TONIGHT: RESTORATION | 7 new plays

Monday at 7:30 PM EDT, enjoy seven world premieres in one night. This benefit event is the 11th installment of our annual Short New Play Festival, presented online LIVE.        This year's theme is RESTORATION. The evening will bring you works by some of the most exciting up-and-coming writers from across the country, penning classically inspired ten-minute plays alongside commissioned playwright Obie Award winner José Rivera. This year’s winning playwrights are Constance Congdon, Roz Cornejo, George LaVigne, David Lefkowitz, Abigail C. Onwunali, and Charlotte Rahn-Lee.   GET FREE TICKETS   SHORT NEW PLAY FESTIVAL 2021 An Online Benefit Reading TONIGHT! MONDAY, JULY 12, 2021 7:30 PM EDT | LIVESTREAM The evening will be directed by Margot Bordelon and Timothy Douglas. The cast for the event features Franchelle Stewart Dorn, Sheria Irving, Marjorie Johnson, Sara Koviak, Anthony Michael Lopez, Anthony Michael Martinez, Junior Nyong'o, Abigail C. Onwunali, Luis Quintero, Reggie D. White, and Nathan Winkelstein.     GET FREE TICKETS   The 2021 Short New Play Festival: RESTORATION will premiere live TONIGHT at 7:30 PM EDT. A recording will be available until 7:00 PM EDT this Friday, July 16 – then it disappears. Register here for FREE TICKETS.  The 11th Annual Short New Play Festival is made possible by the leadership support of   Constance Congdon's IF THIS BE NOT A GOOD PLAY THEN THE DEVIL IS IN IT. Deep in a night of 1599, on the banks of the Thames, players from one theater (disassembled to escape abusive rent payments) wait for barges to carry their lumber across the river, where they will build another theater.   Roz Cornejo's ECHO A twist on the Greek myth of Narcissus and Echo. What happens when you’re in love with someone who only loves themself?   George LaVigne's THE WOLF TREE Just past the turn of the 17th century, Captain Pouch, a revolutionary leader of the Midland revolt in hiding, encounters a simple shepherdess beneath the Wolf Tree.   David Lefkowitz's RESTORATION PLAYHOUSE The artistic director and stage manager of a tiny New York theater face obstacles, post-pandemic.   GET FREE TICKETS   Abigail C. Onwunali's JEWEL A modern-day short play written after the character Sidi from Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel, this play explores the complexities of what it means to chase after the "American Dream."   Charlotte Rahn-Lee's THE MISANTHROPE BREAKS HIS QUARANTINE The year is 2023. COVID is over, and everyone has left social isolation and moved on with their lives...everyone, that is, except Alceste.   José Rivera's LUNAR On a cool summer night five close teenage friends—two Latinos, two Blacks, and one white woman—get together in a rundown basketball court in Brooklyn to watch a total lunar eclipse.    GET FREE TICKETS   Red Bull Theater’s annual Short New Play Festival has generated over 3,000 new short plays of classic themes and heightened language, presenting over 72 of them in a one-night only Festival performance with some of New York’s finest actors and directors. In its first 10 years, the commissioned playwrights have included Marcus Gardley, John Guare, Jeremy O. Harris, David Ives, Ellen McLaughlin, Dael Orlandersmith, Theresa Rebeck, Anne Washburn, Doug Wright, and winning entries by writers such as Anchuli Felicia King, Patricia Ione Lloyd, Lynn Rosen, and Jen Silverman. Stage Rights has published a 4-volume collection of the plays from the first 8 years of Red Bull Theater’s annual Short New Play Festival as RED BULL SHORTS.   This special benefit reading is Pay What You Can. All of our current programs are FREE. If you’re able, please consider making a donation with your registration to support our online activity and our return to in-person programming. THANK YOU.   Red Bull Theater wishes to express its gratitude to the Performers’ Unions: ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN GUILD OF MUSICAL ARTISTS, AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS, and SAG-AFTRA through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists to appear in this program.

 

Announcing a World Premiere at Vanguard Theater Company This Weekend! 

Walk in My Gravity
an original song cycle

WHEN: world premiere with three shows only: Saturday, June 26, at 3PM and 8PM, and Sunday, June 27, at 4PM. 
WHERE: The Vanguard, at 180 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair
TICKETS: $21 Adults, $15 Students (only 100 tickets available per performance)
Purchase tickets HERE.
On-street parking is available, as well as in the nearby TD Bank and Lackawanna Plaza Parking Lots.
Please note that the theater is up one flight of stairs and there is no lift.
For a sneak peek, CLICK HERE. 

Written as part of Vanguard’s VTC Next program, the composers and lyricists have dug deep into the issues that weigh them down, and also lift them up to connect with one another.  VTC Next is a program designed to train and mentor the next generation of behind the scenes theater professionals to create more equity in the theater industry.

