(CRANFORD, NJ) -- The Theater Project, in conjunction with the Friends of the Cranford Library as part of its series of staged readings of new plays, will be presenting B.B.'S, by Bill Mesce, Jr., based on the fiction of three acclaimed New Jersey writers, and directed by Lynn Marie Macy. The reading is scheduled for Saturday, November 15, 2025 at 2:00pm. As with all of The Theater Project's readings, it is followed by discussion with the author, director, cast, and audience. Admission is free.
Set in a small neighborhood bar/restaurant, B.B.’S offers a series of vignettes featuring the customers who come and go through the titular establishment – some regulars, some on a one-time pit stop – with each vignette inspired by the fiction of three writers with connections to New Jersey: Sean Michael Rice, John Artenstein, and Bill Mesce, Jr.
“I’d always thought Sean’s work didn’t get the recognition it deserved,” says Mesce, “and I thought adapting his prose to the stage was one way of introducing audiences to his wonderful storytelling. While using Sean’s work is a tribute to past work, including John Artenstein’s material is a look forward. He was one of my most promising writing students, and looking at the caliber of his first novel, I expect we’ll hear more from him in the future on the literary front.”
(LEFT to RIGHT) Bill Mesce, Jr., Sean Michael Rice, John Artenstein
Playwright, poet, prose writer Sean Michael Rice was one of the founding members of the 12 Miles West theater company when they launched in Montclair in the 1990s. His plays have appeared on stages around the country, his poetry and prose in a wide variety of literary magazines. His short fiction earned him a Pushcart Prize nomination, and his play Rounds received six NAACP Image Theater Awards. Rice passed away in 2017. A posthumous collection of his poetry and prose – Collected Works – was published in 2018.
John Artenstein received his bachelor’s degree at New Jersey’s Kean University, went on to receive his MFA in Creative Writing at New York’s The New School, and is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Rhode Island. He has composed more than a dozen collections of alternative-folk and rock music and has written and edited for several literary magazines. His first novel, Oblivion, written as John Shepherd, was published in 2023.
Bill Mesce, Jr., writing under his own and pen names, is the author of over thirty books ranging from fiction to academic studies. His screen work includes the thriller Road Ends, starring Dennis Hopper, which was featured at several film festivals before becoming a top performer when it debuted on the Cinemax channel. His several stage works include military legal drama The Advocate, based on his acclaimed first novel; Black Lives/Blue Lives, co-written with Los Angeles writer Stephen Harper; and now B.B.’S, which received a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship Grant Award, his third such award. He short fiction has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Black Lives/Blue Lives was twice the recipient of a New Jersey Council for the Humanities grant, and his first play, A Jersey Cantata, on its premiere was named one of the five best new plays to open in the state by The Star-Ledger.
Founded in 1994 and based in Union, The Theater Project introduces New Jersey audiences to new plays and supports rising playwrights and theater artists. It develops new audiences for theater by service to the community, providing programs for children and seniors, and using theater as a forum to address current issues.
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