The Jersey Arts Podcast

This Saturday at the Hunterdon Art Museum, visitors are invited to a unique experience that brings together the visual and performing arts. Roxey Ballet Company has teamed up with artist Malcolm Mobutu Smith – whose exhibition Evermore Nevermore closes this weekend – and have created an exclusive 45-minute showcase that will be presented outdoors on the Toshiko Takaezu Terrace, overlooking the museum's iconic view of the Raritan River. (This event is free, but please register to attend.)We recently spoke with the Hunterdon Art Museum's Executive Director Marjorie Frankel Nathanson, Roxey Ballet's Executive Director Mark Roxey, artist Malcolm Mobutu Smith, and Roxey Ballet's Director of Education and Outreach Lees Hummel about this special collaboration.

On Wednesday, April 13, Vox Sambou and his band will take the stage at the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts. He writes and performs in Haitian, French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and his music focuses on the traditional rhythms of Haiti mixed with elements of Afrobeat, Jazz, Reggae, and Hip hop. Vox Sambou is currently - and it seems usually - touring the world. We spoke with him shortly after he arrived in the US after a visit with family in Haiti.

On Thursday, February 10, powerhouse vocalist Ms. Lisa Fischer will perform An Evening of Love Songs at South Orange Performing Arts Center. The legendary singer has performed with the Rolling Stones, Luther Vandross, Tina Turner, YoYo Ma, Bruce Springsteen, and many others, and is a Grammy-winning solo artist. We recently spoke with Fischer about her special Valentine's Day concert, what it's like to be one the most in-demand singers in the world, and how she creates “music that heals, but still rocks the house.”

King chats with host Maddie Orton about:01:41: Javon King's introduction to RENT4:12: Javon's arts education in New Jersey11:18: Tour life16:21: The legacy of Angel and RENTLINKS:RENT at Mayo PACStay connected to your local arts and entertainment scene at JerseyArts.comSUPPORTED BY:ArtPride New JerseyNew Jersey State Council on the ArtsNational Endowment for the Arts

This past September, Roxey Ballet Company's studios, offices, and theater in the river town of Lambertville were totally destroyed by Hurricane Ida. This coming Sunday, December 19, they're throwing a big fundraiser - Rise Up and Rebuild the Ballet - at their temporary home, the New Hope Eagle Fire Hall, right across the river from their New Jersey facilities. There will be food, drink, and a lot of dancing. We recently got the opportunity to sit down with company founder Mark Roxey to talk about rebuilding after Ida, and about how the community has rallied together to save Roxey Ballet Company. 

This Saturday, the hit public radio and podcast series Selected Shorts returns to Enlow Recital Hall at Kean University for an evening of beguiling tales for the Halloween season. One of the three readers is actor, writer, and creator of the new PBS Kids show “Alma's Way,” Sonia Manzano, who is famous for her iconic, long-time role as Maria on “Sesame Street.” We recently got the chance to speak with Sonia Manzano about her time with “Sesame Street,” creating her own children's show, and the joy of telling stories on stage.

Feinberg, Colbert, and Morris chat with host Maddie Orton about:00:45: Montclair Film Festival 10 years ago and today5:36: Highlights of the 10th Anniversary Season7:23: NJ filmmaker Scott Morris' documentary, American River15:28: Montclair Film Festival's role in the Garden State19:50: Reopening historic Clairidge CinemasLINKS:Montclair Film FestivalAmerican River at MFFThe Lost Daughter at MFFStay connected to your local arts and entertainment scene at JerseyArts.com SUPPORTED BY:ArtPride New JerseyNew Jersey State Council on the ArtsNational Endowment for the Arts

On Saturday, September 18, four young playwrights will present four new plays at The Growing Stage, The Children's Theatre of New Jersey, in Netcong. They are the finalists in The Growing Stage's first Playwriting Festival for Young Writers: Violet Baker, Maya Abraham, Maxine Ting, and Alethea Shirilan-Howlett. We spoke with all four finalists this week, as well as Growing Stage Executive Director Stephen L. Fredericks, Director of Educational Programming Lori B. Lawrence, and Danny Campos, Director of the Playwrighting Festival for Young Writers.

