Summer Solos #3: This Wednesday @ 6:30PM!

See you Wednesday evening!     Summer Solos (Reading Series Every Wednesday in July. Raindates are Thursdays.) July 21, 28 @ 6:30PM Visual Arts Center of NJ (on the lawn) 68 Elm Street, Summit, NJ 07901   If it is raining, or looks like our performance will be washed out by 4 pm, we will send an email to ticket holders to postpone until Thursday evening. If rain pops up during the performance, we will take cover under the tents set up in the Visual Arts Center parking lot and finish the show!   Read More in Our Summer Program     July 21 Harry Clarke  by David Cale Featuring: Clark Carmichael   Harry Clarke is the story of a shy midwestern man who feels more himself when adopting the persona of cocky Londoner Harry Clarke. Moving to New York and presenting himself as an Englishman, he charms his way into a wealthy family’s life, romancing two family members as the seductive and sexually precocious Harry, with more on his mind than love. With his spellbinding and emotionally nuanced storytelling, Cale has created a riveting story of a man leading an outrageous double life.   Buy Your Tickets     July 28 Forever  by Dael Orlandersmith Featuring: Nicole Callender   Inspired by her experiences in Paris at the famed Père Lachaise Cemetery—the final resting place of such legendary artists as Richard Wright and Jim Morrison—award-winning playwright/performer Dael Orlandersmith explores the strange way we form powerful bonds with people who, though unrelated to us by blood, come to feel like family. Orlandersmith investigates the complex legacy she received from her mother—a legacy of bitterness, abuse, and frustration, but also of poetry, music, and art.   Buy Your Tickets   And mark your calendars for our summer cabaret at Reeves-Reed Arboretum in August.     Songs in the Garden 2021 Dreamcatcher celebrates the season with an al fresco cabaret of songs at the beautiful Reeves-Reed Arboretum.  Bring your own blankets or lawn chairs, picnic or snacks! ​Wednesday, August 4, 2021 at 6:30PM Rain Date: Thursday, August 5, 6:30 PM All tickets $25 at the Reeves-Reed Arboretum, 165 Hobart Avenue, Summit, NJ 07901 Cast: Clark Carmichael, Harry Patrick Christian, Melissa Cox, Laura Ekstrand, Shabazz Green, Gail Lou, Scott McGowan, Vanessa Parvin Piano: Eddie Guttman Sound: Jeff Ertz   Buy Your Tickets    Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre Oakes Center * 120 Morris Avenue *  Summit, NJ 07901 Tickets: 800-838-3006 | Info: 908-514-9654 www.dreamcatcherrep.org    Join Our Mailing List   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Auditions for Chatham Playhouse’s 27th Annual Jersey Voices One-Act Festival 

AUDITIONS:

WHEN: Tuesday, June 1, and Wednesday, June 2, at 7pm
WHERE: Chatham Playhouse, 23 North Passaic Ave., Chatham

The Chatham Community Players will hold open auditions for the 27th annual Jersey Voices One-Act Festival. 

Performers must check in when they arrive, then wait in their cars until called in to audition.  

Performances will take place on August 6th, 7th, 13th, and 14th at 8pm and August 15th at 7pm. 

For directions or additional information, please visit www.chathamplayers.org.  

The Chatham Community Players are committed to diverse and inclusive casting, and performers of all races, ethnicities, and gender identities are encouraged to audition. The Board of Trustees requires all performers be fully vaccinated prior to the first performance date. Questions may be sent to jerseyvoicesnj@gmail.com.

Sides and audition forms will be available on Monday, May 10, on the CCP website.  Performers are encouraged to print and bring their audition form and their own copies of sides of the pieces they are auditioning for, but auditions forms sides will also be available at the theater.

Presented One-Act Plays are:

Bernice’s Birthday
by Brigid Amos
Directed by Joann Lopresti Scanlon 

A cantankerous husband takes his wife of many years out for birthday celebration. What to order? Outdoors? Indoors? The second he steps away, a young attractive musician steps in to serenade her. Trouble brews.

