(HACKETTSTOWN, NJ) -- Individual tickets for Centenary Stage Company’s 2022-2023 Season will be on-sale starting July 1, 2022. This season, Centenary Stage Company has prepared a full schedule of events from the Curtain Up! Gala, to their professional theatre series, to January Thaw music events, and the NEXTStage Repertory student productions.
Curtain Up! Gala Concert - Centenary Stage Company will open their season with their “Curtain Up!” Gala event featuring Laurel Canyon: A Tribute to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on September 24, 2022. Laurel Canyon is an acoustic tribute to the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Featuring recreations of their seminal works as well as songs from their early bands and their solo years, Laurel Canyon, is a trio consisting of Grammy Award winning writer/producer Mark Hudson, Hall of Fame Songwriter Fary Burr, and singer-songwriter Mark Mirando. Tickets are $35.00 for all seats.
Young Audience Series - CSC’s Young Audience Series company will present an in-house performance of children’s theatre running September 30 - October 3 in the Little Theatre at 400 Jefferson Street. Centenary Stage Company’s YAS touring troupe will present: A Year with Frog and Toad. Waking from hibernation in the spring, journey through a whole year as Frog and Toad plant gardens, swim, rake leaves, go sledding and learn life lessons along the way. The two best friends celebrate and rejoice in the differences that make them unique and special. Part vaudeville, park make believe, all charm, A Year with Frog and Toad tells the story of a friendship that endures throughout the seasons. Ticket prices are $15 for adults and $10 for students and children 12 and under.
Fringe Festival - The Fringe series kicks off CSC’s 2022-23 season with the production of The Artist Will Be with You in a Moment running October 13-16 in the Kutz Blackbox Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center. The Artist Will Be with You in a Moment is an immersive audience experience in a solo comic performance as an artist, performer, and clown. A creative force who “can get laughs simply by breathing” (The New York Times). Adult ticket prices range from $25-$27.50. Discounts may be available for Seniors, Students, and Children under 12 for select performances.
Then, running from October 20-30, is My Witch. If there is one movie we all share it is The Wizard of Oz, but now is the time to pay attention to the woman behind the cackle. The story of Margaret Hamilton, whose Wicked Witch of the West has left an indelible mark on us all, is told in a surprising, fun, haunting, and delightful 85 minutes. Ticket prices range from $25-$27.50 for adults. Discounts may be available for Seniors, Students, and Children under 12 for select performances.
Professional Theatre Series - The first production of the Professional Theatre Series will be Centenary Stage Company’s Holiday Spectacular, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Running December 1-11 in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center, Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella tells the magical fairy tale that was originally presented on television in 1957 starring Julie Andrews. Ticket prices range from $27.50-$30.00 for adults. Discounts may be available for Seniors, Students, and Children under 12 for select performances.
Continuing the Professional Theatre Series will be Ladykillers by Graham Linehan running February 17 - March 5 in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center. Posing as amateur musicians, Professor Marcus and his gang rent rooms in the lopsided house of sweet but strict Mrs. Wilberforce. The villains plot to involve her, unwittingly, in Marcus’ brilliantly conceived heist job. The police are left stumped, but Mrs. Wilberforce becomes wise to their ruse, and there is only one way to keep the old lady quiet. Ticket prices range from $25-$29.50 for adults with discounts available for Seniors, Students, and Children under 12 for select performances.
Finishing up the 2022-23 Professional Theatre Series is the World Premiere production of Off the Map by Christine Foster running March 23 - April 2 in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center. This brand-new play tells the story of Denny and Claire once they have retired to the wilds of Central America. The pair quickly discover that things are not as they were expecting in either their relationship or their new property. Two archaeologists arrive on the scene and discover a mysterious mound, making a shattering discovery which will challenge all their beliefs about what is ever truly real and what is imagined. Off the Map was originally a part of the annual Women’s Playwrights Series in 2022. Adult ticket prices range from $25 - $29.50 with discounts available for Seniors, Students, and Children under 12 for select performances.
Women’s Playwrights Series - Centenary Stage Company’s Women’s Playwrights Series was initiated in 1992 and has helped develop the new work of over 60 playwrights from around the country, and produced fifteen World Premieres in as many years from works developed in the playwright series. The Centenary Stage Company 2022/23 season will have yet another group of readings featuring 3 new works by female playwrights. The series will take place on Wednesdays in April: the 12th, 19th and 26th. The chosen plays will be announced later in the season. A $5 donation is suggested to attend a reading and required to make a reservation in advance.
