Special UpstageMagazine.com Online Only Article
(CRANFORD, NJ) -- The Theater Project, Union County
College's Professional Theater Company, (1033
Springfield Ave., Cranford), will present the
provocative off-Broadway hit Omnium Gatherum, a
dinner-party-from-hell comedy (and 2004 Pulitzer
Prize finalist) by Theresa Rebeck and Alexandra
Gersten-Vassilaros from October 4 through October
21.Omnium Gatherum is set around a post-9/11, New
York dinner party hosted by a domestic diva a la
Martha Stewart. The seven guests (including a middle
eastern academic, a black female minister, a New
York City fireman, a belligerent conservative
novelist, a gay liberal British commentator, and a
vegetarian feminist) -- plus a surprise eighth who
arrives late -- are all wildly incompatible, making
for incendiary table talk.
Staged by Artistic Director Mark Spina, the cast
includes Shirine Babb, Rick Delaney, Gary Glor,
Chess Lankford, Rebecca Moore, Kevin Sebastian,
Faisal S. Sheikh and Harriett Trangucci.
The play was developed shortly after the
terrorist attacks of 2001. In the days following
September 11, Rebeck and Gersten-Vassilaros,
longtime friends, watched countless hours of CNN and
talked about the events and the way they were being
interpreted by television's army of talking heads.
Soon the heated discussions and debates between the
playwrights flowed into drama, in which the Western
World's intellectual elite gather at a hellish
dinner party to hash out the world's problems over
several cases of red and white.
The New Yorker proclaims the play "Theatrical
fireworks," while The New York Times calls it, "A
feisty feast of wicked wit . . . Piping hot satire
that sings and stings." Newsday raves Omnium
Gatherum is "Spirited, amusing and smart. A play
that wants us to think as much as we feel."
A prolific playwright Theresa Rebeck will make
her Broadway debut this fall with Mauritus, produced
by Manhattan Theatre Club at the Biltmore Theatre.
Her play The Scene will be seen at George Street
Playhouse in February 2008. Rebeck's other plays
include The Water's Edge, The Family of Mann, Spike
Heels and Bad Dates. Gersten-Vassilaros' work has
frequently been seen at Chicago's Steppenwolf
Theatre Company. Her play My Thing of Love was on
Broadway in 1995.
Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays
at 8:00 pm, Sundays at 3:00 pm. Discussions will be
held each Sunday immediately following the
performance. Tickets are $20; students $10.
Thursdays: all tickets $12. Sunday, October 6 has
been designated as "Senior Sunday" - all senior
citizen tickets are $12. An Audio Described
performance will take place on Friday, October 4.
For ticket reservations, call (908) 659-5189. The
Theater Project is wheelchair accessible. For more
information, please visit
www.TheTheaterProject.com .
The New Jersey Theatre Alliance and the New
Jersey Department of Human Services Division of the
Deaf and Hard of Hearing, though the New Jersey
State Council on the Arts, will offer an Open
Captioning performance of Omnium Gatherum on Friday,
October 4. Open Captioning is text displayed on a
screen simultaneously to live speech, dialogue or
performance. Open Captioning benefits a growing
number of people who have profound hearing loss and
affords them the opportunity to experience the
excitement and joy of live theatre.
The Theater Project (Mark Spina, Artistic
Director) is Union County College's Professional
Theater Company, bringing artists from all over the
state and New York City together in its productions.
Well-known for its intimate "Studio on Stage" where
the audience sits within arm's reach of the
performers, the company is celebrating its 13 season
of producing new works and contemporary classics.
The Theater Project has been recognized by grants
from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the New
Jersey State Arts Council, The Union County College
Foundation, and the Union County Board of Chosen
Freeholders
Read
more about the play at:
Special UpstageMagazine.com Online Only Article
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