(CAPE MAY, NJ) -- Cape May Stage presents Your Name Means Dream from September 9 through October 18, 2026. Directed by Roy Steinberg, this is a lyrical and thought-provoking new play by José Rivera that follows Aislin, an aging woman whose world is transformed when she is paired with Stacy, an advanced AI caregiver designed to anticipate her every need.
As their relationship deepens, the lines between human and machine begin to blur, leading both of them to question identity, memory, love, and what it truly means to be alive.
Blending poetic storytelling with raw emotion, Your Name Means Dream explores resilience, hope, and the enduring power of human connection in an age where artificial intelligence is reshaping our lives. At once intimate and expansive, it asks urgent questions about consciousness, imagination, and the fragile beauty of choice—revealing that the most important parts of being human can never be programmed.
Performances take place Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:00pm and Sundays at 3:00pm at the Robert Shackleton Playhouse. Tickets are available for purchase online. The venue is located at 405 Lafayette Street in Cape May, New Jersey.
José Rivera’s full-length plays have been seen nationally and internationally and translated into a dozen languages. Obie Award–winners MARISOL And REFERENCES TO SALVADOR DALI MAKE ME HOT, both produced by The Public Theatre, NY, are taught around the country, as well as his essay “36 Assumptions about Playwriting.”
World premieres include THE HOUSE OF RAMON IGLESIA (Ensemble Studio Theatre), THE PROMISE (Los Angeles Theatre Center), EACH DAY DIES WITH SLEEP (Circle Rep/Berkeley Rep), CLOUD TECTONICS (Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville), MARICELA DE LA LUZ LIGHTS THE WORLD (La Jolla Playhouse), GIANTS HAVE US IN THEIR BOOKS (Magic Theatre), SUEÑO (Hartford Stage Company), SONNETS FOR AN OLD CENTURY (Greenway Arts Alliance), BOLEROS FOR THE DISENCHANTED (Yale Rep), SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS (Public Theatre), MASSACRE (SING TO YOUR CHILDREN) (Goodman Theatre), BRAINPEOPLE (ACT/San Francisco), ADORATION OF THE OLD WOMAN (La Jolla Playhouse), ANOTHER WORD FOR BEAUTY (Goodman Theatre), THE MAIDS (INTAR), THE KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN (Menier Chocolate Factory, London), THE LOVESONG (IMPERFECT) (14th Street Y, directed by the author), YOUR NAME MEANS DREAM (Contemporary American Theatre Festival, directed by the author), THE HOURS ARE FEMININE (INTAR, directed by the author, winner 2024 HOLA Best Production Award). His latest play A LUNAR RHAPSODY was workshopped at Duke U., Northwestern U., DePauw U., and Santa Fe Playhouse, each co-directed (with Sara Koviak) by the author.
The screenplay for Rivera’s first produced movie, “The Motorcycle Diaries” (Walter Salles, director) was nominated for 2005 Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar — making Rivera the first Puerto Rican writer so honored. Other honors include a BAFTA, a Writers Guild Award, a Goya Award (Spain), and Argentina’s top screenwriting prize. His film “On the Road” (Francis Ford Coppola, producer, Walter Salles, director) premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and “Trade” (Lionsgate Pictures) was the first film to premiere at the United Nations. Other films include “The 33” and “Letters to Juliet.” Rivera co-created and produced “Eerie, Indiana,” (NBC) and was a consultant and staff writer on “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels” (Showtime) 2019. Rivera wrote and directed the award-winning short films “The Fall of a Sparrow” and “The Civet,” seen at film festivals around the country.
Rivera is a recipient of a Fulbright Arts Fellowship, a Whiting Foundation Award, a McKnight Fellowship, a 2005 Impact Award, and was a playwright-in-residence at the Royal Court Theatre, London. In 1989 he studied with Gabriel García Márquez at the Sundance Institute. He has served on the boards of PEN West, TCG, and Sundance, was a Creative Advisor at Sundance Screenwriting Labs in Utah, Jordan, and India, and currently teaches writing at HB Studio, New York. Most recently, he was head writer and executive producer of the Netflix series based on One Hundred Years of Solitude (winner “Best Series,” 2025 Premios Platino), which the London Telegraph called “a spellbinding adaptation of an unfilmable novel.”
Dion and his music have long represented a special time and place, reflective of a moment when a song could mean so much. When a singer could sum up what it means to be young, in love and on top of the world. Dion is more than a cherished memory as critic Dave Marsh noted, “Dion is the only artist from the 1950’s who has remained creative and relevant into the 2000s.” In 1958 he had three top-forty hits. In 2008 he was nominated for a Grammy. In 2020, is releasing new studio album Blues with Friends, joined by Joe Bonamassa, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Jeff Beck, Billy Gibbons and many other rock luminaries. In the ’50s he was one of a handful of innovators who defined rock ‘n’ roll and that’s still very much the case.
Julio Torres is an Emmy-nominated, Peabody-winning and WGA-winning writer, director, and comedian from El Salvador.
A writer and an AI software designer battle to create the next great play in this cautionary tale about the impending intersection of technology and creativity.
Rock and roll doesn’t get any better than Van Morrison. Van the Man has done it all - from classic rockers like Brown Eyed Girl and Domino to legendary tunes like Tupelo Honey and Into The Mystic, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has never failed to impress music lovers around the globe.
The 45th Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place between September 4-October 4, 2026. The Festival will be a hybrid as we will be presenting it online as well as doing select in-person screenings at Rutgers University. Almost all the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. VOD start times are at 12 Midnight Eastern USA. Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person shows when both are offered. This program is only available Online for 24 hours on this show date!