 

Vanguard Theater Company is a unique nonprofit committed to changing the narrative through theater dedicated to DREAM: Diversity, Reciprocity, Education, Activism & Mentorship. Since opening on June 4th, Vanguard has been presenting performances for the public, and will be hosting classes, camps and programs for emerging artists. 

The Vanguard is newly renovated, with a state of the art HVAC air exchange and filtration system, touchless fixtures, and other health and safety precautions, to help patrons feel safe and comfortable. 

Skyline Theatre Company Presents World Premiere Reading of a New Musical in Development Streaming Live This Thursday at 7pm

Saving Spencer
a new musical in development 

WHEN: Thursday, March 25, at 7pm. After the reading, the audience will be able to share their reactions with the musical’s creator and performers.
WHERE: Skyline’s YouTube channel  and Skyline’s webpage 
ADMISSION: free 

The book, music and lyrics are written by young New Jersey playwright Spencer Scalamoni, a freshman Playwrighting and Screenwriting student at SUNY Purchase. A familiar face and name around Skyline Theatre Company, Spencer is the oldest son of Skyline’s co-founder and Artistic Director Sam Scalamoni. He also directs the production, with Stephanie Mangioglu as its Musical Director.

Saving Spencer is a comedic and song-filled journey through a writer’s mind as the characters he created work to save him from losing his imagination. 

This event is part of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance 2021 Stages Festival, made possible by support from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; Bank of America; The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey; OceanFirst Foundation; the George A. Ohl, Jr. Trust; New Jersey Historical Commission; and Fund for the New Jersey Blind.

The New Jersey Theatre Alliance 2021 Stages Festival is the state’s largest annual theatre festival, which provides free and discounted theatre events for all ages throughout the months of March, April, and May.  A full listing of events can be found at the NJTA’s website: www.njtheatrealliance.org/stages

The Stages Festival offers dozens of in-person and online performances, workshops, classes, and events at theatres, libraries, and other community venues throughout the state. The program was developed to encourage New Jersey’s residents to attend their local professional theatres by making the experience affordable, accessible, and fun.  

Next month, Skyline will present its Spring production, Laughing Wild by Christopher Durang from April 8-11 live on its YouTube channel. This provocative, inventive and very funny comedy explores the perils of modern life in urban America, set in a memorable New York City of the late 1980s.

About Skyline Theatre Company

Founded in 1995, Skyline Theatre Company’s mission is to bring together professional artists to create quality theatre that entertains and inspires an audience. We make commitments to the education of young people in all aspects of the arts and to cultivating and nurturing new artists and their works.

Skyline Theatre Company is a proud Associate Equity Theatre Member of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance. As a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, Skyline Theatre Company depends on private donations, corporate sponsorships, grants, and supportive audiences to fund its programming. Funding is made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on Arts/Department of State, through grant funds administered by the Bergen County Department of Parks, Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs.

Skyline Theatre Company enjoys warm support for bringing inspirational, professional theatre to Bergen County and Northern New Jersey.

More information can be found at SkylineTheatreCompany.org or on Facebook at SKYLINETHEATRECOMPANY, Instagram @SkylineTheatre Company, Twitter @SkylineBergen, and on YouTube.

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.

CENTENARY STAGE COMPANY ANNOUNCES WORLD PREMIERE OF TURNING BY DARRAH CLOUD

Centenary Stage Company, the not-for-profit professional theatre company in residency on the campus of Centenary University, announces the world premiere production of 

Turning
by Darrah Cloud

WHEN: Performances run February 25 through March 7. Specific performance dates and times are Thursdays, Feb. 25 and March 4 at 7:30 PM; Fridays, Feb. 26 and March 5 at 8:00 PM; Saturdays, Feb. 27 and March 6 at 8:00 PM; Sundays, Feb. 28 and March 7 at 2:00 PM and Wednesday, March 3 at 2:00 PM.  Centenary Stage Company will also be offering a special live stream of the Sunday, February 28 2:00 PM performance.  $10.00 per access link to stream.
WHERE: Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center at 715 Grand Ave., Hackettstown NJ.
TICKETS: range from $25.00 to $27.50 for adults with discounts available for seniors, students and children under 12. 
Tickets are available on-line at centenarystageco.org or by phone at (908) 979–0900.

In the heart of 1930s Newark, NJ, a group of scrappy young women began to train in backyard gyms for what would become the experience of a lifetime, the controversial 1936 Berlin Olympics. Inspired by the real-life stories of Hackettstown Resident and 1^st Women’s US Gymnastics team member, Ada Lunardoni and team members Consetta Caruccio, Jennie Caputo, Margaret Duff, Irma Haubold, Marie Kibler, Adelaid Meyer, and Mary Wright, playwright Darrah Cloud weaves their accounts together with the memoirs of Jesse Owens bringing to vibrant life this story once lost to history. Developed through Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series and in collaboration with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center Stage Exchange and the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.

