Faye Driscoll Debuts "Thank You For Coming: Space" at Peak Performances
About seven years ago, the acclaimed dancer and choreographer Faye Driscoll had a vision about her next project.
Make that projects.
Driscoll didn’t want to focus once again on creating a “standalone piece.”
published on 03/27/2019
Poet, Essayist, and Cultural Critic Hanif Abdurraqib
Hanif Abdurraqib once tried being a musician.
It didn’t last long.
published on 02/27/2019
One-Man Show "To My Unborn Child: A Love Letter From Fred Hampton" Comes To Passage Theatre
On Dec. 4, 1969, Fred Hampton was 21 years and just weeks from the birth of his son.
But Hampton, a leader of the Black Panthers, never lived to see that happen.
published on 01/31/2019
Mike Davis and The New Wonders
Mike Davis traces his love for the trumpet back to a Disney movie.
He grew up in a musical family, with both his parents playing strings in the Seattle Symphony. But Davis wanted an instrument of his own.
Then, at age 9, he saw “The Aristocats,” the animated film about a bunch of French felines — including a group of jazz-playing alley cats.
published on 01/03/2019
Betsy Aidem Puts A Woman's Touch On George Street Playhouse's "A Doll's House, Part 2"
Betsy Aidem is a veteran actress you might have seen on Broadway. Or maybe on an episode of “Law & Order: SVU.” Or maybe on the big screen last year in “The Greatest Showman.”
But over the next few weeks in New Brunswick, Aidem is adding a brand-new section to her résumé — by helming a sequel (of sorts) to a classic play that’s more than 100 years old.
published on 12/06/2018
The Last Apple Pie: "Apples In Winter" Opens At Centenary Stage
Jennifer Fawcett’s new play centers around a mother in a kitchen, doing something countless people across America will take part in over the upcoming holiday season: making an apple pie.
published on 11/08/2018
"Legal Immigrant" Alan Cumming Brings His Cabaret To State Theatre New Jersey
It was the fall of 2008. Barack Obama had just been elected president. And Scottish-born actor Alan Cumming was sworn in as a citizen of the United States.
published on 09/27/2018
Fossils And Boomers At Morris Museum
You won’t find many places where Billy Joel and Erin Brokovich rub shoulders with ancient shark teeth and fossilized raindrops.
But such is life — for at least the next few weeks — at the Morris Museum in Morristown, where you can take two very different trips through American history in two separate exhibits.
published on 08/16/2018
Difficult Questions "Linger" at Premiere Stages
There are two key questions at the heart of Craig Garcia’s play “Linger”: How well do parents actually know their children? And what things — even terrible things — are they capable of?
published on 07/17/2018
Art By The Ocean: Exhibit No. 9 In Asbury Park
Picture an art gallery by the ocean. Tom White knows what you might be thinking — walls being lined with paintings of “sail boats and people with beach umbrellas.”
Exhibit No. 9 is different.
published on 06/28/2018
Who In The World Is Artemisia Gentileschi?
You know of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Van Gough and Picasso. And, if you’ve ever been to elementary school, you’ve probably been taught about Georgia O’Keeffe.
But what about Artemisia Gentileschi?
published on 05/09/2018
Boundary-Defying Black Violin Blends Classical, Hip-Hop, Rock and More
It happens mostly at the airport. Or when they’re getting on an elevator.
Wil Baptiste says when he and longtime friend Kevin Sylvester are spotted carrying their musical instruments cases, people usually assume that saxophones or trumpets are inside.
published on 04/06/2018
New Brunswick Jazz Project Celebrates Women In Jazz
More than a dozen artists will perform in the Women in Jazz series organized by the New Brunswick Jazz Project this month.
published on 03/07/2018
Rufus Wainwright To Appear At BergenPAC For 20th Anniversary of Career
Rufus Wainwright has seen a lot in his wildly eclectic and colorful music career the last few decades — but never what happened last month in Minneapolis.
published on 01/11/2018
Heavens to George Street! "An Act Of God" Opens In New Brunswick
Over the next few weeks, Stephen DeRosa and Jim Walton will transform into angels … in a barn-like building in New Brunswick … where they’ll interact with God … in the form of Kathleen Turner.
published on 11/29/2017
The "Jersey Boys" Come Home - State Theatre Hosts NJ Premiere
Twelve years after its Broadway debut, the Tony Award-winning musical about the rise — and falls — of four kids from New Jersey who became Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons will finally make its Garden State premiere with five performances at State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick.
published on 10/11/2017
“Synthesizing Nature” At The Center For Contemporary Art
Don’t worry, Katrina Bello says. If you look at her latest piece of art and aren’t quite sure what you see, that’s fine with her.
Some people, the New Jersey artist says, think it depicts a rock formation. Others might see a stretch of soil. It’s so vivid, you might even think it’s a photograph of a landscape somewhere.
published on 09/14/2017
Monmouth Film Festival Returns For Its 2nd Year
When the second annual Monmouth Film Festival rolls into Red Bank next weekend, one of the top selections is a movie about the making of a movie — more specifically, the most famous movie in Monmouth County history.
published on 08/03/2017
"False Indigo" at Hoboken's Proto Gallery
These aren’t the kind of floral paintings you’ll find hanging in the lobby of most motels or for sale at your local department store.
At first glance, you might not even realize that some of the Rob Ventura pieces that currently line the walls at Proto Gallery in Hoboken depict flowers at all. They’re filled with abstract shapes, wild brushstrokes and deep, dark hues of red, orange, purple and black.
published on 06/21/2017
Henri Matisse’s Influence Around Every Corner (and Canvas) at the Montclair Art Museum
One is the sketchbook of a pioneering American artist from 1907. Another is an abstract piece from the late 1950s by a New York City painter — who happens to be Robert DeNiro’s father.
published on 05/26/2017
Paper Mill Playhouse Presents Sensory-Friendly Performance of “Charlotte’s Web”
On the surface, the rules for Saturday morning’s performance of “Charlotte’s Web” at Paper Mill Playhouse might surprise you.
The house lights at the Millburn theater will remain on throughout the production, albeit dimmed. The volume of the show will be lower than usual. And parents and their children won’t be stopped if they want to walk around — or even change their seats.
But the reason is simple.
published on 04/27/2017
Atlantic City Welcomes the 2017 Garden State Film Festival
When the Garden State Film Festival descends on Atlantic City this weekend, it will include one movie that takes place — and was partially shot — just steps from the screening room in the casino-laden resort town.
published on 03/30/2017
The Suffers Bring “Gulf Coast Soul” Music to Vineland
Ask Kam Franklin what kind of music she plays with her band, The Suffers, and she’ll first give you a three-word answer: “Gulf Coast soul.”
Then, if you don’t quite understand what that means, she turns to a trusty food comparison.
published on 02/23/2017
VoicePlay-ing at UCPAC
Years ago, Eli Jacobson recalls, people often had the same image pop into their heads when he spoke about the style of music that he and his group perform.
published on 02/01/2017
Winter Wonders at Monmouth Museum
It’s not often when visitors walk into a museum to hear the sound of a train whistle tooting — and at the same time see a painting on the wall depicting a pair of dogs pulling a sled filled with apples through the snow.
published on 12/20/2016
Two River’s “The Lion in Winter” Offers a Historical Reflection of 2016 Themes
The way Tyne Rafaeli sees it, the fall of 2016 is the perfect time to go back 833 years and visit the court of England’s King Henry II.
published on 11/15/2016
