Interview: Jessica Phelan of JERSEY VOICES at Chatham Playhouse

The Chatham Community Players (CCP) will host its 29th annual Jersey Voices One-Act Festival with five performances between July 28th and August 6th. This year's production will include seven original short plays written by New Jersey playwrights. I had the Pleasure of interviewing Producer Jessica Phelan.

What is Jersey Voices? Jersey Voices is an annual one act festival at Chatham Playhouse of original works by playwrights that are either current or past residents of New Jersey.  This is the 29th annual production.

What is the process you go through when choosing plays and directors? We have a play reading committee of 6 that reads all submissions (166 this year) and whittles them down to a top 12.  We have open director submissions, 23 people applied this year, we send them the 12 plays, they read them all and send back their top three choices and visions for each.  From there the creative team reads all submissions and do our best to match directors to plays that make a balanced evening and they feel passionately about directing.

What are your responsibilities as Producer? I like to call myself "Air Traffic Control".  My job is to help facilitate all the logistics to give the directors the space to create the piece as they see it.

What do you think makes Jersey Voices so successful year after year? These are plays you are not going to see anywhere else. Many of them have never been performed before.  It is a chance to see new ideas.  All the plays are short, so if something isn't really your taste, its over soon.  But if you love something, its 10 minutes of joy!

 Tickets can be purchased at our Box Office or Online. To access the theater's new online ticketing service, where you can now reserve your particular seat, simply go to ccp.booktix.com. The service is available 24 hours a day and tickets can be purchased online up until three hours prior to curtain on the day of a performance. For more information, call the box office at (973) 635-7363 or go to www.chathamplayers.org.

Performance dates are July 28, 29, August 4, 5 at 8pmand August 6 at 7pm at the Chatham Playhouse, 23 North Passaic Avenue, in Chatham. All tickets are $15.

Each of the following pieces will be performed each night of the festival:

“Pigeon + Duck” by Amanda Sage Comerford, Directed by Jenna Burke: A proudly independent single mother debates if her own adult daughter can hack it after finding a positive pregnancy test in the daughter’s trash bin.

Gabrielle Wagner as Wendy

Erin Feith as Jude

“Snow Globe” by Blaire Deziel, Directed by Julia Frieri Cassisi: Henry and Susan, a brother and sister still living together in their childhood home, reflect on the importance of memory on a cold winter’s day.

Nick Foil as Henry

Brooke Harrsch as Susan

“Three Items at a Time” by Scout Graham, Directed by Lionel Ruland, Assistant Directed by Rachel Gesner: A story of loving acceptance. A mother and her daughter go shopping for Prom dresses with zero success because, we discover, Cory would prefer to wear a suit.

Elissa Strell as Rita

Ren Bailey as Cory

“Catch 23” by Gabrielle Wagner Mann, Directed by Aaron Kellner: Two strangers become friends as they discuss the (possibly?) unreliable nature of reality.

Gus Ibranyi as John

Heidi Hart as Lu

“Water Bar” by Tracie E. Morrison, Directed by Joann Lopresti Scanlon, Assistant Directed by Eleanor Anderson: A spoof on high-end "restaurants" but this one just serves water! Filtered, Infused, Turkish, Chilean etc. You get the idea.

Bradley Carrington as Man

Erica Stuppler as Woman

            Jose Riveria as Waiter

“The Dating Pool” by Arianna Rose, Directed by Sharon Garry: Is hindsight really 20/20? What if you could give your younger self relationship advice? In this surrealistic piece, an older woman dreams that she can do just that.

Jodi Maloy as 61

Miranda Montalvo as 16

Anna McCabe as 23

Monica Ross as 36

Sarah Pharaon as 49

“Come Fly with Me” by Loretta Bolger Wish, Directed by Julie Anne Nolan: A man and woman take turns panicking over a bumpy flight that rapidly escalates their relationship from seatmates to would-be paramours—until an even more unwelcome disturbance throws them completely off course.

Danny Greg as Ken

Ruth Kliwinski as Julie

Photo credit: Chatham Playhouse

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