(PISCATAWAY, NJ) -- Circle Players of Piscataway announces auditions for the third production of our 2018/2019 season, After the Revolution, written by Amy Herzog and directed by Alicia Harabin. Auditions will be held on October 18 and October 21, with callbacks on October 22nd. The production runs February 1st through February 17th, 2019.... READ ON

(UNION, NJ) -- Premiere Stages at Kean University will present Martin Casella’s Black Tom Island from October 11-21 at Liberty Hall Museum (1003 Morris Avenue, Union, N.J.). Originally commissioned over a two-year cycle through Premiere’s Liberty Live Commission, Black Tom Island will feature actors Damian Buzzerio, Mason Hensley, Jenna Krasowski and Bart Shatto. Producing artistic director John J. Wooten directs.... READ ON

(FAIR LAWN, NJ) -- Old Library Theatre, Fair Lawn Recreation Department's resident theater company, presents Parade. Six performances only: October 12, 13, 19 & 20 at 8:00pm and October 14 & 21 at 2:00pm.  Parade tells the story of Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-raised Jew living in Georgia in 1913, who is put on trial for the murder of thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan, a factory worker under his employ. ... READ ON

(PRINCETON, NJ) --  The Lewis Center for the Arts’ Programs in Theater and Music Theater at Princeton University will present a workshop of a new musical in development, Mad Dreams, conceived and directed by Princeton Professor R.N. Sandberg, who also wrote the book and lyrics, with music by Lewis Center Resident Composer and Music Director Vince di Mura, and performed by Princeton students. The musical re-imagines Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1961 as the first black student enrolls at the University of Georgia. Performances are on October 19 at 8:00pm, October 20 at 2:00pm, and October 21 at 2:00pm and 8:00pm in the Wallace Theater at the Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton University campus. The show is free and open to the public, however advance tickets are recommended. ... READ ON

(PRINCETON, NJ) --  The Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater at Princeton University will present What You Will: A Collection of Scenes from Twelfth Night on October 19, 20 and 21 at 7:30pm with a matinee on October 21 at 2:30pm in the Donald G. Drapkin Studio at the Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton campus. Seniors Ben Diamond, Kirsten Hansen, Julia Mosby, and Anna Zabel portray a range of characters while exploring the play’s gender, sexuality and power dynamics that remain relevant today.... READ ON

(WEST ORANGE, NJ) -- Luna Stage’s newest program, Short & Show, joins the screening of a short film with a MainStage Luna production. In a distinctive Luna move, the theater company is offering a double bill of two works of art in two different disciplines: the showing of a thrilling new short film, Midnights, directed by NJ-based Alvaro Donado, and Pirira on the MainStage. Midnights was filmed on location in nearby Paterson, and this screening will be its West Orange premiere. Both works of art deal with decent people in dangerous situations who, against the odds, attempt to do the right thing. Luna’s Short & Show will be Friday, October 19 (Midnights at 7:15pm, Pirira at 8:00pm) and Sunday, October 21 (Midnights at 2:15pm, Pirira at 3:00pm).... READ ON

(SPRING LAKE, NJ) -- The 8th Annual Tri-State Theatre Festival takes place October 19-21 at Wesley Hall in Spring Lake. The festival showcases the best new short plays written by local writers from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. The festival typically receives about 300 entries annually and features a unique collection of short comedies and dramas designed to entertain and engage audiences. And, after every performance, attendees have the option to stick around and “meet the artists” – a live Q&A with playwrights, actors and directors.... READ ON

Just in time for the Halloween season, Hudson Shakespeare Company brings to life a lesser known (although no less enjoyable) Elizabethan drama called "The Spanish Tragedy".  The show is being directed by Noelle Fair with Fight Direction by Conor Mullen, Callan Suozzi-Rearic, and Madeleine Emerick and featuring Evan Brodsky, Jon Ciccarelli, Brian Heuer, Olivia Lodge, Juan Pablo Mendive, Brett Molik, Jeffrey Robb, and Anne M. Whitaker. Performance run from October 4th through October 25th.... READ ON

(WEST ORANGE, NJ) -- Luna Stage will launch its 2018-19 Season with J. Stephen Brantley’s award-winning play Pirira, directed by Luna’s new Artistic Director Ari Laura Kreith. Set simultaneously in Malawi and New York, the play explores the challenges of international aid across interpersonal borders, and how we bridge seemingly impossible cultural divides. Pirira runs Thursday-Sunday from October 4-28.... READ ON

(WEST WINDSOR, NJ) -- Theater To Go presents Lorraine Hansberry's classic American drama A Raisin In The Sub from October 19 to October 28.  This drama about the African American experience explores the hopes and dreams of one extended family, the Youngers, a black working class family struggling to achieve the American Dream in the face of racial tensions and economic disenfranchisement in 1950's Chicago.... READ ON