NEXTStage Repertory - NEXTStage Repertory, the all-student performance division of Centenary University’s Theatre Department, kicks off their portion of the CSC season in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center with Living Dead in Denmark by Qui Nguyen. When the dead walk, you run! Living Dead in Denmark is an action-adventure/horror sequel to William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Set five years after the events of the original, the undead have risen to power and are trying to take over the world, led by the zombie lord and true king of Denmark. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and children 12 and under.
Then, running from February 26, is William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Set in Scotland, Shakespeare’s tragic play dramatizes the corrosive psychological and political effects produced when evil is chosen as a way to ethe ambition for power. This production will take place in Centenary Stage Company’s Little Theatre, located at 400 Jefferson Street, Hackettstown, NJ 07840. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and children 12 and under.
Finally, the NEXTStage Rep will end their portion of the season in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center with The Addams Family. The Addams Family is a comical musical that embraces the wackiness in every family and features an original story that is every father’s nightmare: Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young-man - a man her parents have never met. If that wasn’t upsetting enough, Wednesday even confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother! Ticket prices are $22.50 for adults and $10 for students and children 12 and under.
January Thaw Music Fest and Concert Series - CSC will kick off 2023 with their January Thaw Music Festival. The first concert will feature a performance by Dominick Farinacci Quartet on January 14 at 8:00pm in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center. Trumpeter, Dominick Farinacci, was named the very first Global Ambassador to Jazz at Lincoln Center by Wynton Marsalis. Farinacci works to further integrate music into communities around the world in culturally collaborative ways. Tickets are $25.00 for adults, $20 for seniors, and $15 for students and children 12 and under.
The next performance of CSC’s 2023 January Thaw Music Festival will be Damn Tall Buildings on January 21 at 8:00pm in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center. In their early days, Brooklyn-based Damn Tall Buildings didn’t rehearse – they busked. Now, whether live or on record, the band still radiates the energy of a ragtag crew of music students playing bluegrass on the street. Anchoring that energy is their instrumental chops, their strong songwriting, and their varied influences that stretch beyond bluegrass, even beyond American roots music altogether. Tickets are $25.00 for adults, $20 for seniors, and $15 for students and children 12 and under.
Closing the January Thaw Festival is the return of Chuchito Valdés on January 28 at 8:00pm in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center. Last seen on the Sitnik Stage in 2021, Chuchito Valdés was born and raised in Havana, Cuba. Pianist, composer, and arranger, Jesus “Chuchito” Valdés Jr. is the third-generation manifestation of a Cuban jazz piano dynasty that includes his father, Chucho Valdés, and his grandfather, Bebo Valdés. Tickets are $25.00 for adults, $20 for seniors, and $15 for students and children 12 and under.
The first of CSC’s regular concert series will be returning artist CeCe Teneal with her show Divas of Soul. This concert will take place in the Sitnik Theatre on March 18 at 8:00pm. A country girl blessed with a powerful voice that is filled with soul and resonance, back by popular demand, CeCe Teneal is now captivating the globe by performing her own original music that aligns with a blues/soul/funk soundtrack. Tickets are $30 for all seats.
Closing out CSC’s Concert Series is The Cast of Beatlemania. This event is a special fundraising event for the Hackettstown Rotary Club and will be held on May 20 in the Sitnik Theatre at 8:00pm. The Cast of Beatlemania is a U.S. Beatles tribute band formed in 1980. The Cast is one of the longest running Beatles’ tribute bands in the world. The group currently features Lenie Colacino, a former cast member of the 1977 Broadway musical Beatlemania. Tickets are $35 for all seats.
Please note that ticket prices for all concert events increase by $5.00 the day of performances.
For more information, or to purchase tickets visit centenarystageco.org org. The Centenary Stage Company box office is open Monday through Friday from 1:00pm – 5:00pm and two hours prior to all performances. The box office is located in the Lackland Performing Arts Center on the campus of Centenary University at 715 Grand Ave. Hackettstown, NJ. Centenary Stage Company can also be found across social media platforms; Facebook, Tik Tok, Twitter and Instagram. Like and follow to receive the latest in CSC news and special offers.
Centenary Stage Company remains committed to the health and safety of our community and adheres to all requirements set forth by the State of New Jersey. For more information regarding CSC COVID-19 policies and policy updates, visit centenarystageco.org/faq.
The 2021-22 season of performing arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Sandra Kupperman Foundation, the John and Margaret Post Foundation, and CSC corporate sponsors, including Platinum Season Sponsor The House of the Good Shepherd, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Medical Center Atlantic Health System, Home Instead Senior Care (Washington), and Fulton Bank, Visions Federal Credit Union and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.