Adam Pascal was a rock ‘n' roll musician who had no theatrical credits when he landed the role of Roger in RENT—a show that would garner him a Tony nomination and forever change the sound of Broadway. Now, Pascal shares his journey through the shows he's performed along the way—AIDA, Cabaret, Memphis, Chicago, and more. His solo acoustic concert, “So Far,” is coming to the Arthur Pryor Bandshell in Asbury Park on July 28th and BellWorks in Holmdel on July 29th as part of Axelrod Performing Arts Center's Vogel Summer Concert Series.Adam chats with host Maddie Orton about:2:13: Creating “So Far”6:38: How Adam Pascal landed the role of Roger in RENT7:46: How Roger got bleached hair and a leather jacket13:09: Taking over some of Broadway's biggest roles 17:45: Adam's dream roles (and our dream roles for him)25:37: The legacy of rent 25 years laterLINKS: “So Far” presented by Axelrod Performing Arts CenterAdam Pascal sings “Phantom” with Seth RudetskyStay connected to your local arts and entertainment scene at JerseyArts.comSUPPORTED BY:ArtPride New JerseyNew Jersey State Council on the ArtsNational Endowment for the Arts

The 2021 NJ Governor's Awards in Arts Education kicks off on Saturday, May 22. In this episode, we speak to two past winners, two of this year's awardees, and more about the impact of these annual awards.

● 1:06: Picture: "The Playbill Gallery" exhibit.● 2:01: What's an "audio play"?● 6:25: How "The Playbill Gallery" began.● 10:35: How Mile Square Theatre made it through the pandemic.● 12:29: Will the pandemic change how theatre is offered moving forward?● 14:36: We remember theatre experiences for all sorts of reasons...LINKS:● "The Playbill Gallery (a love story)" at Mile Square Theatre● New Jersey Theatre Alliance's Stages Festival● Stay connected to your local arts and entertainment scene at JerseyArts.com.SUPPORTED BY:● ArtPride New Jersey● The New Jersey State Council on the Arts● The National Endowment for the Arts

The 2021 GRAMMY Awards are this weekend, and, for the first time, a Westminster grad participated in each of the five recordings nominated in the Best Choral Performance category. We recently spoke with five of the artists in that category about the nominated recordings.

Since 1958, "Christmas in Carol and Song" has been an annual tradition at Rutgers University's historic Kirkpatrick Chapel in New Brunswick. Patrick Gardner, distinguished professor of music and director of choral activities at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, has led the Rutgers Kirkpatrick Choir and the Rutgers University Glee Club for more than 25 years. With the help of both choirs recording from home throughout the country, visual artists Camilla Tassi and Stephanie Tubiolo, and a Mason Gross student quarantine pod known as the Handy Street 8, Gardner has produced a dynamic virtual concert experience debuts Saturday, December 12 at 7:30 PM. We recently spoke to Patrick Gardner and three of his students about reimagining and reinventing this holiday tradition for 2020.

Ada Trillo is a bilingual documentary photographer who grew up–literally–crossing the border. Born in El Paso, her family moved to Juárez when she was young, but she attended school in Texas, which meant an hours-long commute over the border every day. Trillo went on to become a painter, but Donald Trump's hateful comments about Mexicans caused her to make a radical shift. The Noyes Museum's Kramer Gallery in Hammonton, NJ, is now showing a selection of Trillo's portraits in the exhibition “If Walls Could Speak: Asylum Seekers,” open both in person and online.

We recently spoke with Fort Lee, New Jersey native David Meyers, who left the world of Washington, DC politics behind to pursue a career as an actor, playwright, and screenwriter. In between projects for the stage and screen, he co-created the comedic web series Bloomywood, in which he stars as Hollywood hopeful Michael Bloomstein.