• Lloyd (M, 70s +) Bossy to nasty

• Bernice (F, 70s+) Compliant, annoyed, disappointed, strong

• Musician (M) Nonspeaking, plays guitar and sings (both are great, one or the other is acceptable)

The Villager Photo

by Charles Grayson
Directed by William Michael Harper 

In this absurdist comedy, a recent Pulitzer-prize winning photographer battles his conscience during a clandestine rendezvous with a high-level intelligence officer who demands the secret behind a viral photo.

• Reed (M or F, 20s-40s) A young, up-and-coming photographer who lets their conscience get in the way of success. Comedic chops a must.

• Gideon (M or F, 40s-70s) A mysterious character reminiscent of a film noir gumshoe. Think classic Humphrey Bogart.

My Dad is Bald
by Minjae Kim
Directed by John A.C.Kennedy

Two high school friends grapple with each other’s preconceptions about family, image, childhood loss, the evolution of relationships, the value of the present moment, and the cultural implications of a really short haircut - all during a half-court game of basketball.

• 2 Asian Males, (14-17), who can bounce a basketball 

Cloud Illusions
by Amber Kusching
Directed by Arnold Buchiane

A chance meeting between two people can have an effect on  both of their lives.

• Joan (F, early 20s)

• Mitchel (M, late 30s-early 50s) Respectable looking

A Dave with Destiny
by Ken Preuss
Directed by Elizabeth Rogers

Dave and Destiny meet on a street corner and struggle to discover why they both recognize each other. Are they crazy? Have they met before? Is there a deeper connection? Perhaps all three.

• Dave (M, 25-55) Somewhat straight-laced guy. The kind of guy you could meet at a party and easily forget.

• Destiny (F, 25-55) Free spirit with a bit of an edge

A Benevolent Alliance of Mourners
by Ken Preuss
Directed by Lionel Ruland

Daniel, home from college for the funeral of a friend, and Ellie, hired to sing at the service, meet by chance outside the church, conversing, confessing, and connecting in unexpected ways.

• Ellie (Female presenting. Around 20 years old) Sarcastic but sincere. Disaffected by years of singing at funerals, and perhaps wise beyond her age.

• Daniel (Male presenting. Around 20 years old) Out of sorts by the death of a friend. Uses humor to hide his pain.

 

Bigger Than Pretend
by Robin Rice
Directed by Jackie Jacobi

A homeless couple uses their imagination to dream away their circumstances; but some challenges are too great, even for make-believe.

• Wadsworth (F, 40s-60s) Imaginative. Chatty. Homeless. Remington's significant other.

• Remington (F, 40s-60s) Reserved. Depressed. Homeless. Wadsworth's significant other.

REVIEW: CSC'S WORLD PREMIERE TURNING ADDRESSES ANTIPATHY TOWARD WOMEN IN OLYMPIC SPORTS

By Jane Primerano

The latest result of the Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series made its world premiere in a socially-distanced Sitnik Theater at Centenary’s Lackland Center on Feb. 25.

While it was strange to sit in the Sitnik at less than half capacity and surrounded by yellow caution tape, the unusual circumstances didn’t take anything away from Darrah Cloud’s Turning.

Turning in this case is a term for gymnastics that this reviewer had to look up. Turners were members of German-American gymnastics clubs called turnverein. The clubs existed from the early 19th Century and helped German immigrants assimilate in the New World.

These “turners” were three young women on their way to Germany. They were the first US Olympic Gymnastic Team.

Women in sports were pretty much invisible until Babe Didrikson, one of history’s best all-around athletes, burst onto the scene in the early 1930s.

Cloud was commissioned to write a play about some resident of Hackettstown and, when she discovered Ada Lunardoni, she also found just how little information exists on women in athletics.

