(HACKETTSTOWN, NJ) -- Students at Arthur Stanlick Elementary School in Lake Hopatcong will cheer when their fellow student, eleven- year-old Leilah St. Clair Marshall stars in the World Premiere production of Centenary Stage Company’s Whippoorwill by Pulitzer Prize nominated playwright, Ruth Kirschner, running March 31 – April 10 at the Lackland Center for the Performing Arts.  

The play is a charming family story about a young girl and her mother navigating the world together, as a big secret slowly reveals itself, and Leilah’s character of Bibi leads the way to discovery.   

Leilah Marshall first got bitten by the theatre bug in 2017, when she did a workshop  - at age 6  - with Drama Geek Studios in Newton NJ.   More recently Leilah joined the Centenary Stage Company’s Young Performers Workshop, where she has performed for the past 2 seasons.   In between, she has studied tap dance, acro, ballet, and musical theatre, and she currently plays the clarinet in her elementary school band.  

Hailing from a musical family, it is no surprise that Leilah has taken an artistic path.    Her mother, Amber, is a classically trained pianist, and her father, Jim, has been playing bass in various NYC punk rock bands since he was a teenager.  Her brother Kaleb (age 20), played in every musical band possible during his years in Jefferson Township High School, where he was also the Drum Major in the marching band.  

“When I asked Leilah at the audition how long she had been acting,” says WPS Program Director Catherine Rust, “she replied ‘five years’!   It really shows. She’s quite the professional!”   Rust says there is great excitement about this production, which has been in development for over 2 years. 

Leilah and her family have lived in Lake Hopatcong since 2007, after moving up from Hunterdon County. 

Whippoorwill had its genesis as part of Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwright Series (WPS), a program dedicated to developing and producing the underserved work of women writing for the theatre.  Now in its 30th year, the WPS has presented over 100 new plays in development and taken over 20 plays to full production on the professional main stage at Centenary’s Equity theatre.  California playwright Ruth Kirschner has been in residence during rehearsals for the production and will lead a talk-back and free writing workshop opening weekend.  In a long and illustrious career, Kirschner has written for Jim Hensen’s Muppets in addition to her recent work with the incarcerated military veterans of San Quentin Prison, where her Pulitzer Prize nominated play The Field was created.   

Centenary Stage Company's  AEA production of  Whippoorwill, directed by Margo Whitcomb, opens March 31, and runs through April 10 in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Center.  This event is part of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance 2022 Stages Festival, made possible by support from 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 Foundation; New Jersey Historical Commission. 

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.