Category Archives: Local Live Theater

LET’S DANCE!   Meagan Woods Curates “Out of Bounds” Dance Show, Sat, June 2nd

8 Choreographers Explore ‘Resistance’ at White Eagle Hall

 

Let's Dance
Dancer/Choreographer Joe Monteleone
Photo by Juan Michael Porter II

By Sally Deering

 Instead of performing on a stage away from the audience, the new dance show, OUT OF BOUNDS, curated by dancer-choreographer Meagan Woods of Jersey City, will have dancers moving on stage and in the audience.

Let's Dance
Dancer/ Choreographer Meagan Woods of JC

The curtain goes up on OUT OF BOUNDS on Sat, June 2, at 8 pm and will feature eight choreographies by eight New Jersey dancer-choreographers, including Woods. The show goes on at White Eagle Hall, an extension of the Jersey City Theater Center, where Artistic Director Olga Levina invited Woods to curate a dance show that would engage the audience. Continue reading LET’S DANCE!   Meagan Woods Curates “Out of Bounds” Dance Show, Sat, June 2nd

KIPLING ON STAGE

   Hilarity Abounds in Children’s Show at Mile Square Theatre

   Back by Popular Demand, Great Family Theater, Runs Thru April

Kippling on stage
Andrew Baldwin, Cameron Blankenship, Arielle Legere, and Blaire Brooks in the Garden of Rikki Tikki Tavi

 By Sally Deering

 Photos by Craig Wallace Dale

 Four talented actors transform themselves into a cobra, tailor bird, muskrat and mongoose in THE GARDEN OF RIKKI TIKKI TAVI, the funny and endearing play by Y York now on stage at the Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken.  The show opened Fri, April 13 and will be performed twice a day on Saturdays and Sundays through May 6. Continue reading KIPLING ON STAGE

A FINE ROMANCE   Mile Square Theatre’s Driving Miss Daisy opens Jan. 31

 

  Pulitzer Prize Play Resonates in These Turbulent Times

 By Sally Deering

 Driving Miss Daisy Mile Square City Hoboken

A three-hander – a play featuring three actors – can be an intimate theater experience, especially when its performed in Mile Square Theatre’s gem of a performance space on Clinton Street in Hoboken. In this case, the three-hander is the Pulitzer Prize winning play Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry, the story of an aging Southern Belle, Daisy Werthan, and her aging African-American chauffeur, Hoke Colburn. During the course of the play, these two seniors, with a lot of history behind them, cover 25 years of a relationship that begins as a thorny dance between two strangers and develops into a deep love between two friends.

Driving Miss Daisy Mile Square Theater Hoboken
Count Stovall, Barbara Broughton, Matthew Lawler
star in “Driving Miss Daisy” at MST in Hoboken

Driving Miss Daisy opens Wed., Jan. 31, and runs through Sun., Feb. 25, and features Barbara Broughton, Count Stovall and Matthew Lawler. Broughton, who plays Daisy, was recently seen on Broadway in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George. Stovall, who plays Hoke, was in Broadway’s A Streetcar Named Desire. Lawler, who plays Daisy’s son Boolie was in MST’s Betrayal and has been seen in ABC’s The Family. Continue reading A FINE ROMANCE   Mile Square Theatre’s Driving Miss Daisy opens Jan. 31

Hudson County Community College NJPAC Teen Jazz Performance  

NJPAC Teen Jazz Performance  

Tuesday, October 24
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Benjamin J. Dineen III and Dennis C. Hull Galley
71 Sip Ave., 6th Floor 
 
Hudson County Community College welcomes community partner New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) for a year-long partnership of FREE programs. Join the Department of Cultural Affairs for the NJPAC Teen Jazz Performance on Tuesday, October 24 from 5:30-7:30 pm. Light refreshments will be served. Sign up today!
 
This event is part of our “Twilight Tuesdays” series which includes artist receptions, faculty mixers, author readings, workshops and more.

For more information, please visit our website.

 

LOVE HURTS-Hudson Shakespeare Presents Romeo & Juliet in Hudson Parks

  Rival Families, Two Teens in Love, A Dismal Fate Awaits

By Sally Deering

“These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder
Which, as they kiss, consume.”

