(HACKETTSTOWN, NJ) -- Centenary Stage Company will conclude the 2022 Women Playwrights Series with a reading of Off the Map by Christine Foster on Wednesday, April 27 at 7:30pm in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center on the campus of Centenary University. In the play, Denny and Claire have retired to the wilds of Central America, where they quickly discover that things are not as they were expecting, neither in their relationship, nor in their new property, where a mysterious Mound is discovered by a pair of archaeologists who arrive on the scene, making a shattering discovery which will challenge all their beliefs about what is ever truly real and what is imagined.
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 readings will also be live streamed through the Centenary Stage Company website. Live stream access is free to participate with donations appreciated. WPS live streams will be made available for viewing at centenarystageco.org
Plays presented in the developmental WPS program are finalists in the Susan Glaspell Award Competition, and are under consideration for full production in a subsequent season at the Centenary Stage Company, the professional theatre in residence on the campus of Centenary University.
Christine Foster’s plays have been produced in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Denmark, Mexico, Korea and the US, and on CBS, CTV, History and the Family Channel. In 2018 she won the Marion Thauer Brown New Audio Drama Award and her full-length Four Thieves Vinegar ran successfully in London before being remounted at the Brighton Fringe in 2019. Her monologue Cousins was the winner of the Soundworks.co.uk Contest in 2020. Recent short pieces have been performed on podcasts, BBC Radio, and WBRH Scotland, and she currently has two new full-length plays scheduled to premiere in the UK in 2022-23.
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.
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.
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 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.