Given Circumstance: New Plays in the Virtual World is an ambitious project from Mile Square Theatre: seven new plays written specifically for the Zoom format. The first, “Sitting and Talking” by Lia Romeo, stars Wendie Malick (“Just Shoot Me!”) and Dan Lauria (“The Wonder Years”).

“The show must go on!” is part of Bonnie Monte's DNA. As the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey for 30 years this season, shutting down was hard for her to do. But Monte found a way out, working with a group of eight actors originally employed as part of the theatre's “Shakespeare Live!” company. The actors formed a new troupe (the Shrewd Mechanicals, in a nod to “A Midsummer Night's Dream”), and will present two evenings of classic comedies: “Verily, Madly Thine,” and a double bill featuring Molière's farce “The Love Doctor” and Edna St. Vincent Millay's “Aria Da Capo.” Performances will take place outside on the theatre's great lawn in Florham Park, NJ, and tickets are selling fast. In this conversation with producer Susan Wallner, Monte describes how they're pulling off live theatre in New Jersey during the pandemic. She also reflects on her new appreciation for Shakespeare, whose own life was repeatedly shadowed by outbursts of the plague.

Last month, the New Jersey Governor's Awards in Arts Education celebrated its 40th year. Established in 1980, the program was created to promote awareness and appreciation for the arts by honoring individual students, and to honor education leaders who have demonstrated excellence in, and dedication to, arts education. Usually held in May at the historic Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton, this year's awards ceremony, like so many other arts events, moved online – and took place in late June.

Art House Productions was founded after 9/11 to bring Jersey City's community together through the arts. They've thrived over the years, with live theatre, dance, and comedy events, and more. The coronavirus has made them return to their roots of providing connection for the community, this time through live virtual events. Executive director Meredith Burns talks to producer Susan Wallner about Virtual Drag Bingo, Virtual Story Slam, Saturday Night Online Comedy, and more.

While we're all staying at home to do our part to stop the coronavirus, everyone's developing different media diets, and that includes the art we're choosing to enrich our days in isolation. For this podcast, we're focusing on some of the new music that's being made available online. We got on the phone with the folks behind the online content programming for four New Jersey arts organizations – New Jersey Performing Arts Center's Dave Rodriguez, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's Patrick Chamberlain, The Folk Project's Mark Schaffer, and Rowan University's Debbie Shapiro, who is currently running the Live to your Couch series, which features Rowan's College of Performing Arts faculty.

Songwriters by the Sea started in Asbury Park at a coffee shop in 2008, with a tip jar passed around. Since then it's grown to a ticketed event, but with an informal vibe. Top name performers play alongside local favorites. It was founded by singer/songwriters Joe D'Urso and Joe Rapolla. Rapolla is also a former music industry executive, and the chair of Monmouth University's Music & Theatre Arts Department. Producer Susan Wallner spoke to Joe Rapolla about the history of this on-going series after the March 2020 Songwriters by the Sea concert was cancelled.

Did you know that New Brunswick, N.J. is the only place in the country where you can see live, world-class jazz every week for free? You can thank the New Brunswick Jazz Project. We recently sat down with the NBJP team at Tavern on George, where most of their events take place.

It's been called the perfect romantic comedy. Shakespeare's “Twelfth Night" begins with sister-brother twins losing each other in a shipwreck, leading to a high-spirited tale of gender-bending and mixed-up love affairs. Director Sara Holdren recalls falling in love with Shakespeare at a very early age, and the creative fun of interpreting his plays. Hint: Sara's making the most of the music in the production, collaborating with the band and theater collective, The Lobbyists. “Twelfth Night” is on stage at Two River Theater in Red Bank, NJ through February 2, 2020.

This Sunday, the New Jersey Youth Symphony will perform two "Nutcrackers" side by side – bouncing Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's 1960s arrangements off of Tchaikovsky's original compositions. Listen in as we talk to the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of NJYS and Director of the NJYS's Jazz Orchestra about putting this ambitious project together to challenge their students and celebrate the season.

