KEANmag
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Erika LaVonn as Marian Anderson and Joel Leffert as Albert Einstein in
Deborah Brevoort’s
My Lord, What a Night
, directed by Kel Haney.
Photo by Mike Peters.
The play will be produced in partnership with Liberty Hall’s next
ongoing exhibit,
Brothers in Arms: Memories of the Great War
(April 2017 – October 2018)
, which commemorates the 100th
anniversary of the United States entering World War I. Using
firsthand accounts from letters and postcards, photographs and
personal objects, visitors will follow in the footsteps of Captain
John Kean from his training to fighting on the battlefield as a
World War I soldier.
“We are excited to commission and develop three new plays that
promise to be as educational as they are entertaining,” said John J.
Wooten, director of arts programming and Premiere’s producing
artistic director. “In addition to forging unique collaborations to
expand the impact of these New Jersey-focused works, we would
also like to thank the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Shubert
Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, NJPAC and
the New Jersey Theatre Alliance for their special assistance in
helping to bring these three remarkable shows to life.”
Please call 908-737-SHOW (7469), email
, or visit
for tickets and information.
2017 NJPAC STAGE EXCHANGE IN THE WORKS
Premiere is also one of three professional theatres in the state to
be selected by the New Jersey Theatre Alliance for participation in
the
2017 NJPAC Stage Exchange,
an annual new play development
initiative funded by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center
(NJPAC). Premiere Stages has commissioned New Jersey native
Nicole Pandolfo to write a full-length play exploring issues
relevant to the Garden State. In tandem with the commission, Ms.
Pandolfo will also lead a 6-8 week playwriting residency in the
Newark public school where her play takes place.
In Ms. Pandolfo’s
Brick City
, set at Malcolm X High School in
Newark, the paint is peeling, lead-poisoned water pours from the
faucets, Mark Zuckerburg’s much publicized funding has gone
disastrously wrong, and racial tensions are at an all-time high.
When a troubled student in a wheelchair and a student-athlete
with a big scholarship on the line find themselves together in
detention during the most important week of their lives, both
teenagers learn that things aren’t always as easy for others as they
may seem.
Brick City
will have a free staged reading at NJPAC on May 5.
Premiere Stages will continue to develop the play with a staged
reading in Kean’s Miron Student Center Little Theatre
October
20 – 22, 2017
, and a full production in 2018 as part of Premiere
Stages’ mainstage season.
BLACK TOM ISLAND
Premiere Stages has selected Martin Casella’s
Black Tom Island
as
the winner of the 2017/2018 Liberty Live Commission. Based on a
real incident that took place in Jersey City in 1916,
Black Tom Island
explores the first documented terrorist attack on American soil
through the lens of a fictionalized Slovak immigrant and his wife
who may or may not be involved in the attack.
“I learned about the Black Tom terrorist attack while attending
the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Czestochowa, in the Paulus
Hook neighborhood,” said Mr. Casella. “Inside the church there
is a beautiful stained glass window dedicated to the victims of
the attack. In the front area of the church, there is a lovely marble
baptismal font, which is inscribed with a prayer for the explosion’s
survivors, written in Polish. Interested in both of these items, I
asked our parish priest about the story behind them. He was the
first person to tell me about the Black Tom Island attack, and that
the island is now incorporated into Jersey City’s Liberty State
Park. That this area was only a mile or so from my apartment only
intrigued me even more.”
Premiere will present a staged reading of
Black Tom Island
November 17 – 19
in the Miron Student Center Little Theatre.
This developmental reading will be free, and will represent the
first time Mr. Casella has heard a draft of his play read aloud by
professional actors in front of a live audience. Premiere Stages will
present a full production of the play at Liberty Hall Museum in
October 2018.
