Pushcart Players Artistic Director Performs in TWELVE ANGRY MEN

Pushcart Players Artistic Director, Paul Whelihan will be performing in the classic drama, TWELVE ANGRY MEN with The Company Theatre Group, Hackensack NJ. The play runs at The Hackensack Performing Arts Center from Friday, November 8 through Sunday November 17, 2019.

Directed by Lou Scarpati, The Company co-founder and artistic director, the production includes three New Jersey Theatre Alliance member artistic directors besides Whelihan, and Teddy Coluca, noted NJ actor. Coluca appears as Brimley on NBC's The Blacklist, and played the stage manager on the 2006-2013 series Thirty Rock, among other numerous television, Broadway and regional theater productions.

In TWELVE ANGRY MEN, a young man is accused of fatally stabbing his father in what appears to be an open and shut case. Yet, this is not as it appears; in a jury of 12, one brave man stands alone, fighting racism, personal vendettas, apathy, arrogance, and injustice. As relevant today as it was when it was written more than sixty years ago, TWELVE ANGRY MEN is a powerful example of what might happen when a failed justice system delivers everything but justice.

Reginald Rose wrote TWELVE ANGRY MEN as a teleplay in 1954. Rose was an American film and television writer known for his treatment of controversial social and political issues in the early years of television. In 1955, his script was adapted for the stage, and in 1957 was made into the film that has become an American classic. The courtroom drama has received numerous tributes, remakes, and adaptations, including film versions from India, Russia, China, and Spain, and stage versions in America, England, and Lebanon.

"The broad international appeal of the work speaks to the universality of its themes," said Whelihan. "I'm grateful to be a part of a play with such resonance, and am thrilled to be sharing the stage with my New Jersey theater colleagues." Also appearing in the play are artistic directors Carl Wallnau (Centenary Stage), Frank Licato (Hudson Theatre Works) and Michael Bias (Garage Theatre Group), and fellow Garden State actors Andrea Prendamano (co-founder of The Company Theatre Group), Scott Cagney, Phillip Hannah, Danielle Cornell, Gary Martins, Mark Quiles, and Reegan McKenzie.

Paul Whelihan directs, stage-manages and performs off-Broadway (47th Street Theater, 59 East 59 Theatres, NY Fringe Festival, 54 Below, TheaterLab) and regionally (Royal Poincianna Playhouse, Broward Center for the Arts, Centenary Stage, The Bickford Theatre, The Growing Stage, Luna Stage Company, Forum Cultural Arts Center, Quillo Arts Center, Premier Stages, Dreamcatcher Rep) in musicals, dramas, original works and locally produced television, film and web series projects.

TWELVE ANGRY MEN performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 3:00 pm at the Hackensack Performing Arts Center, 120 State Street, Hackensack, NJ. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased by visiting The Company Theatre Group's website http://www.theatrecompany.biz/tickets or call 201-408-5816. Available tickets can be purchased on the day of the performance 30 minutes before curtain time.

Pushcart Players is the award-winning professional touring theater company specializing in arts education for children. Twice nominated for an Emmy©, Pushcart is the recipient of numerous state and private awards for excellence and innovation. A social-profit organization founded in 1974, Pushcart brings substantive musical theater, workshops, and residencies to young people and their families in schools and theaters nationwide. The company has traveled more than 6 million miles nationally and abroad, from the rural red schoolhouse to the nation's White House.

For more information about this or any of Pushcart Players' programs and services, please call 973.857.1115 or email Pushcart at: information@pushcartplayers.org. Visit: www.pushcartplayers.org

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