(MIDDLETOWN, NJ) -- The Middletown Arts Center presents the fifth edition of The MAC ONE-ACTSPlay-Reading Festival, featuring original, one-act works by New Jersey playwrights read theatrically by local actors. The festival will be held on Thursday, May 23, 2024 at 7:00pm, and is free and open to the public. Donations are appreciated.

The MAC One-Acts 2024 selections include: You Left Me Behind by Jessica Freeland; Ponce de Leon and the Old Dog by Alexis Kozak; Resqueue by Ryan Fleming; Come Play With Me, Ellie by Anna Y. Blaine; In Passing by Vita Patrick Morales; and Channeling Shakespeare by David Weil Baker.

There is a $5 suggested donation for the festival to be paid at the door. For more information, call 732.706.4110. The Middletown Arts Center is located at 36 Church Street in Middletown, NJ (next to the Middletown train station). Free parking is available onsite with additional free parking available in the train station metered lot on weekday evenings after 6:00pm and weekends.

MEET THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Jessica Freeland is a writer, actor and musician. Her storytelling mostly focuses on feminism, conservation and mental wellness via dark and abstract settings that can be explored both literally and figuratively. She graduated magna cum laude from Montclair State University having earned a Triple Bachelor of Arts in English, Latin and Classics. Her debut piece, The Lovely Lucille, was an official selection of Holmdel Theatre Company’s Evening of New Works. Jessica is currently working on her first full-length play, I Am, a period drama about her great-grandmother’s life, from being a teenage immigrant on her own during the Progressive Era to a matriarch living through the Great Depression, wars and rock and roll. As always, she thanks her family for their endless love and support. “Per aspera ad astra!”

Alexis Kozak teaches theatre arts at Middletown High School South. The play he wrote for last year’s fall production, Then One Foggy Christmas Eve, has just been published by Eldridge Publishing. He had a men’s monologue, a women’s monologue, and a ten-minute play featured in Smith & Kraus’ “The Best of 2023” series. His play, Lillian Whistles Back, will be featured in Jersey Voices at Chatham Playhouse in August.  He loves soccer, basketball, reading and his family. He lives in Wayside.

Plays by Ryan Fleming include Three Ring Circus and Snail Dinner. He has appeared in such plays as Barefoot in the Park, The Importance of Being Earnest, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ryan has recently returned to the New Jersey theatre community after moving to Kansas City for five years.

Anna Y. Blaine is a writer and actress from Long Branch, New Jersey. She has always had a passion for writing and storytelling. While getting her Bachelors of Arts in English at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, NJ, she was cast in a musical production of Sweeney Todd. After college, she was a part of an Algonquin Theater production of Guys and Dolls in Manasquan, NJ. Since then, she has studied at the prestigious HB studio and Roger Hendricks Simon studio in New York City. In 2021, Anna was cast in an Upstart Arts live streamed play production of Squirrel Girl Goes to College. She was also cast in the Upstarts Arts live streamed play production of Pygmalion in 2024. Anna is also an author in addition to being a playwright and screenwriter. She currently resides in Ocean, NJ.

Vita Patrick Morales has a BA in Italian from Rutgers University, an MA in Theater and Film from Hunter College and an MS in education from Fordham University. She is the author of over 20 short and full-length plays, including Francis of Assisi, The Diagonal Trilogy; Esmeralda and the Pacific Vortex, The Havana Orthodoxy, Vitiligo, Loretta the Yodeling Cowgirl and The Golden Thunderbolts. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild, ICWP and Honor Roll!.

David Weil Baker teaches Shakespeare in the English department at Rutgers University. He has written articles about Shakespeare, but this is his first play about him. He is also an actor, having played Theseus in Midsummer Night’s Dream and Juror Number 8 in Twelve Angry Jurors, among others. He is a founding member of ‘Whatever, Dad,” an improv group that has performed in New Jersey and New York.

The Middletown Arts Center (MAC) is an award-winning, state-of-the-art facility in Middletown, New Jersey that offers performances, exhibits, classes, demonstrations and camps centering on the arts. Its convenient location across from the Middletown train station on Church Street enables easy access and its expanded MAC Annex is minutes away at the Middletown Reformed Church’s Education Building. The MAC is operated by a non-profit 501c3, the Middletown Township Cultural and Arts Council which is dedicated to bringing quality arts programming and events to Middletown and surrounding communities.

The Middletown Township Cultural and Arts Council’s Mission is to celebrate and promote the arts while enriching the community through arts programming, education, entertainment and cultural connection for individuals of all ages and abilities.