Award-winning playwright Darrah Cloud is currently working on a new musical, SABINA, which was slated to be produced at Portland Stage in Maine in May, 2020. In 2019, she wrote a site-specific play on the lives of Frederic and Isabel Church for the Olana Historical Site in Hudson, NY in collaboration with the Ancram Opera House. Her most recent full-length play, OUR SUBURB, premiered at Theater J in Washington, DC in 2014 and was recently produced at Center Stage in Rochester. Her play for teens, JOAN THE GIRL OF ARC, premiered at Cincinnati Playhouse in January, 2014, then toured. Other plays produced in New York, Europe and across the U.S. include WHAT’S BUGGING GREG?, THE STICK WIFE, (Manhattan Theatre Club, Victory Gardens, LATC, Trinity Rep, etc) THE MUD ANGEL, DREAM HOUSE, BRAILLE GARDEN and THE SIRENS. Her musicals include HEARTLAND, (Goodspeed Opera, Madison Repertory Theatre, The Majestic Theatre/Dallas, TheatreWorks Palo Alto) THE BOXCAR CHILDREN (Theatreworks USA), HONOR SONG FOR CRAZY HORSE (TheatreWorks Palo Alto) and the stage adaptation of Willa Cather’s O PIONEERS!, which has received over 100 productions in the United States and was filmed starring Mary McDonnell for American Playhouse. Her plays are published by Dramatic Play Publishing, and she has won numerous awards, including the Macy’s Prize for Theatre for Young Audiences, an NEA and a Rockefeller. She has had over 10 movies-of-the­-week produced on CBS and NBC, is a proud alum of the Iowa Writers Workshop and New Dramatists. She co-directs (with David Simpatico) Howl Playwrights in Rhinebeck, NY.

At the helm of the production is Centenary Stage Company’s own Lea Antolini-Lid. Antolini-Lid serves as the program director for CSC’s Young Audience Series as well as producer for the NEXTstage Rep. Summer Musical Theatre Series.  Antolini-Lid has performed professionally in NYC and in cities across the east coast. Among many CSC on stage performances, Antolini-Lid was most recently seen on the Sitnik stage as the Ghost of Christmas Past in the CSC 2021 production of Stephen Temperley’s A Christmas Carol. In addition to Antolini-Lid’s extensive performance credits her long list of directorial credits include the CSC summer productions of HAIR and Jesus Christ Superstar.  Antolini-Lid is also a founding member and managing director of the XY DANCE PROJECT, a member in training with Blessed Unrest Theater Company in NYC, and a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association.

Joining the cast of this world premiere production are CSC veterans Emily Williams as Jennie and Ally Borgstrom as Mary. CSC audiences will remember Williams from such productions as the world premiere of Hitler’s Tasters, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys. Borgstrom was most recently seen in the CSC productions of Hitler’s Tasters and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Making their CSC debuts are Taylor Congdon as Ada and Deonte Griffin-Quick as Jesse Owens. A graduate of DeSales University, Congdon holds a B.A. in Musical Theatre and has worked at the Arden Theatre Company and with the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. Holding a BA in Theatre Performance from Kean University, Griffin-Quick has performed at such venues as Premiere Stages, Apollo Theatre (NYC), and NJ Repertory Company to name a few. Griffin-Quick currently serves as the Manager of Programs and Services for the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.

Rounding out the creative team is set designer Matthew Imhoff. Imhoff’s CSC designs include The Ghost Train, The Sunshine Boys, and Stephen Temperley’s A Christmas Carol. Lighting Designer Ethan Newman returns to CSC. Designs include Jesus Christ Superstar, Newsies, Apples in Winter, Enemy of the People, Beauty and the Beast, and HAIR. CSC’s resident costume designer Meghan Reeves returns to the production. Reeves serves as professor of costume design and fashion for Centenary University’s fine arts department.

CSC offers a variety of special ticket offers including the Thursday evening Buy One/Get One rush ticket special. BOGO offer is valid for in-person sales only beginning at 5:30 PM on the night of the performance. CSC also offers a special Hackettstown Resident price for the Wednesday, March 3 2:00 PM performance. Discount is available for purchase at the door with proof of residency. Finally, Friday evening performances are Student Rush nights offering $5.00 student tickets to any student from any institution with a valid student ID.

The 2020-2021 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 S. Kupperman Foundation, and CSC corporate sponsors, including Season Sponsor The House of the Good Shepherd, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Medical Center Atlantic Health System, Home Instead Senior Care (Washington), Fulton Bank, and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.

