(HACKETTSTOWN, NJ) -- Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series continues Wednesday, April 20 with a reading of The Buddha’s Wife by Mary Poindexter McLaughlin at 7:30pm in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center at 715 Grand Avenue, Hackettstown, NJ on the campus of Centenary University. Are they so different? 2500 years disappear as the lives of the Princess Yasodhara and PhD Candidate Diane Brewster interweave seamlessly, telling a timeless story of romantic love, of motherhood, and of dreams-on-hold, revealing the very real world of challenges and choices women face throughout time, alongside revelations of the deeper meaning of love and friendship.
The Women Playwright Series readings are free to attend with donations welcome, advanced reservations have a $5.00 fee. For those who are unable to attend in-person, the Women Playwrights Series readingswill also be live streamed, free of charge, through the Centenary Stage Company website.
Mary Poindexter McLaughlin holds a BA in English from Stanford University, where she was the recipient of Stanford’s Golden Grant Award for playwriting, and an MA in Theatre & Performance Studies from SUNY Buffalo. Her play The Buddha’s Wife was Winner of the 2019 Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women and named a Finalist in The Landing Theatre’s 2020 New American Voices Festival. Other plays have been performed in NYC, Buffalo, CT, CO, and PA, where she was the Donna Award Runner-Up for Outstanding Playwright at the 2017 Pittsburgh New Works Festival (Doing Time). A published poet and essayist, (Stanford Magazine, Thrive Global) Mary co-wrote a memoir (Todd Norian’s Tantra Yoga: Journey to Unbreakable Wholeness) and is currently developing her most recent play: a full-length, Elizabethan epic entitled Her Own Words that answers the question, “was Shakespeare a woman?” Member: Dramatists Guild, SAG-AFTRA, Statera Arts.
Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series has featured the work of more than 80 emerging playwrights. The program has also taken 19 plays to full production from the series. Led by program director Catherine Rust, the Women Playwrights Series offers playwrights the opportunity to work with professional actors and directors in a workshop rehearsal process, and to hear their work in front of a live audience – a critical part of the development process. Lively talkbacks with the playwright and cast follow each presentation, and one play is selected each year as the winner of the Susan Glaspell Award and receives a full production in the following main-stage season with CSC.
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.
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.