Hannah Arendt is a philosopher for our times, and the unlikely title character in a new play “Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library.” Jenny Lyn Bader's gripping play is inspired by the true story of how Arendt, a 26 year-old married Jewish woman at the beginning of her career as a philosopher, was arrested with her mother in Nazi Germany in 1933. Arendt, who's married name is Stern, is best known for her writings on fascism, totalitarianism, and the nature of power and evil."Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library" is now at Luna Stage in West Orange, New Jersey, where the run has been extended through November 17. Bader, who is on the advisory board of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities, talks to producer Susan Wallner about both her play and Arendt's legacy.

The Great Cheesy Movie Circus Tour is coming to town. It's the latest live tour from "Mystery Science Theater 3000," the classic television show in which a spaceship janitor and his homemade robot friends are subjected to a cruel experiment by mad scientists - meaning they are forced to watch the worst movies ever made until they go insane. Creator and original host Joel Hodgson (and company) will be doing two shows at the State Theatre in New Brunswick October 26. He spoke with us earlier this week from the tour bus about the history of the Peabody Award-winning Mystery Science Theater 3000, and about how the unique comedic art form he created continues to connect with audiences more than 30 years after the show premiered on a local TV station in Minneapolis.

Emily Mann is a triple threat: an award-winning playwright known for her “theater of testimony,” a sought-after director, and the artistic director of one of America's preeminent regional theaters, the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey. She is stepping down as artistic director after the 2019-2020 season, her 30th at the McCarter. In this special edition of the Jersey Arts Podcast, producer Susan Wallner talks with Mann about her career, her future projects, and her final season, which begins with her play Gloria: A Life starring Mary McDonnell ("Dances with Wolves," "Battlestar Galactica").

We recently spoke with artist and designer Molly Hatch, whose signature style is currently on display in a large-scale ceramics installation at the Newark Museum called Repertoire.

During the era of Jim Crow, black singers were played on black radio stations, and white singers on white ones. Famously, Elvis Presley adopted the bluesy style and songs of black performers, shocking white audiences. Rose Marie McCoy wanted to be a singer, but became one of the best songwriters of the time, working on both sides of the color barrier with hits by Ike and Tina Turner, Elvis Presley, James Taylor, and Sarah Vaughn among others. At the Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck on July 26, "40s to 60s, A Musical Journey" will chart the journey from the blues to rock and roll, including songs by McCoy and others. Singer Audrey Martells will perform and McCoy's biographer, Arlene Corsano, will share anecdotes and provide historical context. In this Jersey Arts Podcast, Corsano talks to producer Susan Wallner about Rose Marie McCoy, a black woman whose talent and spunk helped her make it in the music industry during the 1940s, '50s and '60s.

On stage through July 20, "Summerland" is a work of historical fiction based on a real case that involved William H. Mumler – a man who claimed to be able to photograph spirits, and whose clients included First Lady of the United States Mary Todd Lincoln.

In the age of Instagram, food is a visual obsession. “The Shared Meal,” an exhibition at Artworks in Trenton, dives deeper, exploring the meaning of food through the work of nine visual artists.

From April 25-28, NJSO presents Xian Conducts Mozart, with classical music super-star Simone Dinnerstein performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23. Hear from Dinnerstein on her take on the timeless genius of Mozart's music.

Video games, music, and pizza form the cultural undercurrent of "Band on the Run," a new play by Chris Saglimbene featured in this year's Stages Festival. A playwright, actor, vlogger, gamer, artist, and all-around talented guy, Saglimbene has cerebral palsy but, as he says, “it doesn't have him.” Actors from Premiere Stages at Kean University join Saglimbene in a staged reading on March 23 at the Schonhorn Arts Center at Matheny Medical and Education Center in Peapack. Producer Susan Wallner talks to Chris Saglimbene and Heather Williams, performing arts coordinator of the Arts Access Program at Matheny.

The Alan Parsons Live Project plays Bergen Performing Arts Center on Friday, February 22. Rock icon Alan Parsons took a moment during his non-stop touring schedule to chat with us about getting his start working with The Beatles and Pink Floyd at Abbey Road Studios, the analog approach he took in producing his new album “The Secret,” and finally winning a Grammy Award a few weeks ago after being nominated 13 times over four decades. The first one was for his engineering work on Pink Floyd's classic album “Dark Side of the Moon.”

