(TOMS RIVER, NJ) -- On Friday, April 28 at noon, there will be an admission-free staged reading of the one-hour version of A Year in the Trenches, followed by a Q&A, in the Mancini Room at the Ocean County Library, 101 Washington Street, Toms River, NJ. This new play, written by James Rana and developed with Gayle Stahlhuth, Artistic Director of East Lynne Theater Company in Cape May, was commissioned by the New Jersey Historical Commission and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
The play is based on Sgt. Charles Edward Dilkes’ Remembering World War I: An Engineer's Diary of the War, and other historical sources. Call the Ocean County Cultural and Heritage Commission at (732) 929-4779 for reservations and information. A Year in the Trenches will have additional readings, including at McGuire Air Force Base on July 18. East Lynne Theater Company is producing the full two-hour version (not a staged-reading) from September 20 – October 14, which includes a special 2:00 p.m. matinee on Wednesday, October 11 for school groups and others.
"The World War I Centennial offers us an opportunity to reexamine a period of history that seems absolutely relevant to today,” said Sara R. Cureton, Executive Director, New Jersey Historical Commission. “Questions regarding how the U.S. should engage with the rest of the world, the role of women in society, the treatment of immigrants, the nature of modern warfare, and the meaning of patriotism challenged citizens of 1917, just as they bedevil us now. A Year in the Trenches shines a spotlight on how some New Jerseyans confronted these issues and brings us greater understanding of both the past and present. The Historical Commission is delighted to join with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in exploring this pivotal period of our history through this engaging new play."
Charles Edward Dilkes, who was born in Philadelphia but spent the rest of his life in New Jersey, appears in the play alongside a medley of contemporaries: poet Joyce Kilmer, pilot Kenneth Russell Unger, nurse Amabel Scharff Roberts, "Hello Girl" (switchboard operator) Grace Banker, and other New Jerseyans who went to Europe in 1917, when the United States entered World War I.
"We are proud to co-commission this new play with New Jersey Historical Commission,” said Nick Paleologos, Executive Director of New Jersey State Council on the Arts. “Bringing the struggles of the past to life on stage is one of the countless ways that art can bring empathy and understanding to the challenges of the present. And by doing so, it paves the way to a better future."
This reading, with music performed from the period, is directed by Eric Hafen, Artistic Director of the Bickford Theatre in Morristown, NJ. The cast includes two actors who have worked with ELTC in the past, Matt Baxter Luceno and Mike Newman, and three who are new to the company: Laura Chaneski, Ryan Genualdi, and Duncan M. Rogers.
East Lynne Theater Company’s Cape May season opens on June 14 with Will Rogers’ U.S.A. starring Tom Byrn.
Photo of Sgt. Charles Edward Dilkes provided by Virginia Dilkes. Photo of James Rana provided by ELTC
