Reporter at New Brunswick Today
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Theatre Review: Topical Drama Provides Strong Finish to New Playwright Series

FRANKLIN, NJ—With impartiality, playwright Tiffany L. Wilson conveyed to a pleased audience both sides of the issue of gay marriage and its relationship to people of faith.

"Her Dream My Nightmare," to its credit maintained its dramatic purpose throughout its reading without taking sides or being judgmental from either prospective on this issue.  That makes for clarity and clarity makes for true drama.

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George Street Playhouse Hosts Theatrical Event Focused on New Brunswick Community

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—In January 1938, at a renowned New Jersey theater some twenty miles from The George Street Playhouse, "Our Town" celebrated its first public performance.

Now, 76 years later,  the play about the people of Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire has been re-worked by another celebrated New Jersey theater, in collaboration with its local community.

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Theatre Review: Rent at East Brunswick’s Playhouse 22

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ—Johnathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning rocked up reworking of Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème, is being staged at the East Brunswick Community Arts Center by its resident theater company, The East Brunswick Community Players/Playhouse 22.

Instead of Paris’ Latin Quarter in the 1830s, we find ourselves in Manhattan’s Alphabet City during the AIDS crisis on Christmas Eve in the late 1980’s.

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Theatre Review: Romeo and Juliet Get a New Look in Piscataway

PISCATAWAY, NJ—It’s cautionary whenever a theater company or a director says they are going to “contemporize the immortal bard.”

And like the version of Hamlet done at an established professional venue in Princeton some years ago, it usually doesn’t work and is often disastrous.  But there are exceptions and Circle Players' Romeo and Juliet is one of those exceptions.

Set in a prep school festooned with smart phones and a cast in contemporary garb, this version was truncated just enough in the right places.

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Review: World Premiere of Lift at Crossroads Theatre

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—Theater is not dying.  And venues like New Brunswick’s Tony-Award-winning Crossroads Theater Company deserves credit for keeping it healthy and alive.

It’s an enormous risk to stage a new work, even one by a celebrated author such as Walter Mosely.  Yet Crossroads consistently without fear of financial hardship or artistic ridicule moves ahead bringing another breath of fresh air to the American Stage.

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Theatre Review: Wrong Window at Villagers

FRANKLIN, NJ—The current local theater season isn’t suffering from a lack of dark comedies.

Villagers Theater made its own contribution to the genre with Billy Van Zant and Jane Milmore’s crowd pleasing Wrong Window.

Stage and screenwriting partners, Van Zant and Milmore hail from in New Jersey, and are among the most-produced playwriting teams in the world.

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Theatre Review: Villagers Showcases Comedy in New Playwrights Series

FRANKLIN, NJ–The Villagers Theatre in Somerset continued their series of free plays written by local up-and-coming playwrights on March 17 with a comedic performance that kept a packed house entertained.

Penned by Mitchell Brodsky of Princeton and directed by Brian Remo, who also stars in the piece, "Buds" is a black comedy concerning two improbable strangers who form a relationship that leads to scheming, secret identities and eventually murder.

Mitchell Brodsky’s dialogue was natural and flowed smooth though out the reading.