(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- George Street Playhouse will once again participate in “Healing Voices: Caregiver Stories” a program of the New Jersey Theater Alliance. New Jersey professional and family caregivers, as well as patients receiving care, were asked to submit creative prose, poetry and theatrical pieces that reflect the theme of caregiving or the personal healing experience. The selected Playwrights then attended workshops to further develop the pieces. George Street Playhouse conducted two virtual writing workshops in May to support the writers’ development of their work.
"This is the fifth year of the Healing Voices project, and we are delighted to have George Street Playhouse, McCarter Theatre Center, Premiere Stages, and Two River Theater participating,” said John McEwen, Executive Director of the Alliance. “Although we were not able to gather in-person last spring to witness these performances of writing by caregivers, we are thrilled that our theatres have found innovative ways to share their stories. The pandemic has once again revealed how essential caregiving and caring for one another is to the fabric of our society. Whether someone is a professional health-care worker, a caregiver for a spouse or relative with a disability, or a parent caring for a child, these stories show the incredible compassion and strength of people who care for others. The New Jersey Theatre Alliance is privileged to be able to support our member theatres in lifting up these important voices through this program."
“Participating in Healing Voices has been like therapy for me,” said Sophia Lucia Parola. Until now, I had never written or really delved into my experience as a caretaker besides venting in my journal. So to join with others who can relate in some capacity, in a creative format, to express and share our stories has been extremely healing and inspiring.
The 2020 Healing Voices project is a partnership between New Jersey Theatre Alliance, George Street Playhouse, McCarter Theatre Center, Premiere Stages, and Two River Theater Company. This performance, as well as Healing Voices projects at McCarter Theatre, Premiere Stages, and Two River Theatre, were originally scheduled as part of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance's Stages Festival last Spring. When the pandemic shut down all live performances, the theatres re-scheduled their events to this year. Two River Theatre will offer a virtual reading later this winter, and McCarter and Premiere Stages will share their readings this Spring.
“George Street Playhouse is grateful to participate in Healing Voices and share the bold, moving work of sixteen writers who provide unique insights into the caregiving experience,” said Jim Jack, George Street Playhouse’s Director of Education and Community Artistic Programming and co-director of Healing Voices. “Poetry, narrative prose and short plays are woven together to illuminate how families give and receive care. At a time when we all feel so separated from those we love, Healing Voices connect us to those that matter most in our lives. Myself, and co-director Dustin Ballard, are so proud to be a part of this important initiative by the New Jersey Theatre Alliance and our fellow participating theatres partners.”
A virtual reading of the writers’ work by professional actors will take place via a Zoom webinar on Thursday, December 3, 2020 at 7:00pm. The event is free to the public, however registration is required. To register in advance, click here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Funding for Healing Voices: Caregivers Stories on Stage was provided by New Jersey Theatre Alliance as part of their Stages Festival, a state-wide celebration of theatre made possible by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; Bank of America; The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey; OceanFirst Bank; New Jersey Historical Commission; George A. Ohl, Jr. Trust; and Fund for the New Jersey Blind.
Healing Voices 2020:
Actors:
Damian Buzzerio: Damian Buzzerio has appeared Regionally at: Premiere Stages, NJ: Father Prosco (BLACK TOM ISLAND), Phil Carter (BY THE WATER), Playhouse on Park, CT: Mushnik (LITTLE SHOP); Reb Saunders (THE CHOSEN); Robert (PROOF), Elm Shakespeare, CT: Cassius (JULIUS CAESAR), Antiochus (PERICLES); Florida Studio Theatre: Don Fermin (BOLEROS FOR THE DISENCHANTED), Shakespeare Theater of NJ: Claudius (ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN), Gremio/Vincentio (SHREW), Des Moines Playhouse: File (RAINMAKER), Mill Mountain Theatre, VA: Borachio (MUCH ADO), Pap Finn (BIG RIVER), PA Shakespeare Festival: Antonio (TWELFTH NIGHT), Lord Montague (ROMEO JULIET), Northern Stage, VT: Herr Schultz (CABARET), Weathervane Playhouse, OH: Fredrik (A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC), Human Race Theatre, OH: Alonso (TEMPEST). La Comedia Dinner Theater, OH: Bruce Ismay (TITANIC).
Gail Winar is an actor, director, and educator. As an actor, she has toured across the U.S., U.K. and Europe, as well as originating leading roles in the premieres of Beyond Gravity for NJ Rep; Missa Solmenis for Shotgun Productions; and several awarding-winning plays at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Gail is a Master Teaching Artist for the Roundabout Theatre Company on Broadway and an Artistic Associate at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch.
Sophia Lucia Parola is honored to be in Healing Voices as both a writer and performer. Sophia wanted to be an actress ever since she was a little girl and discovered that the Arts could help heal, transform, and escape reality. Performing and writing was and always will be a form of therapy for Sophia, a way to connect to herself and to the world. One of her biggest inspirations in her life and career is her mother, Edna. Edna was a strong, beautiful, and extremely creative woman who never gave up, even after suffering from a car accident when Sophia was 9-years-old. Watching her stand tall and keep going even as a paraplegic has shaped Sophia into the artist she is today, and continues to drive her in every way possible. Edna is the reason Sophia submitted to Healing Voices and she owes everything to her. A big thank you to Dusty and Jim for allowing her to share her work, and to everyone else involved who understands both the beauty and pain of taking care of a loved one.
