Coming Up Next:

NJSO Chamber Ensemble

NJSO Chamber Ensemble

Una Festa Musicale Italiana

Sunday, September 30 at 2PM
Kutz Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center

Take a musical tour through sunny Italy, brought to life by a string ensemble from the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra! Featuring everything from traditional tarantella dances to the soaring beauty of music by Puccini, Mascagni and Rossini, this program will transport you to a land where speech is like singing and melody flows like wine.

Bram Stokers Dracula

Bram Stokers Dracula

October 12 - October 28
Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center

Adapted & directed by Charles Morey

Before Twilight and True Blood, only one vampire commanded “the children of the night.” In this blood-thirsty tale of unholy terror, Count Dracula slips into Victorian London with a cargo of his native Transylvanian soil - so he can rest between victims. The city seems helpless against his frightful power, and only one man, Dr. Van Helsing, can stop the carnage. But to do this, he must uncover the vampire’s lair and pierce his heart with a wooden stake.

Young Audience Series: A Year with Frog and Toad

Young Audience Series: A Year with Frog and Toad

Young Audience Series

November 1 - November 5
The Little Theatre

Arnold Lobel's treasured characters hop from page to stage in a story of friendship and adventure. Based on Arnold Lobel's well-loved books, and featuring a hummable score by Robert and Willie Reale, this whimsical show follows two great friends – the cheerful, popular Frog and the rather grumpy Toad – through four fun-filled seasons.

 

NJ Ballet: Romeo and Juliet & Macbeth

NJ Ballet: Romeo and Juliet & Macbeth

Saturday, November 3 at 8PM
Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center

An evening of romance, sword fighting and witches! Based on Shakespeare’s tragic masterpiece, Romeo & Juliet tells the tale of young lovers torn apart by family rivalries. NJB dancers will also perform excerpts from Shakespeare’s towering tragedy, Macbeth, based on the version by Vladimir Vasiliev with music by Kirill Mochanov.

 

 

In The News

‘Oedipus Rex’ reading kicks off Centenary Stage Co.’s ‘What Is Truth?’ Series:

Partly as a response to living through a time in history when truth itself is under siege, the Centenary Stage Company is presenting a series called “What Is Truth? And Does It Matter?” It begins with a free staged reading of — and discussion about — Sophocles’ classic tragedy “Oedipus Rex” at the Kutz Theatre at the Lackland Performing Arts Center in Hackettstown Sept. 19 at 7:30 p.m. Master classes have already been presented in anticipation of the readings, but are not mandatory.

Future installments of “What Is Truth?,” which is part of the Gates Ferry Lecture Series, will include a staged reading of scenes from Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” Nov. 14 at Lackland’s Sitnik Theatre, and a full production of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People from Feb. 15 to March 3 at the Sitnik Theatre. The “King Lear” reading will be preceded by a TedX Talk on the subject of “What Is Truth? And Does It Matter?” For more information, visit centenarystageco.org.

The series was conceived and is being led by Randall Duk Kim and Anne Occhiogrosso, who are married, and who have both taught at Centenary University and taken part in Centenary Stage Company productions (in February and March, Kim co-starred in CSC’s “Art,” which was directed by Occhiogrosso).

I recently talked to both of them, by phone, about the series: (READ FULL ARTICLE)

Skylands Visitor: Arts and Culture

Well Seasoned
By the time the year-end holidays roll around, Centenary Stage Company (CSC) is approaching only mid term in their widely diverse schedule of programming. But the annual holiday musical is where it all seems to come together, when the extensive variety of programs that the Company cultivates combine in one joyful event. The cast for the 2017 production of the Broadway musical, Newsies, included students from the Centenary University degree program, current and graduated members of Centenary Stage’s Young Performers Workshop, amateur community members of all ages, and Actors Equity professionals. (READ MORE)

BWW Interview: Jennifer Robbins in HITLERS TASTERS at Centenary Stage

By Marina Kennedy
For Broadwayworld.com

Centenary Stage Company at the Lackland Performing Arts Center in Hackettstown is currently presenting Hitler's Tasters through Sunday April 22. The show is written by Michelle Kholos Brooks and directed by Sarah Norris.

The play is inspired by a true story. Three times a day, every day, a group of young women have the opportunity to die for their country. They are Adolph Hitler's food tasters. And what do girls discuss as they wait to see if they will live through another meal? Like all girls, throughout time, they gossip and dream, they question, and dance. They want to love, laugh, and above all they want to survive.

Hitler's Tasters marks Jennifer Robbins' Centenary debut. She has appeared Off-Broadway in 'Stiff' and multiple incarnations of the original musical 'Dear Prospective Student.' Favorite NJ credits include 'Rabbit Hole,' 'Collected Stories,' and 'Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.' She is a company member at the company Theater Group.

Broadwayworld NJ had the pleasure of interviewing Jennifer Robbins about her budding career as an actress and her role in Hitler's Tasters. (READ MORE)

World Premiere 'Hitler's Tasters' based on true WW II Story

By Natalie Pompilio
For NJ Advance Media

"Hitler's Tasters," Michelle Kholos Brooks' world premiere play, is based on the true story of a group of young German women who were forced to live in Adolf Hitler's World War II bunker and taste his food to ensure it wasn't poisoned.

And if the show's title and premise aren't enough to draw you to the  Centenary Stage Company, where the show is being staged from April 6 to 22, listen to how Brooks describes her work, which won 2017's Susan Glaspell Award:

"Young woman are complicated," Brooks said. "One moment, they're braiding each other's hair, and the next, they're turning on each other."

Three times a day, the "tasters" face the possibility that they might not live through another meal.

"When you put four young women in a space together and they don't have any thing from outside world to deal with, what do they talk about? What are their hopes and dreams? Add the backdrop of the war and, on top of it, that they could die at any meal," she said, "and I was really interested in their dynamic and how they'd handle it." (READ MORE)

Donate Your Auto To CSC

Make beautiful music with your old car! 

Is that old clunker in your driveway driving your neighbors crazy?  Let that car help "drive the arts"!  Click the image below; select "Centenary Stage Company" from the list of not-for-profit organizations, and turn your car into great Music, exciting Theatre and exhilarating Dance right here in Hackettstown!

Vehicles for Charity
or, call 1-866-628-CARS (1-866-628-2277).
All donations are tax-deductable.

 

Centenary Stage Company Goes Mobile

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Centenary Stage Company Receives Grant from Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

Centenary Stage Company has received a grant of $20,000 from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation for the 2017 - 18 Season.  The grant will cover general operating expenses during Centenary Stage Company's 2017 - 18 season.

For more than 40 years, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has nurtured leaders, ideas, and institutions which transcend self interest and promote a sustainable future. We focus on issues critical to our home state of New Jersey, and organizations that have a direct and meaningful impact here.

Working with nonprofit, community, government, and business leaders to imagine a better New Jersey, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation funds Arts, Education, Environment and Informed Communities initiatives that are innovative and promote collaboration and community-driven decision making.

Centenary Stage Company Receives Grant from The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation

In December of 2017 Centenary Stage Company received a $12,000 grant from The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.  The grant will support general operating expenses for the 2017-18 season.  With a strong commitment to the advancement of the Arts in New Jersey, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation supports a variety of projects across a broad spectrum of issues.