(HACKETTSTOWN, NJ) -- Centenary Stage Company launches the 2018-19 professional theatre season October 12 to October 28 in the Lackland Performing Arts Center with Charles Morey’s potent and theatrical adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic horror novel, Dracula. Before Twilight and True Blood, only one vampire commanded “the children of the night.” In this blood-thirsty tale of unholy terror, Count Dracula slips into Victorian London with a cargo of his native Transylvanian soil - so he can rest between victims. The city seems helpless against his frightful power, and only one man, Dr. Van Helsing, can stop the carnage. But to do this, he must uncover the vampire’s lair and pierce his heart with a wooden stake.... READ ON

(NETCONG, NJ) -- The Growing Stage, The Children’s Theatre of New Jersey, located in the Historic Palace Theatre in Netcong will open its 37th Main Stage season with The Wizard of Oz.  The show runs October 5 through October 28 with performances Saturday and Sunday matinees at 4:00pm. The Wizard of Oz introduces us to Dorothy Gale, a young girl living on a Kansas farm with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.  ... READ ON

(TOMS RIVER, NJ) -- Exit 82 Theatre Company is bringing Little Shop of Horrors to Downtown Toms River this October with a theme fit for Halloween. “Television is the source for most information today and we wanted to incorporate that theme into our show. With our new theater space in Downtown Toms River, we allow audiences to be immersed in every performance so when seeing Little Shop of Horrors, you will feel as if you’re sitting in an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone.’ “ says director and Exit 82 co-founder, Billy Cardone.... READ ON

(WEEHAWKEN, NJ) -- Hudson Theatre Works will present a new adaptation of Chekov’s masterpiece, Uncle Vanya, called  “Uncle Vanya - A Jersey Life in Four Acts” from October 11 through October 28.  This new, innovated adaptation by Michael Puzzo, commissioned by Hudson Theatre Works, Chekov's masterpiece is transported to a small New Jersey town a few years after Hurricane Sandy.  Tickets are $25.... READ ON

(TOMS RIVER, NJ) -- The Ocean County College Repertory Theatre Company will bring their production of Almost, Maine to the Black Box Theatre at the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts from October 18 through October 28. Welcome to Almost, Maine, a place that’s so far north, it’s almost not in the United States. It’s almost in Canada. And it’s not quite a town, because its residents never got around to getting organized. So it almost doesn’t exist. ... READ ON

(HACKENSACK, NJ) -- The Company Theatre Group presents "Other Desert Cities" by Jon Robin Baitz from October 19-28 at the Hackensack Performing Arts Center (HACPAC).  There will be 6 performances of this Tony and Pulitzer nominated drama in which Brooke Wyeth, played by Andrea Prendamano, is a New York City magazine writer who has returned to her family home for the first time in six years, after a bad nervous breakdown, to celebrate Christmas. ... READ ON

(METUCHEN, NJ) -- The Forum Theatre will present the World Premiere of House on Haunted Hill, "a horror of a comedy"  from October 12 to November 3. Adapted and directed by Peter J Loewy, based on the 1959 motion picture, the play tells the story of five unrelated people chosen to spend the night in what is purported to be a haunted house. ... READ ON

(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- George Street Playhouse will launch its 2018-19 season with the world premiere of The Trial of Donna Caine, a gripping courtroom drama by Walter Anderson, who served as the editor-in-chief of Parade magazine for 20 years prior to being named Chairman and CEO of Parade Publications.   Performances run October 16 to November 11 at George Street’s current venue, 103 College Farm Road in New Brunswick, NJ, with Opening Night set for Friday, October 19.... READ ON

Smugbug Productions presents the New York Premiere of The Eleventh Hour!, a new rock musical comedy by Rutgers University alum David Seamon from September 21 - November 16, 2018 at Town Stages, 221 West Broadway, NYC.  It's the end of the world in New Jersey! A burnout basement rocker and his ex-girlfriend, a rising star astrophysicist, may have the key to surviving the black hole bearing down on earth. If they can reconcile their feelings and manage a dangerous journey on the NJ Turnpike, they just may save their music, each other, and the mole people who live beneath them.... READ ON

(LONG BRANCH, NJ) -- New Jersey Repertory Company (NJ Rep) presents the National New Play Network rolling world premiere of Marisela Treviño Orta’s Wolf at the Door from October 18 - November 18, 2018. Inspired by Latino folklore, Wolf at the Door draws upon legend and mythology to tell an archetypal and magical story that navigates dangerous waters. It is about survival and the struggle to find the strength to achieve personal freedom by vanquishing a wolf in sheep’s clothing.... READ ON

(CAPE MAY, NJ) -- Cape May Stage presents the World Premiere of The Shuck by Shawn Fisher from September 19 through November 19.  The play provides a gritty look inside the life of Constance, an oyster boat captain who is forced to face the truth about her family and the secrets that broke them apart so many years ago. ... READ ON

(NEW YORK, NY) --Smugbug Productions presents the New York Premiere of The Eleventh Hour!, a new rock musical comedy by Rutgers University alum David Seamon now running through December 1, 2018 at Town Stages, 221 West Broadway, NYC. It's the end of the world in New Jersey! A burnout basement rocker and his ex-girlfriend, a rising star astrophysicist, may have the key to surviving the black hole bearing down on earth. If they can reconcile their feelings and manage a dangerous journey on the NJ Turnpike, they just may save their music, each other, and the mole people who live beneath them.... READ ON