 Love Hurts Romeo and Juliette

Mackenzie Menter as Juliet and Joshua Blount as Romeo in HSC’s Romeo & Juliet.

What happens when two feuding families poison the love of their offspring with their hatred? Do the sins of the fathers cast evil on their children?  Can love ever survive when surrounded by hate?

​These are the questions that come to mind in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, the story of two star-crossed lovers who cannot escape the rivalry of their families and although they are madly, deeply in love, theirs comes to a tragic end.   Continue reading LOVE HURTS-Hudson Shakespeare Presents Romeo & Juliet in Hudson Parks

Mile Square Theatre presents the Peanuts Gang in their Hit Musical!

GOOD GRIEF, HOBOKEN!

 Lucy, Linus, Snoopy, Schroeder, Sally & Charlie Brown on Stage Feb. 3-26

 

 By Sally Deering

Good Grief Charlie Brown In 1967, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown opened Off Broadway at Theater 80 in the East Village, and 50 years later it still charms and delights audiences of all ages. Songs like “Suppertime” and “Happiness” are classics of musical theater and cartoonist Charles M. Schultz’s characters Snoopy, Lucy and Charlie Brown are as iconic – and adorable – today as they were back then.

Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken opens its 2017 season with You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown beginning Friday, Feb. 3 and running through Sunday, Feb. 26. The musical, featuring Schultz’s Peanuts Gang is a series of vignettes about Lucy who worships Schroeder who worships Beethoven; curious Sally and Linus, who doesn’t feel complete without his blanket; and Charlie Brown and his funny, loyal and precocious pup, Snoopy. Mary Kate Burke directs with musical direction by Terri Gorgone, and choreography by Sarah Weber-Gallo. Jen Price-Fick designed the set.

Continue reading Mile Square Theatre presents the Peanuts Gang in their Hit Musical!

URBAN SHAKESPEARE  Hudson Shakespeare Company plays The Bard in Hamilton Park, Jersey City

 

   Next Up:  Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2

Shakespeare in Hamilton Park Jersey City
Swordplay abounds in EDWARD III put on by Hudson Shakespeare Co.at Hamilton Park in Jersey City. Rachel Matusewicz as Countess of Salisbury clashes swords with Isaac Andrew as King David of Scotland; while Lord Audley (l.), played by Conrad Aurelius battles with Douglas, a Scottish Nobleman played by Keith Hale. 

By Sally Deering

 Never mind getting upstaged by fancy swordplay or an actor taking too long for his death scene. Hudson Shakespeare Company’s adaptable actors must endure teens on skateboards, barking dogs, ambulance sirens, even low-flying helicopters while they project the dense and rhyming lines of The Bard.

Such is the actor’s life when performing with the Hudson Shakespeare Company, now in its 25th year. This summer, the ensemble puts on three Shakespeare plays and will bring Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 to Hamilton Park on Thurs, Aug. 18 at 7 pm.  Admission is free thanks to support from the Hudson County Office of Cultural Affairs and other supporters of the arts.

On a recent Thursday evening, local park-goers gathered in Hamilton Park for Edward III.

In a quasi-amphitheater setting that turned the steps leading down from the gazebo into audience seating and the circular walkway surrounding the gazebo into the stage for the play, the actors adorned in capes, boots, breastplates and leather accoutrements acted Edward III against a moving backdrop of kids playing ball, people walking their dogs, and commuters heading home from a long day at the office. Continue reading URBAN SHAKESPEARE  Hudson Shakespeare Company plays The Bard in Hamilton Park, Jersey City

Mile Square Theatre Breaks Ground on Its New Facility at the Artisan in Hoboken

 

Hoboken's Mile Square Theater
Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, Hudson County Freeholder Anthony Romano, Zabrina Stoffel, President of the Mile Square Theatre Board of Trustees, Chase Leyner, Mile Square Theatre Education Coordinator, Larry Bijou, Geri Fallo, Hoboken Administrator of Cultural Affairs, BCB executives Joseph Javitz, Thomas Coughlin and Kenneth O’Neill, Mile Square Theatre Artistic Associate Joseph Gallo, were among the crowd gathered for a ‘ground breaking’ inside the new theater space at the Artisan. 11/13/15 Hoboken,NJ photo by Joe Epstein/JoeEpsteinPhotography.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On  Friday,November 19,  Mile Square Theatre staff and trustees shared a momentous occasion for the arts in Hudson County with an excited group of stakeholders. Leading the way with a ceremonial groundbreaking was MST Trustee President Zabrina Stoffel, MST Education Director Chase Leyner, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, and Hudson County Freeholder Anthony Romano.

