First Annual New Play Festival Makes Emerging Theater Voices Heard in Jersey City

Jersey City Theater Center (JCTC) presents the first annual New Play Festival, a series of staged readings of new plays by established and emerging playwrights held in Jersey City. The inaugural New Play Festival, a partnership between the Writers Theatre of New Jersey, runs through March 25.

The New Play Festival begins February 9, Fourth Planet by Dano Madden, about an astronaut deciding between relationships on earth and becoming the first woman on Mars, setting a tone for a cluster of plays that defy genre, embrace diversity, and explore important issues of our times.

"As a presenting venue, JCTC is committed to nurturing new voices in American theatre," said Olga Levina, Artistic Director. "It is urgent, because of the times we live in now, that we listen to each other so can we fully analyze our current situation and build our future together. These playwrights represent the voices of people from a cross-section of society."

Only by listen We need a theater that is inclusive, that enables audiences to listen to voices from many different theaters. With the New Play Festival, we are bringing plays of artistic excellence so audiences can experience quality work, many of which seem destined to become full-scale productions."

"The New Play Festival at JCTC provides a valuable new play development opportunity for local playwrights.," said Lia Romeo, New Play Reading Coordinator, JCTC. "Before new plays come to the stage in a full production, it's incredibly helpful for playwrights to hear them in front of an audience in a "reading" format, and get a sense of what's working and what isn't. It also provides an opportunity for audience members to give feedback and get involved with the development of a new work of art."

"The women's marches on January 21 were truly borderless events, occurring in almost every state and on every continent," said John Pietrowski, Artistic Director, Writers Theatre of New Jersey. "March is Women's History Month, and the plays Writers Theatre are offering as part of the New Play Festival celebrate the resilience and determination of women; from the large historical canvas of the Paterson Silk Strikes, to the quiet fortitude that holds a family together in Newark during the Depression and World War II, to women incarcerated in the American prison system, or struggling to find a spiritual and moral center against impossible odds."

Bringing new audiences to emerging artists and enabling new artistic voices to be heard not only is in keeping with JCTC's mission, but is an artistic endeavor that seems more necessary today than ever before. "Supporting emerging artists and new voices is especially important now, at a time when the arts aren't highly valued by the political administration," said Romeo, who is also an accomplished playwright. "There are programs like this in New York, but few in Hudson County. There's an incredibly smart, diverse, cultured audience in Jersey City that's hungry for this kind of thing. JCTC is a hub for the local arts scene and working with emerging theater artists on new and innovative works is a huge part of that."

All New Play Festival readings are held at Merseles Studios in Jersey City and are free ($5 suggested donation) and open to the public.

For more information or to purchase tickets visit: jctcenter.org

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