Jim Ireland (Kai) and Helen Coxe (Mimi)

In Neena Beber’s new play, The Dew Point, Mimi’s best friend, Jack, is an artist of some renown, a sculptor, and most recently the creator of an exotic tapas bar at a trendy new restaurant in the city. Jack’s friendship comes complete with all the complexities of the artist’s unique lens on reality, including his past as Mimi’s lover. While Mimi makes her living knowing the worth of rare historical artifacts, things in the present have been giving her significantly more trouble in this humorous and compelling new play. When Jack begins to date Mimi’s friend Phyllis, the results are both comic and disastrous, forcing Mimi to measure what she will choose to value in the modern urban jungle of love and life.

As part of its continuing commitment to new and emerging playwrights, the Centenary Stage Company will present the Premiere of Obie-Award winning playwright Neena Beber’s new play, The Dew Point, from November 4 – 19 in the Centenary Theatre in Hackettstown. A humorously compelling play about the challenges of contemporary life and modern relationships, The Dew Point was developed in our Women Playwright Series!

Clockwise starting left: Helen Coxe, Jim    Ireland, Jennifer Graven, Peter Ludwig, Liz    McConahay.

The Cast
CSC welcomes back actors Jim Ireland and Helen Coxe, who were part of the developmental workshop of this play in 2004 at CSC.

Helen Coxe as “Mimi”
Last seen on Broadway in the production of Warren Leight’s Side Man, Helen Coxe will be portraying “Mimi”. Her off-Broadway credits include Bug, As Bees in Honey Drown, and Romulus Linney’s Coda, and her television credits include Law and Order and Third Watch.

Jim Ireland as “Kai” (Mimi’s fiancé)
Jim Ireland, playing the role of “Kai” (Mimi’s fiancé) has performed opposite Dianne Weist in the Sidney Lumet production of The Shawl. He was an original cast member in the production of Motherbird by Craig Lucas, and has appeared at The Walnut Street Theatre, the Arden Theatre and the Wilma Theatre, as well as the Kennedy Center (D.C.), Geva Theatre, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and the McCarter Theatre. His television credits include Law & Order, One Life to Live and Guiding Light.

Liz McConahay as “Phyllis”
Broadway veteran and Westfield, NJ resident, Liz McConahay will play the role of “Phyllis”, bringing her extensive talents to this premiere, having performed in Broadway productions of The Full Monty (Estelle) , the revival of Cabaret (Fraulein Kost), and the first National Tour of Titanic (Alice Beane), where she first met CSC Artistic Director, Carl Wallnau. Her television credits include Third Watch and Unsolved Mysteries. McConahay received her training at the Royal National Theater in England.

Helen Coxe (Mimi) and Jim Ireland (Kai)

Peter Ludwig as “Jack”
Playing the role of “Jack”, Peter Ludwig’ career has spanned many disciplines. As an actor, Ludwig has performed most recently in The Boys Next Door and Betrayal at Stage West in Massachusetts, and in Marvin’s Room at Hartford Stage. He frequently narrates the Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s Youth concert series, and narrated the Public Television program, Five Feet and Rising: The Flood of ‘55. He has performed with the Illusion Mime Theatre, and as a dancer, was a member of the Juliette Forest Dance Co. and the Marcus Shulkind Dancers in New York.

Jennifer Graven as "Greta"
A veteran of the George Street Playhouse and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, actress Jennifer Graven will be performing the role of "Greta". Some of her New York credits include Rosecrantz and Guildernstern are Dead, and Merchant of Venice. Television credits include "Svetlana" in the Russian series Love Without Borders. Jennifer graduated with a B.F.A. in theatre from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.

The Director:   Margo Whitcomb
The premiere production of The Dew Point will be directed by Margo Whitcomb, Artistic Director of the Half Moon Theatre in the Hudson Valley. She is the former Associate Artistic Director of the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and is currently collaborating with Olympia Dukakis on the development of a re-envisioned production of The Tempest which will be introduced at the Long Wharf Theatre in Connecticut this November.

