On Stage: A Peek At The Performing Arts

From the Keyboards of Children ... Compelling Theater

The Madison Young Playwrights Festival gives budding writers a chance to shine.

The Playwrights Theatre in Madison will soon be alive with stories about a conflict between Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, the backstage drama of an “American Idol”-like belly dancing competition, and a young girl who learns something about herself when she becomes famous. Pretty interesting and pretty diverse, right? But all of these plays have something in common—they're written by Madison students in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades. Those plays and others are part of the 25th Annual Madison Young Playwrights Festival at the Playwrights Theatre March 26. The festival will feature 21 plays written by students who started their journey to the stage with a 10-week residency program in the fall.  “We have a teaching artist who’s either…

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On Stage: A Peek At The Performing Arts

Director's Coming Home to 'Our Town'

Pax Amicus Castle Theatre to stage Thornton Wilder's American classic.

Stan Barber didn’t know much about theater when he was a high school teacher in Morris County 45 years ago. But he had taken an acting class and that made him qualified to direct the school play. “The play I chose to do was ‘Our Town’ and I fell in love with the whole process of what it meant to put on a show,” Barber said. So much in love did he fall that he made the stage his career, and the theater he founded—now known as Pax Amicus Castle Theatre in Budd Lake—celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2010. As the artistic director of the group, Barber said, he’s directed some 500 shows (including a few in New York). But he hasn’t directed Thornton Wilder’s masterpiece since that night in the 1960s when he heard audiences crying over high …

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Chatham Players' 'Glengarry' Does Mamet Justice

Community theater presents stunning performance of Pulitzer prize-winning drama.

In a well-done production of "Glengarry Glen Ross," the tension is palpable the minute the first characters take the stage. And on the opening weekend of David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play by the Chatham Community Players, the tension hung in the air like fog from the moment the lights came up. The play depicts two days in lives of four real estate salesmen who are desperate to make sales as they compete to get their names on “the board” and win a Cadillac. The play’s title comes from the two Florida developments they are selling – Glengarry Highlands and Glen Ross Farms. Shelly Levene, played with a touching mix of strength and vulnerability by Michael King of New Providence, is the oldest of the salesmen and down on his luck. He …

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Five Things You Need To Know Today

Two Chances to Attend the Theater

All the essential information you need to get you through your Friday.

Whether you are in the mood for drama or comedy, Chatham has something for everybody Friday night! Read all about it in the Five Things You Need to Know Today column:

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'Glengarry' a Sales Pitch from Start to Finish

The Chatham Community Players present David Mamet's Pulizter Prize-winning play.

When you buy tickets for the Chatham Community Players’ production of David Mamet’s play “Glengarry Glen Ross,” which opens Friday, Director Chase Newhart recommends finding a sitter. “There is strong language in this,” Newhart said. “It’s guys-in-a-locker-room vocab, and nobody should come to this play who isn’t ready for guys-in-a-locker-room talking.” The play, which centers around Chicago real estate salesmen in the 1960s, also contains a certain amount of sleaze and desperation, Newhart said, which is part of why he thinks the play is so appropriate. “All these salesmen are kind of desperate, which is kind of fitting for these tough times,” he said. “These guys are at the end of their ropes.” Newhart said he is a big fan of Mamet’s …

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