marcus d. harvey* Selected Credits: The Christians (Lean Ensemble) A Raisin in the Sun (Triad Stage), An American Dream (The Old Vic, London), In Darfur (WAM Theatre), Dreamgirls, Fires in the Mirror (Silver Spring Stage), A Bright Room Called Day (Whitman Stage), baba: a black boys cry (TADA! Theatre), Eurydice (New Studio Theatre), Julius Caesar (New Studio Theatre) Training: MFA in Acting, Brooklyn College; MA: Dramatic Writing for Social Change, NYU BA: UNC Chapel Hill marcus is the Head of Acting for Waterwell Drama at Professional Performing Arts School. He is also a faculty member at Montclair State University & New Jersey City University, where he teaches Acting. Learn more at www.themarcusdharvey.com | twitter @marcusdharvey *name is spelled in all lowercase letters
Stage Manager: Samantha Flint: Previously at George Street Playhouse: Midwives, The Immigrant. Broadway: Venus in Fur (MTC). Off Broadway: Final Follies, HIM (Primary Stages); Measure for Measure, In the Wake, The Winter’s Tale, The Brother/Sister Plays (The Public). Selected Regional: Twelfth Night (Shakespeare on the Sound); Murder on the Orient Express, Disgraced, The Winter’s Tale, The Brother/Sister Plays, Herringbone (McCarter Theatre Center); Murder on the Orient Express, Somewhere (Hartford Stage); Camelot (Two River Theater); June Moon, The Visit (Williamstown); Barefoot in the Park, …Spelling Bee (Bucks County Playhouse); And A Nightingale Sang (Westport Country Playhouse). Education: The Theatre School at DePaul University.
Co-Directors
Dustin Ballard is a Teaching Artist, Actor, Director, and Playwright originally from the coast of Mississippi. He was the 2009 Region II Winner and National Finalist of the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship, and is also the co-creator of the outdoors podcast Gaze at the National Parks found on iTunes.
Jim Jack: Directing credits include: The Immigrant, Trying, My Name is Asher Lev, Terra Incognita; Our Town Now; Gabi Goes Green!; Austin the Unstoppable; IRL; New Kid; and Peacemaker; The Road; Where is Home?; The Way It Was; K2 (Drama Logue Award for Outstanding Direction); Life and Limb; The Dumb Waiter; and The Zoo Story. Jim is the Director of Education and Community Artistic Programming for George Street Playhouse.
Writers:
Lee Abromovitz, Seven Bananas
Sophia Baldassari, Edie and Me
Elise Donovan, Celia Unburdened
Anna Evtushenko, Across the Mississippi
Brett Hursey, Toppers
Frederick Kaimann, Lifeline
Naomi Miller, Bend Down
Sophia Lucia Parola, I Did Not Sign Up for This
Jo Ann Poll, Carry the One
Hara L. Rola, A Daughter Who Cares
Kathleen Schumar, Cafe Mocha Moment
Bette Siler, Deep Sky
Ric Siler, How Do You Say Prostate in Italian
Chris Widney, Old People Clomp
Jeff Lambert Wingfield, Her Mimesis
Natalie Zaman, Surrounded
Under the leadership of Artistic Director David Saint since 1998, and Kelly Ryman, Managing Director since 2013, George Street Playhouse produces groundbreaking new works, inspiring productions of the classics, and hit Broadway plays and musicals that speak to the heart and mind, with an unwavering commitment to producing new work. With its 45-year history of producing nationally renowned theatre, the Playhouse continues to fill a unique theatre and arts education role in the city, state and greater metropolitan region.
At the start of its 2019-20 Season, George Street Playhouse moved to the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center in downtown New Brunswick. Featuring two state-of-the-art theaters -- The Arthur Laurents Theater with 253 seats and The Elizabeth Ross Johnson Theater which seats 465-- and myriad amenities, the NBPAC marks a new era in the esteemed history of George Street Playhouse.
Founded by Eric Krebs in 1974, George Street Playhouse, originally located in an abandoned supermarket on the corner of George and Albany Streets, was the first professional theatre in New Brunswick and became the cornerstone of the revitalization of the city’s arts and cultural landscape. In 1984, the Playhouse moved to a renovated YMCA on Livingston Avenue, and in 2017 took temporary residence in the former Agricultural Museum at Rutgers University during construction of its new home.
The Playhouse has been well represented by numerous productions both on and off-Broadway. In 2018, George Street Playhouse was represented on Broadway with Gettin’ the Band Back Together which premiered on the Playhouse mainstage in 2013. American Son, produced by George Street Playhouse in 2017, opened on Broadway in 2018 starring Kerry Washington and Stephen Pasqual, and will appear on Netflix. Other productions include the Outer Critics’ Circle Best Musical Award-winner The Toxic Avenger. In 2015, It Shoulda Been You opened on Broadway and Joe DiPietro’s Clever Little Lies opened off-Broadway.
George Street Playhouse programming is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund.
Founded in 1981, New Jersey Theatre Alliance was the first statewide service organization for professional, not-for-profit theatre companies in the United States, and is a leader in developing model programs that unite, promote, strengthen, and cultivate professional theatre in New Jersey. Funding for the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, a not-for-profit organization, is provided in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism, and contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations including Amazon, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The Grunin Foundation, The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, Bank of America, City National Bank, The Shubert Foundation, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, Investors Bank, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, Kessler Foundation, The F.M. Kirby Foundation, E.J. Grassmann Trust, and The Union Foundation.
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