originally published: 04/20/2023

Playwright Arlene Hutton

(HACKETTSTOWN, NJ) -- Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series will end close out with a reading of Blood of the Lamb by Arlene Hutton. The reading will take place on Wednesday, April 26 at 7:30pm in the Kutz Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center at 715 Grand Avenue, Hackettstown, NJ on the campus of Centenary University. The reading will feature actors Dana Brooke and Angelle Whavers with direction by Tia Dionne Hodge.

In Blood of the Lamb, we find two women; one traveler in need of medical attention, just needing to retrieve her belonging. One Lawyer, just doing her job. In this surreal, Kafka-esque world, we find these women at opposite sides of the table amidst legal precedents, bureaucratic chaos, and moral obligation to humanity.

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. Live stream access is free to participate with donations appreciated. WPS live streams will be made available for viewing at centenarystageco.org

Arlene Hutton is the author of Letters to Sala, Last Train to Nibroc (Drama League nomination for Best Play), and Gulf View Drive, (2018 Ovation Award for Best Production, Rubicon Theatre). An alumna of New Dramatists and member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, she is a three-time winner of the Samuel French Short Play Festival, nine-time finalist for the Heideman Award, Francesca Primus Prize finalist, recipient of an EST/Sloan Commission and NYFA Fellowship. Residencies include the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. Hutton’s works have been presented at FringeNYC, Off- and Off-Off-Broadway, regionally, in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe. Her play According to The Chorus premiered at The Road Theatre in LA and opened Off-Broadway at 59E59, starring Karen Ziemba and Dana Brooke. She teaches playwriting online for The Barrow Group.

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 the new program director Mikaela Kafka, 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.

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For more information, or to reserve tickets, visit centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979-0900. The Centenary Stage Company box office is open Monday through Friday from 1:00-5:00 pm and two hours prior to 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; Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. Like and follow to receive the latest in CSC news and special offers.

The Women Playwrights Series is part of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance 2023 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; The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey; OceanFirst Foundation; Fund for the New Jersey Blind; New Jersey Manufacturers; and Customers Bank.

The 2022-23 Season of Performing Arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of 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, the CSC corporate sponsors, including Platinum Season Sponsor the House of the Good Shepherd, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Medical Center Atlantic Health System, Heath Village, Visions Federal Credit Union, and Fulton Bank, and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.