Cent. Stage Co. Hosts Rolling World Premiere of APPLES IN WINTER

Centenary Stage Company's 2018 - 19 theatrical season continues with the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of Jennifer Fawcett's award winning Apples in Winter. Limited performances will run November 8 through November 18 at the Centenary Stage Company Lackland Performing Arts Center at 715 Grand Ave. Hackettstown, NJ.

Twenty-two years ago, Miriam's son, Robert, committed a horrible crime while in the grips of withdrawal. It was violent and terrifying and resulted in the deaths of two teenagers who did not deserve to die in such a violent and terrifying way. Robert was caught, tried, and convicted of first-degree murder and has been sitting on death row ever since. In seven hours the state will execute him. As is the tradition, Robert is granted a last meal. His request: a slice of his mother's apple pie. This is a play about monsters and the mothers of monsters. And about how we care for each other. And about how to make a really good apple pie.

Winner of Centenary Stage Company's 2017 Susan Glaspell award and recipient of the prestigious National New Play Network (NNPN) Smith Prize of 2015-16, Apples in Winter will premiere at Centenary Stage Company as part of the NNPN Rolling World Premiere program. The flagship initiative, NNPN's Rolling World Premiere (RWP) program is shifting the new play paradigm of the one-and-done premiere to a diversified, traveling, multi-production premiere. The program models a process for developing and producing new plays by supporting three or more theaters that choose to mount the same new play within a 12-month period. The playwright is part of the process allowing for the further development of the new work with multiple creative teams in multiple communities. NNPN has championed the RWPs of 75 new plays with over one million dollars in financial support. RWP alumni plays have received hundreds of subsequent productions and citations in markets across the world, been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, won Steinberg/ATCA, Stavis, PEN and Blackburn awards, and adapted into feature films. Apples In Winter marks the 75th new play to be a part of the NNPN RWP program with other productions being presented at Riverside Theatre (Iowa City, IA) and Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis, IN).

Jennifer Fawcett is a co-founder and Co-Artistic Director of Working Group Theatre (WGT). She was the NNPN Emerging-Playwright-In-Residence at Curious Theatre Company (Denver) and is the winner of the NNPN Smith Prize for Political Theatre and the Susan Glaspell Award for Apples in Winter, the NEFA National Theatre Award with WGT for Out of Bounds, the National Science Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center for Atlas of Mud and her play Birth Witches was nominated for the ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award.

A graduate of the University of Iowa MFA Playwrights Workshop, Jennifer's plays have been produced at the Source Festival (Washington, DC), Uprising Theatre Company (Minneapolis), Tennessee Women's Theatre Project (Nashville), The Drilling Company (New York), Riverside Theatre (Iowa City), Available Light Theatre (Columbus), Hancher Auditorium (Iowa City), the Adirondack Theatre Festival (Glens Falls, NY), Halcyon Theatre (Chicago), Theatre Masters (Aspen/West Palm Beach), the Hatchery Festival (Washington, DC), and developed at Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab, the Banff Playwrights Colony, the Lark Playwright's Week, Cultural Conversations (Penn State), the Little Festival of the Unexpected (Portland Stage Company, ME), Central Square Theatre and M.I.T. (Cambridge, MA), Curious Theatre (Denver), Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Palm Beach Dramaworks (West Palm Beach, FL), and Performance Network Theatre (Ann Arbor, MI). Prior to moving to the U.S., Jennifer worked in Toronto, Canada, where she toured with her company, Red Engine Productions, to festivals across the country. For a full bio visit jenniferfawcett.org.

Apples in Winter runs November 8 through November 18 in Centenary Stage Company's Lackland Performing Arts Center. Individual performance dates are Fridays, November 9 and 16 at 8PM; Saturdays, November 10 and 17 at 8PM; Sundays, November 11 and 18 at 2PM; Wednesday, November 14 at 2PM and Thursdays, November 8 and 15 at 7:30PM. Tickets are $25.00 for adults on matinee performances, $27.50 for adults on Friday evening performances, $29.50 for adults on Saturday evening performances and $27.50 for ALL SEATS with a Buy One/Get One rush ticket special when purchased in person at the Centenary Stage Company box office beginning at 5:30PM. BOGO offer not valid for advance ticket sales and may not be combined with any other discounts. Centenary Stage Company also offers a variety of group sale, buffet matinee and discounts to students and children under 12.

For more information or to purchase tickets visit centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979 - 0900. The box office is open Monday through Friday from 1 - 5 pm and two hours prior to every scheduled performance. The box office is located in the Lackland Performing Arts Center at 715 Grand Ave. Hackettstown, NJ on the campus of Centenary University. Centenary Stage Company can also be found on social media platforms; Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Like and follow to receive the latest in Centenary Stage Company news and special offers.

The 2018-2019 season of performing arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Sandra Kupperman Foundation, and CSC corporate sponsors, including Premier Season Sponsor Heath Village Retirement Community, The House of the Good Shepherd, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Medical Center, Home Instead Senior Care (Washington), Fulton Bank of New Jersey, and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.

Photo: Colleen Smith Wallnau returns as Miriam. Photo from 2017 Women Playwrights Series staged reading. (Photo credit: Chris Young)

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