Composer John Morton has created interactive installations using sound in Central Park,  Governors Island and now the Morris Museum, where two of his pieces can be “played” through February 24. “Fever Songs” uses audio gathered from different religious traditions, and “The Voyage Out” is a collaboration with figurative artist Jacqueline Shatz. Producer Susan Wallner talks to both of the artists  about the latter work — a ship with three keys that initiate both movement and sound  – which was inspired by Charles Darwin's journey of exploration aboard the HMS Beagle. Morton and Shatz also discuss the tradition of music boxes and automata, both of which can be seen in the Morris Museum's world-renowned Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata.

At the age of 75, singer-songwriter Garland Jeffreys continues to rock. The Brooklyn native got his start in New York City's club scene in the mid-60s, and had a breakout hit in the 70s with the single “Wild in the Streets.” He met his best friend Lou Reed while studying art history at Syracuse University, and he recorded with The Velvet Underground's co-founder John Cale before striking out on his own. In 1977, the year his album “Ghost Writer” was released, Rolling Stone pronounced him Best New Artist. In the decades since, Jeffreys has recorded 12 more albums, including last year's “14 Steps To Harlem.” We spoke recently over the phone to talk about protest music, his upcoming show at SOPAC and the song that started it all.

Drummer, leader, and composer Terri Lyne Carrington made history as the first woman to win a Grammy for Best Instrumental Jazz for her album “Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue.” Now, she brings her interpretation of Duke Ellington's “Money Jungle” to the TD James Moody Jazz Festival at NJPAC on November 11, 2018, as part of a program called “Jazz Vinyl Revisited.” Producer Susan Wallner talks to Carrington about her connections to the jazz greats Clark Terry and Max Roach; her newest project, the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice; and why she thinks drummers make natural leaders.

Tonight, Tuesday, October 30,  at Douglass Library at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, a mother and her daughter – one an artist, the other a scientist – will have a public conversation about where, why and how their fields intersect.

The Dodge Poetry Festival is the largest poetry event in North America. Paterson-based poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan will be reading on Thursday and Friday of the four-day festival taking place October 18-21 in Newark. Maria is the force behind the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College, and the author of more than 20 books of and about poetry. Her poems are about her life, including her strong memories of childhood in Paterson's Italian immigrant community. She likes to talk about the “cave,” that place of memories and feelings inside us all that the best poetry takes us back to. Producer Susan Wallner spoke to Maria Mazziotti Gillan at her home in Hawthorne, a suburb of Paterson

Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's Broadway musical "Bright Star" has come to Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven. The comedian and the songwriter created the show after collaborating on a Grammy-winning bluegrass album called "Love Has Come For You." "Bright Star" is set in the American South in the 1920s and '40s, and it's on a similar musical wavelength. We recently spoke with Surflight's Artistic Director Steve Steiner, actor Adrianne Hick and director Elizabeth Lucas about bringing "Bright Star" to Long Beach Island.

Wendy Wasserstein's best known play, "The Heidi Chronicles," won both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play in 1989. Many of the themes of this feminist classic were already evident in "Uncommon Women and Others," a play written by Wasserstein a decade earlier. "Uncommon Women" is on stage at the Princeton Summer Theater through July 22nd. For this podcast, producer Susan Wallner spoke to the Dean of the College at Princeton University and author of a book about Wendy Wasserstein, Jill Dolan. Dolan points out that the hopes and fears of young women about to make critical life choices after college continue to resonate today.

Looking for a way to celebrate the start of the summer season? Beginning Friday, June 22, all 48 blocks of Atlantic City will be buzzing with hands-on art projects, live performances, unique dining experiences and a lot more. We recently spoke with Joyce Hagen, Executive Director of the Atlantic City Arts Foundation, to learn more about A.C.'s arts scene, and to find out what the 48 Blocks Atlantic City arts celebration is all about. For a handy guide to all of the locations and events, check out 48blocksAC.com.

