(LONG BRANCH, NJ) -- New Jersey Repertory Company (NJ Rep) will present the world premiere of Jack Canfora's The Vienna Lessons, directed by Evan Bergman, with performances from June 4-28, 2026. The play takes place in Vienna, 1787. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at the height of his powers but struggling financially, meets a serious and supremely confident teenager who wants to hire him as a teacher, Ludwig Van Beethoven.
This comic-drama imagines how the relationship between two of music’s towering geniuses (whom many scholars believe met in real life) might have evolved. Featuring some of the great works of each composer, as well as some brilliantly imagined ‘collaborations’, The Vienna Lessons shows how these two men, separated by temperament and age, nonetheless find in each other the unique bond only true visionaries can share.
The cast features Quentin Chisholm, Sandy Clancy, and Jesse Kodama. The creative team includes Jeremiah Bornfield (Original Music), Jessica Parks (Set Design), Jill Nagle (Lighting Design), Brian Snyder (Technical Director), Patricia E. Doherty (Costume Design), Nick Simone (Sound Design), Rose Riccardi (Production Stage Manager), and Ian Duhart (Assistant Stage Manager).
“With The Vienna Lessons, Jack Canfora has imagined a thrilling and deeply human meeting between two of history’s greatest artistic minds. Beneath the wit, rivalry, and brilliance is a moving story about ambition, legacy, and the hunger to create something lasting. We are especially excited to introduce audiences to this extraordinarily talented young cast, whose energy, intelligence, and passion bring these iconic figures vividly to life. It’s a joy to bring this rich and inventive new play to NJ Rep audiences.” NJ Rep’s Artistic Director, SuzAnne Barabas
Performances take place Thursdays at 7:00pm; Friday and Saturdays at 2:00pm & 7:00pm; and Sundays at 2:00pm. Tickets are available for purchase online or by calling (732) 229-3166. NJ Rep is located at 179 Broadway in Long Branch, New Jersey.
QUENTIN CHISHOLM (he/him) is honored to be back at NJ Rep. Select acting credits include: Theatre – The Bookstore (59E59; NJ Rep); Make Believe (NJ Rep); Almost, Maine (HB Playwrights); Bulrusher (Dartmouth College), Faith, Hope and Charity (Dartmouth College); TV/Film – “FBI” (CBS); “Evil Lives Here” (Paramount+; Investigation Disc.); “Born2Lose” (Pilot, dir. Carlos Cardona); West (dir. Micah Stuart), The Sound the Sea Makes (dir. Maria Paula Quesada), as well as an upcoming film opposite Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Quentin has studied acting at Terry Knickerbocker Studio, HB Studio, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, and Atlantic Acting School. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, where he was also a Division-1 soccer player. He would like to give special thanks to his family, as well as the teaching of Celestine Rae, Jessica Hecht, and Bonnie Shumofsky Bloom and Emma Lewis at Stewart Talent.
SANDY CLANCY (she/her) is elated to be making her debut with NJ Rep. She is an actor, writer, and marketing director currently based in New England and a graduate of Johns Hopkins University. Select recent credits: Lanes Coven Theater Co.: Romeo & Juliet. Dining Table Co.: Girl Crime (World Premiere). Theater at Monmouth: Twelfth Night, The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged. Deadword Theatre Co.: No Exit. Studio Theatre Worcester: Proof, The Thanksgiving Play. Thank you to her family and friends for their never-ending support!
JESSE KODAMA is thrilled to be making his New Jersey Repertory Company debut with this beautiful play. Regional credits include Prayer for the French Republic (The Huntington), The Cripple of Inishmaan (Gamm Theatre), Soft Star (Boston Playwright’s Theatre), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Classic Theatre of Maryland). Last spring, he received his B.F.A. in Theatre Arts – Performance from Boston University’s School of Theatre. He also trained at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art’s classical acting program in Spring of 2023. He would like to thank the cast and crew, playwright, his mentors, family, friends, and partner for their love and support.