When she did find out more about Lunardoni, she realized her story is an immigrant’s tale. Here is a young woman remembering her voyage west from Italy. Remembering coming through Ellis Island in her Easter dress. Now, she is sailing back to represent her adopted homeland during a time of Depression and upheaval.

Today, we think of Olympic athletes traveling across the country to train as almost a full-time job. These young women had regular jobs, Ada was a seamstress and had to train after work in backyard gyms in Newark. These women knew their sport was not going to lead to fortune. It didn’t even lead to lasting fame. Cloud had to talk to Lunanrdoni’s family and the families of the other athletes to fill out their stories.

One particular anecdote stuck with her and formed the basis for the play.

When Americans today think about the 1936 Olympics, they think of Jesse Owens.

At the Olympics Hitler believes would showcase the superiority of the Aryan race, Owens won four gold medals. A bad day for the Nazis, to say the least.

The anecdote Ada Lunardoni told her grandchildren is the basis of the second half of this one-act play, and it is the best reason to see it.

Much of the play involves the three young women at the Captain’s Ball on the ship, pointing out the young men they wish would ask them to dance, obsessing over their routines, complaining about having to wear high heels.

Ada and Jennie are Italian, and they let you know it: loud, occasionally semi-profane and very much girls of their time. The third teammate, Mary, is Irish Catholic and still emotionally under the thumb of the nuns who educated her.

The girls punctuate their discussions with cartwheels, flips and splits, as well as with rather a lot of gin.

Taylor Congdon is Ada. She’s believably a Jersey girl who works hard and plays hard and says what she thinks. Ally Morgstrom is Mary Wright (Centenary Stage regulars will recognize her from Hitler’s Tasters). She plays the timid, ridden-with-Catholic-guilt “turner” with precision. Emily Williams is Jennie Caputo, who may or may not be gay (queer in the jargon of the day). Her tough act is performed really well. (Right: Ally Borgstrom as Mary, Taylor Congdon as Ada, Deonté Griffin-Quick as Jesse Owens, and Emily Williams as Jennie. Photo credit  Christopher Young.)

The only other character is Deonte Griffin Quick’s Jesse Owens. He spends the early portion of the play running on the deck and silently noticing the girls, sometimes with quite a bit of curiosity. But later, he becomes an integral part of the crossing and the play.

All the actors were perfectly cast—and not just because of their athletic prowess. The three women interact flawlessly, and Quick is believable as the athlete Owens.

The set is spare compared to previous Michael Imhoff designs. It’s the deck, with a rail, lights and chairs. But it fits the show flawlessly, as Imhoff’s sets always do.

The gymnasts talk a lot about wanting to dance with the male athletes, and eventually, they dance to choreography by Director Lea Antolini-Lid with an assist from local ballroom dance instructor Joshua Belverio. The elegant dance moves that don’t interfere with the dialogue.

Almost everything at CSC is worth seeing, but Turning is particularly relevant. It not only tells the story of a former Hackettstown resident whose life is unknown to most people there but it also tells a story about how society has changed. And some ways it hasn’t.

The show runs through March 7.  For information and tickets, go to http://www.centenarystageco.org.

NOTE: This review has been updated on March 3, 2021, to reflect the role of Lea Antolini-Lid as the production's choreographer with an assist from ballroom dance coach Josh Belverio.

The JOCUNDA MUSIC, FILM & THEATRE FESTIVAL: The Destination for Creative Minds

The Right Way 

WHEN:  Sunday, January 10, at 8PM EST
WHERE: Zoom
TICKETS: $15.00 to benefit Riant Theatre. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. The reading will be followed by a talkback with the artists moderated by Van Dirk Fisher, Founder and Artistic Director of the Riant Theatre and producer of the Jocunda Festival. 
To obtain tickets in advance go to: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CADXO1icQfqAHs2o81NuKg 

Young playwright Samantha Hahn has written a school-set comedy filled with wacky characters, word play, and little lessons as an aspiring teacher (played by Broadway Star Rachel Zatcoff) tries to find her way through a maze-like school.