HISTORY COMES TO LIFE AS CENTENARY STAGE COMPANY OPENS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF DARRAH CLOUD’S TURNING 

Centenary Stage Company opens the World Premiere production of 

Turning
by Darrah Cloud 

WHEN: Thursday, February 25, at 7:30 PM with performances running until March 7. Centenary Stage Company will also offer a Live Stream option for the Sunday, February 28, 2:00 PM performance. Additionally, CSC will host a post-show talkback with the playwright after the Sunday, February 28, 2:00 PM performance for both in-person and live streaming audiences.  

WHERE: in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center, 715 Grand Ave., Hackettstown
TICKETS: from $25.00 to $27.50 for adults with discounts available for seniors, students and children under 12. Tickets for the Live Stream are $10.00 per access link. 
For more information or to purchase tickets visit centenarystageco.org or call the box office at (908) 979–0900.

Turning is the story of a group of scrappy young women from Newark, NJ who began to train in backyard gyms for what would become the experience of a lifetime, the controversial 1936 Berlin Olympics. Inspired by the real-life stories of Hackettstown Resident and 1^st Women’s US Gymnastics team member, Ada Lunardoni and team members Consetta Caruccio, Jennie Caputo, Margaret Duff, Irma Haubold, Marie Kibler, Adelaid Meyer, and Mary Wright, playwright Darrah Cloud weaves their accounts together with the memoirs of Jesse Owens bringing to vibrant life this story once lost to history. 

Turning also tells part of the story of the famed track athlete, Jesse Owens. Owens, an African American defeated Hitler’s “Aryan Supermen” and became a “hero” to the people of Berlin for disproving Hitler’s theory of race superiority. Jesse Owens’ triumph at the Olympics was heralded by both the German and American people, but history often forgets that he was the son of two sharecroppers from Alabama, and the grandson of Slaves. After confounding Nazi racial theories at the Berlin Olympic stadium, it was hurtful to return to his homeland and find clear signs of similar attitudes. He once said, “When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either." Owens even had to take a service elevator to a reception at the Waldorf Astoria being held in his honor because he wasn't allowed to walk in the front door of the hotel, and was not invited to the White House or even congratulated by then president, FDR, unlike his white teammates who received a special presidential reception. Jesse Owens tells part of his own story in Turning as he travels with the young women from New Jersey. Many aspects of the play have been inspired by his Memoirs of his time as an Olympian, which the creative team read when researching the history of Turning. Centenary Stage Company is proud to open this production during Black History Month, to promote the stories and struggles of historical African Americans like Jesse Owens.

Turning is directed by Centenary Stage Company’s own, Lea Antolini-Lid, and stars Taylor Congdon as Ada Lunardoni, Ally Borgstrom as Mary Wright, Emily Williams as Jennie Caputo, and Deonté Griffin-Quick as Jesse Owens.

Specific performance dates and times are Thursdays, Feb. 25 and March 4 at 7:30 PM; Fridays, Feb. 26 and March 5 at 8:00 PM; Saturdays, Feb. 27 and March 6 at 8:00 PM; Sundays, Feb. 28 and March 7 at 2:00 PM and Wednesday, March 3 at 2:00 PM.  Sunday, February 28 2:00 pm matinee will feature a live stream option as well as a post-show talkback with the playwright and creative team.

Centenary Stage Company offers a variety of special ticket offers and discounts in conjunction with the production of Turning. Thursday evening performances offer patrons a buy one/get one rush ticket special. The BOGO offer is only valid for in-person sales at the CSC box office beginning at 5:30 PM on the night of the performance and is not available for advance ticket sales on-line or over the phone. Centenary Stage Company also offers a special Hackettstown Resident pricing for the Wednesday, March 3 2:00 PM performance, available for purchase at the door only with proof of ID.  Finally, Centenary Stage Company offers a special $5.00 Student Rush Ticket available to students from any school for any Friday evening performance with a valid student ID. $5.00 Student Rush Tickets are only available in person at the CSC box office on the day of the event and not available for advance ticket sales, on-line or by phone.

Centenary Stage Company’s World Premiere production of Darrah Cloud’s Turning is sponsored in part by The House of the Good Shepherd and Home Instead Senior Care. It is presented in collaboration with the New Jersey Theatre Alliance and the NJPAC Stage Exchange.

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 including, but not limited to; observing social distancing, limited capacity, and requiring masks or facial coverings. For more information regarding CSC COVID-19 policies visit centenarystageco.org/faq.

The box office is open Monday through Friday from 1 – 5 PM and two hours prior to every performance. The Centenary Stage Company box office is located in the Lackland Performing Arts Center at 715 Grand Ave. Hackettstown, NJ on the campus of Centenary University.  Centenary Stage Company can also be found across social media platforms; Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Like and follow to receive the latest in CSC news and special offers.

The 2020-2021 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, and CSC corporate sponsors, including Season Sponsor The House of the Good Shepherd, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Medical Center Atlantic Health System, Home Instead Senior Care (Washington), Fulton Bank, and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.