EVAN BERGMAN (Director)16 productions for New Jersey Rep, many of them world premieres. Recent productions include Comfort by Neil LaBute and Sins of the Mother by Israel Horovitz. He is extremely proud of the body of work and the theaters ability to identify a wide range of talented playwrights deserving to have their plays produced. He has also directed at Jane Street, The Duke Ensemble Studio Theater, Daryl Roth, Barrington Stage, Bay Street, Playwrights Horizon, Arclight, The Tiffaney and 59E59. Film: Different Than Yesterday (Best Short Film Amsterdam International Film Festival), Day Zero (Toronto Film Festival). Dig A Hole, Find A Finger, (Palm Springs and Newport Beach International Film Festivals). Documentary for Warner Music Group featuring Roger Daltry (The Who), Philip Bailey (Earth Wind and Fire). Currently developing two new feature films; The Alternative and Life on the Flats.
Playwright JACK CANFORA’s Off-Broadway plays include Poetic License, (59E59 Theaters), hailed by the Associated Press as “White-hot entertainment,” and Jericho, (59E59 Theaters, a New York Times’ “Critics’ Pick”) The NY Times called Jericho, “witty and poignant,” adding, “Jericho is also painfully significant, an intelligent intertwining of the nature of grief, cultural identity, fraught relationships, and shared tragedy.” Theater Communications Group hailed it as “…an important addition to the repertory of the American Theater.” His regional productions include Place Setting (New Jersey Repertory), a finalist with plays by Teresa Rebeck, Elaine May and Edward Albee for The Newark Star Ledger’s Best Plays of 2007; Tennessee Williams: A Life with Harris Yulin (Guild Hall), featuring Eli Wallach, Harris Yulin and Mercedes Ruehl; Jericho, (NNPN Rolling World Premiere: New Jersey Repertory Company, Phoenix Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, UpstART theater); The Source (NJ Rep); Poetic License (NJ Rep); and Fellow Travelers (Bay Street Theater), which was optioned by the Shubert Organization for Broadway. Jack is the recipient of several playwriting awards, including two Edgerton Playwriting Awards, for Jericho (2010) and The Source (2018). He won the 2016 Webby Award for Best Writing in a Web Series.
NEW JERSEY REPERTORY COMPANY (NJRep) was founded in 1997 by SuzAnne and Gabor Barabas. Its current central headquarters is the Lumia Theater, located on lower Broadway in Long Branch. The theater's mission is to develop and produce new plays and to make a lasting contribution to the American Stage. Over two decades, NJ Rep has produced 152 plays, of which 128 have been world premieres. The theater has the additional distinction of having had many of its plays produced by other theaters around the country, totaling over 200 subsequent productions in the US and overseas.
In 2012 and 2018, NJ Rep received a National Theater Company Grant from the American Theater Wing that sponsors the annual Tony Awards for Broadway in recognition of its contribution to the repertoire of the American Stage. Only seven theaters have had this distinction. In addition, the theater has presented over 400 developmental readings as well as introduced 136 new works through its Theatre Brut Short-Play Festivals that focus on visionary and avant-garde works.
NJRep acquired a new property, a 28,000 square foot school situated on 2 ½ acres and located just five minutes from its Main Stage Lumia Theater and two blocks from the Jersey Shore. The theater plans on gradually transforming the school in stages into a cultural center that will house additional performance spaces, an art cinema, an art museum, a rooftop café, an arts education wing, and residences for out-of-town actors and playwrights. When completed, the center will present a wide array of programs in acting, playwriting, art, sculpture, poetry, music, and photography and will serve as a catalyst for economic development and as the foundation for the cultural renaissance of the community.
NJ Rep thanks the following for their support: Shubert Foundation, Stone Foundation of New Jersey, Community Foundation of New Jersey and New Jersey State Council in the Arts.