Straight from her novel debut of On the Roof: A Look inside Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, Samantha Hahn is thrilled to present her One-Act in The Jocunda Festival’s Virtual Play Reading Series before it hits the Riant Theatre in the Strawberry One-Act Festival. Inspired by some of her favorite books, Alice in Wonderland and The Phantom Tollbooth, Hahn writes a play that is sure to sweep up audiences in an abundance of joy and silliness.

The Right Way will star Rachel Zatcoff (Broadway: The Phantom of the Opera, Off-Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, International Tour: West Side Story) as Riley, Antoine L. Smith (Broadway: The Color Purple, Carousel, Miss Saigon, Memphis, MJ), as Desk Attendant, Mary Illes (Broadway: The Music Man, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Steel Pier, She Loves Me, The Phantom of the Opera) as Al.

The live one-act play reading will also star Suri Marrero (Broadway: Frozen, The Lion King), Akira Golz (Broadway: Matilda), Sophie Knapp (Broadway: Once), Lauren Thomas (Off-Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish), Jodi Snyder (Off-Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish), Conor McShane (Off-Broadway: I Spy a Spy), Kayleen Seidl (Off-Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish), Raquel Nobile (Off-Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish), Jasmine Rogers (Regional: Becoming Nancy), and Peyton Gifis (Film: A Very Quarantwinned Christmas). Rounding out the cast are the up-and-coming talents from Manhattan School of Music: Subiya Mboya, Paul Esswein, Jack D’Emilio, and Alesha Jeter.

Playwright Samantha Hahn is best known for her acting career voicing Trinket the unicorn on Nickelodeon’s Nella the Princess Knight series and portraying Beylke in the critically acclaimed musical Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish. Her novel debut On the Roof: A Look inside Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish details her behind-the-scenes experience as the youngest daughter in Joel Grey’s Yiddish Fiddler. She is a current college student at Manhattan School of Music where she studies under Randy Graff, Boyd Gaines, Robin Morse, David Loud, Erin Dilly, and more. To learn more about the playwright, visit her official website: https://www.sammyhahn.com/

To learn more about the JOCUNDA FESTIVAL visit https://rcl.ink/Sz0 

To submit your play for consideration for the Play Reading Series visit https://rcl.ink/GKw  

 

Luna Stage Announces World Premiere of one-act play, My First Time

The Voting Writes Project 

October 6 - November 2
For more information visit http://www.lunastage.org or email info@lunastage.org

My First Time

WHEN: Monday, October 12th, at 8pm
WHERE: Zoom

Luna Stage Company has announced the world premiere of Jenny Lyn Bader’s one-act play with a star-studded cast that includes Drama Desk Award winner Isabel Keating and SAG Award winner Alysia Reiner.

My First Time tells tales of political initiation that reverberate over years, interweaving scenes from three chronological eras as it spans half a century in twelve minutes.  

The one-act will be directed by Luna's Artistic Director Ari Laura Kreith, with a live discussion to follow.

The cast will be Giuliana Carr (Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library, Luna Stage); Pauline Chalamet (The King of Staten Island, dir. Judd Apatow); karen Eilbacher (Fun Home, Bway National tour); Jevonnah Mayo (Mourning Sun, Kampala Int'l Theatre Festival), Isabel Keating (Wicked, Broadway); and Alysia Reiner (Orange is the New Black).

This new play is part of Luna Stage's Voting Writes Project, which includes world premiere plays, films, a concept album, and virtual events designed to inspire civic engagement. All events are free and open to the public via interactive livestream on Luna Stage's Facebook and YouTube pages. Previous performances can be viewed on Luna’s website and IGTV.

"These stories are revelatory and emboldening,” said Maxim Thorne, Managing Director of The Andrew Goodman Foundation, who collaborated with Luna Stage on the project’s development. 

"We all know that history repeats only when we're not paying attention," said Bader, "Our conversations at the Voting Writes Project have made me think about that idea through an interpersonal lens. I wrote this play to explore how our individual experiences echo over time and impact the life stories of others — and to look at the influences that can break the cycle or make us engage with the world in a new way."