Mile Square Theatre’s new facility is designed by Nastasi Architects and is being built by Sabia Construction. It’s scheduled to open in March, 2016. MST Education programs will operate from the new facility, and the company will soon announce its first season of plays at the Artisan.

Also on hand at the groundbreaking were Hoboken Cultural Affairs Director Geri Fallo, Larry Bijou, Larry and Diana Henriques, Mark Villamar, Clark Machemer, Bayonne Community Bank’s Tom Coughlin, Joseph Javitz, and Kenny O’Neill, and Clifton Savings Bank’s Tricia Hrotko. Other MST participants were Trustee Jeanne Bossolina-Lubin, MST Managing Director Lauren Ciborski, MST Playwright-in-Residence Joseph Gallo, and MST Artistic Associate Mark Cirnigliaro. Continue reading Mile Square Theatre Breaks Ground on Its New Facility at the Artisan in Hoboken

Hudson Shakespeare Company at Historic Jersey City and Harismus Cemetery

Hudson Shakespeare
Cast photo featuring top down Carlos Muniz, Makenzie Daris, Andrew Benvenuti, Olivia Dreyer, Chris Morriss, Noelle Fair, J.P. Makowski and Samantha Morrice.

The Hudson Shakespeare Company of Jersey City kicks off its
24th Shakespeare in the Park series with a new twist on old favorite presenting a cross gendered “Love’s Labours Lost” where the men play the women and the women play the  men. The show is running coming to:   Saturday, June 20 at The Historic Jersey City and Harismus Cemetery at 435 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ. A
suggested $10 donation will be charged at the door and
concessions are available.

Continue reading Hudson Shakespeare Company at Historic Jersey City and Harismus Cemetery

HOUSE OF SHARDS-Art House Productions “The House of Atreus” an American Vet Returns Home to More Casualties

Art House Productions’ New Play opens June 4th

By Sally Deering

“A cursed bloodline. A family on the edge.  If this house could speak, what stories it would tell.”

Creative Team at Art House Productions
THE HOUSE OF ATREUS’ Creative Team,
Christine Goodman, Mason Beggs and Meagan Woods

 That’s the tagline for the new play THE HOUSE OF ATREUS which premieres Thursday, June 4, at Art House Productions in Jersey City. It’s a collaborative work between Christine Goodman (Executive Director of Art House Productions) who wrote the piece, Mason Beggs, who directed, and choreographer Meagan Woods.

Gabbie Cowdie in Art House Productions House of Atreus
Gabbie Gowdie and Ema Lakovic in The HOUSE OF ATREUS

THE HOUSE OF ATREUS is an immersive and unconventional theater piece. Instead of putting the actors on stage and the audience in rows of seats to observe, the set takes up the entire theater with a chair and TV in one area, a broken down porch in another, and a dining room table at center. The audience enters through a haze of smoky fog and is encouraged to find a spot of their choosing to watch the play as it unfolds around them. This immerses the audience into the play’s action, which becomes part of the overall theater experience.

Adam Resnick in Art House Productions  House of Atreus
Adam Resnick plays Alan in THE HOUSE OF ATREUS, Presented by Art House Production in Jersey City

“The audience will be active observers,” Goodman says, sitting on set with Beggs and Woods during a break in tech rehearsal. “We’re changing the audience’s perspective.”

The play’s plot focuses on the main character Alan who returns home after serving in Iraq. He comes back only to find his house in ruins and his family broken and as war torn as the place he left behind. Continue reading HOUSE OF SHARDS-Art House Productions “The House of Atreus” an American Vet Returns Home to More Casualties