“Caged” is a play based on the experiences of incarcerated men in New Jersey. It's written by the New Jersey Prison Cooperative, a group of men who met in a drama class in prison taught by Chris Hedges, an author and Princeton University professor. Hedges had heard a story about a man being jailed that had affected him, and he offered it to the class as a starting point. From that beginning, the men created “Caged,” a transformative play based on their own, similar experiences of incarceration. Producer Susan Wallner spoke to Boris Franklin, the only one of the playwrights out of prison yet. Franklin is now a full-time student majoring in psychology, and an actor in the premiere production of “Caged” at Passage Theatre, May 3-20, 2018.

The new musical "The Sting," now entering its last weekend at Paper Mill Playhouse, was pretty much totally sold out before it even opened. A musical adaptation of the classic, Oscar-winning film of the same name starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, this new version stars Harry Connick, Jr., J. Harrison Ghee and Kate Shindle – to name a few. Theater-goers know Ghee from his inimitable performance as the drag queen hero Lola of the Tony Award-winning "Kinky Boots," and they know Shindle from Broadway productions of "Jekyll & Hyde," "Cabaret," "Wonderland" and the national tour of the Tony Award-winning musical "Fun Home." We spoke with both of them earlier this week as they were preparing for their final performances of this smash-hit run at Paper Mill.

Even if you don't know anything about opera, you've heard “Ride of the Valkyries" – it's been bouncing around pop culture for generations, appearing in everything from Bugs Bunny cartoons to "Apocalypse Now." This Sunday, March 18, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Trilogy: An Opera Company will present Richard Wagner's "The Valkyrie" – the second of four works that form Richard Wagner's musical drama "Ring Cycle" – which features the famous “Ride of the Valkyries” segment at the beginning of Act Three. We recently spoke with Trilogy's Artistic Director Kevin Maynor about this opera and the meaning behind it. Maynor will also be performing the role of Hunding on Sunday – something he's done many times in opera houses around the world throughout his remarkable career as an opera singer.

The next show at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center, opening March 3, is the popular musical “Ragtime.” Set in the early 20th century, it features African Americans, Jewish immigrants, upper-class suburbanites, as well as historical luminaries such as Harry Houdini, Henry Ford and Emma Goldman. Luis Salgado is the director of this new production, returning to Axelrod PAC after his popular 2017 production of “In the Heights.” Luis was an original cast member and assistant choreographer for Lin-Manuel Miranda's “In the Heights” on Broadway. Producer Susan Wallner spoke to Salgado about his journey from performer to director, his mission as an artist and about being back at the Axelrod PAC. “Ragtime” runs March 3-25 at Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal Park, NJ.

Caleb Hudson is the newest member of the Canadian Brass, the popular quintet that revolutionized the place of brass in classical music. A former principal trumpet of Collingswood's Symphony in C, Hudson returns as a featured artist on their “Italian Festival” concert on January 27 at the Rutgers Camden Center for the Arts. He spoke to producer Susan Wallner about how he first came to play the trumpet, what it's like to be part of the Canadian Brass and the two solos he'll be performing with the Symphony in C.

This year commemorates the 100th anniversary of the United States' entry into World War I. Though often referred to as The Forgotten War, most of us know that it was one of the largest and most brutal wars in history. But there is one short chapter that is still unknown to many—during the Christmas of 1914, peace broke out. Allied and German soldiers on the front lines reached out to each other from their trenches, initially through Christmas caroling, and met in the No Man's Land between them to exchange holiday greetings, trade food, play soccer, swap prisoners and hold burial ceremonies for their dead. Then, the truce ended, and the war continued. One of the most unlikely moments in modern history, and left out of most textbooks, the Christmas Truce of 1914 really did happen. This Sunday at Kean University, the story will come to life on stage in “All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914.” Christopher Benincasa recently spoke with writer and director Peter Rothstein and Kean Stage Manager Steve Cochran about “All Is Calm,” and the amazing history behind it.