Bader's work was last seen at Luna Stage in fall 2019, with the world premiere of her historical drama Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library, about the arrest of Hannah Arendt in 1933 Berlin, also directed by Kreith.

Voting Writes is created in collaboration with the Andrew Goodman Foundation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. All Voting Writes events are open and free to the public.

A complete calendar can be found at https://www.lunastage.org/voting-writes.

About Luna Stage

Luna Stage develops and produces vibrant plays about local and global experiences. Firmly rooted in New Jersey's Valley Arts District - a crossroads of cultures - Luna brings its communities together for artistic events that spark conversations and create understanding and change. 

Luna Stage is the recipient of the 2019 People's Choice Award for Favorite Small Theatre in New Jersey. Luna has contributed to the development of over 100 new works for the stage, many of which premiered at Luna and have gone on to be produced in New York, regionally and internationally.

As producer, innovator, and educator, Luna is dedicated to eliminating barriers to participation and allowing all community members to nurture their own creativity and vision. Luna offers classes for children and adults, as well as opportunities for early-career and established theatre artists to develop and incubate new work.

Luna Stage | 555 Valley Road, West Orange, NJ 07052

Chatham Playhouse’s Sundays @ 7 Series Presents “The B-Sides, A Collection of Original One-Acts”—ONE NIGHT ONLY

The B-Sides, A Collection of Original One-Acts

WHEN: Sunday, September 13
WHERE: streamed via Zoom.
ADMISSION: Suggested donation is $5 per viewer.
To register in advance and receive the link to the live stream, go to Register - Sundays @ 7's The B-Sides or visit their website 

Join us  for an evening of virtual staged readings of previous Jersey Voices submissions that that have made it into the “Top 12” for the year, but for some reason or another, did not fit into the “Final 6.” 

Jersey Voices producer, Jessica Phelan, curated these pieces for us and these were our top picks. We have some very talented directors and actors ready to Zoom these plays to life. Join Us!

The Featured One-Acts:

• Drowning 
  by Chip Bolcik and Directed by Scott Baird
  Charles Greyson as Oliver
  Dale Monroe  as Vincent
  Craig Zimmerman as Harlan
  
  
• The Oldest Trick in the Book 
  by Charles Greyson and Directed by Jeff Knapp
  Joe Guadara as Cyril
  Stavros Adamides as Gus
  Sarah Pharaon as Ginger
  Kym Frank as Randie
  
  
• The Night before Krampus 
  by Lee Brodie and Directed by Susie Speidel
  Susie Paplow as Woman 1/Melanie/Gwendolyn
  Dana Harris as Woman 2/ Ada
  Ed Carlo Pisapia as Man 1/ Jack
  Matthew Burns as Man 2 / Henry / detective
  
  
• A Garnet in the Rough 
  by Cliff Odle and Directed by Tasha R. Williams–Arroyo
  Dana P Hawkins as Joy
  Kyle D. Younger as Wallace
  
  
• Curtains 
  by Amanda Sage Comerford and Directed by Gus Ibranyi
  Emily Miller as Stella
  Scott Tyler Richenaker as Zach 

Producers: Gus Ibranyi and Leslie Gayle Williams

Funding has been made possible in part by funds from Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

STRAWBERRY ONE-ACT PLAY FESTIVAL SEEKS SCRIPTS

Submit your Play to the Strawberry One-Act Festival 

• Seeking plays with a running time of 15-30 minutes.
• Submit your Play to the Strawberry Theatre Festival.
• Seeking plays with a running time of 40-90 minutes.

WHEN: Early Deadline is September 30, 2020. Regular Deadline is October 30, 2020. Plays will be notified of acceptance by November 15, 2020.

The Festival will run from January 2021 - March 30, 2021

SUBMIT YOUR PLAY HERE

All submissions are done through FilmFreeway.com.