man of No
Importance
Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, and Terrence McNally’s acclaimed musical A Man of No Importance tells the story of an amateur theater group in 1960s Dublin and their leader, bus driver Alfie Byrne. Determined to stage a production of Oscar Wilde’s Salome despite the objections of local church authorities, Alfie confronts the forces of bigotry and shame over a love “that dare not speak its name.” This evocative and award-winning musical illustrates the redemptive power of theater, love, and friendship, all for a man of seemingly no importance.