The Playwright:   Neena Beber
Most recently awarded the 2005 OBIE Award for Emerging Playwright. Neena Beber’s plays include Jump/Cut, Hard Feelings, A Common Vision, Tomorrowland, The Brief but Exemplary Life of the Living Goddess, and Failure to Thrive. Her works have premiered at The Women’s Project in New York, Woolly Mammoth theatre in D.C., Theatre J, The Magic Theatre in San Francisco, New Georges and Padua Hills Playwrights Festival. She has won numerous awards, including the A.S.K. Exchange to The Royal Court Theatre in London, an L. Arnold Weissberger Award for Playwriting, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and commissions from Playwrights Horizons and The Magic Theater in San Francisco. Her work is published in The Best American Short Plays 1996-1997 , and has been produced at numerous theatres across the country.

Beber’s children's television writing has garnered Emmy and Ace Award nominations, including her role as Head Writer of Clarissa Explains it All (Nickelodeon) and Little Bear (Nick Jr.), which she adapted for television from the Maurice Sendak/Elsa Minarek book series; she also adapted Erica Jong's feminist version of Rip Van Winkle for HBO's Happily Ever After series, and scripted the award-winning animated shorts Girl With Her Head Coming Off (animator Emily Hubbley). Beber was a Paulette Goddard Fellow at NYU Tisch where she also received the Distinguished Alumni Award. She has contributed articles to American Theatre, Theatre, and Performing Arts Journal, and her fiction has been published in The Sun.

Also see our Interview with the Playwright, Neena Beber

Artist Charles Lid and the 'designer       chair' he created for the World Premiere       of The Dew Point.

'Designer Chair' Offered In
Silent Auction Fund Raiser
Artist Charles Lid has a special connection to the theatre. Not only is his wife one of the 'busiest actresses in Northwest New Jersey,' and a professor in the Centenary College theatre department, but Lid is called upon from time to time to lend his talents to the artistic elements of the Centenary Stage. Now Lid has directed his skills to creating the 'designer chair', which is the focal point of the new play premiering at the Centenary Stage Company, The Dew Point, by OBIE Award-winning playwright, Neena Beber.

The contemporary story revolves around the relationship of a renown artist and furniture maker and his former girlfriend, Mimi. The 'designer chair' which he bestows on Mimi and her fiancé becomes the center of a much larger ethical debate in this funny and compelling story. Playwright Beeber is the former Head Writer for the popular TV series, “Clarissa Explains it All”.

A former member of the Peter’s Valley artist community in Layton, NJ, Lid received his BFA from Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts. His work is currently on exhibition at the Peter’s Valley Gallery as well as the Drew Chryst Gallery in Sparta. He is a full-time ceramics instructor at Rutgers Preparatory School, with a background in Industrial Design.

Lid’s singular creation for this World Premiere will be offered in Silent Auction as a fundraiser for the developmental Women Playwright Series at CSC, from which the play originated. The 'designer chair' will be signed by members of the cast, whose credits include Broadway productions of The Full Monty, Cabaret (the revival), Titanic and Sideman.

The Schedule
The Dew Point will be performed Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2:30pm and Thursdays at 7:30pm (Family Nights), with additional matinee performances on Wednesdays, and Nov. 8th at 2:30pm.

Nov. 2006 - The Dew Point
Wed. Mat. 2:30pm	Thurs. Eve. 7:30pm	Fri. Mat. 2:30pm	Fri. Eve. 8pm	Sat. Eve. 8pm	Sun. Mat. 2:30pm
				4	5 "First Sundays"
8	9 Family Night	x	10	11	12
x	16 Family Night	x	17	18	19 Access- ibility*

Tickets

Subscription Value
Centenary Stage Company is often referred to as "the best deal in the state." Though our season has already started, this event can still be purchased as a part of a discounted season subscription purchase. Centenary Stage Company offers several subscription plans for its season with the mission of making arts affordable for all.

Series B Subscription, priced at $60, is still available and allows patrons to purchase a season subscription for the remaining five events in the CSC season.

Individual Tickets
Individual Ticket prices for The Dew Point are:

How to Purchase Tickets
Individual Tickets (and Subscription Purchases, when available) can be purchased through our Secure Online Ordering System or by calling the Centenary Stage Company Box office at 908-979-0900. Tickets are also available at Greene's Beans Coffee Shop on High Street in Hackettstown.

Secure Online Tickets/Ordering