Centenary Stage Company’s 2022 Women’s Playwrights Series continues with Jane, Queen’s Foole by Barbara Blatner
HACKETTSTOWN, NJ (Warren County) — Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series will continue with the second reading of 4 in the series for 2023 with a reading of Jane, Queen’s Foole by Barbara Blatner.
The reading will take place on Wednesday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center at 715 Grand Avenue, Hackettstown, NJ on the campus of Centenary University.
Barbara Blatner’s SECRET PLACES was produced in 2022 by Manhattan’s New Circle Theatre Company. HAMLET LEAVES ENGLAND was a Main Stage production at Pittsburgh New Works 2022; TWO SISTERS was presented at the Inge Festival 2022. YEARS OF SKY, produced at the 59E59 Theatres, won the Columbia-Greene and New Works of Merit contests. NO STAR SHINES SHARPER, produced for radio by New Voices/Public Media Foundation and published by Baker’s Plays, aired on National Public Radio stations, and was acquired by the Museum of TV and Radio. NYQ Books published two full-length poetry collections, THE STILL POSITION and LIVING WITH YOU.
Jane, Queen’s Foole by Barbara Blatner the reign of the Tudors, King Henry VIII. Jane, a “crazy,” starving country girl by chance encounters Princess Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s rejected daughter becoming the first female Foole of the court. Amidst Bawdy humor, tumblers, and an entertaining, poetic hand, we join two very different women as they bond finding agency in the male-centric English court.
The reading will feature the actors: Emaline Williams, Joelle Zazz, Osborn Focht, Andy Danford, Sara Giacomini, and Robin Gurin. The reading is directed by Georgia Mallory Guy.
Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series has featured the work of more than 80 emerging playwrights. The program has also taken 19 plays to full production from the series. Led by the new program director Mikaela Kafka, the Women Playwrights Series offers playwrights the opportunity to work with professional actors and directors in a workshop rehearsal process, and to hear their work in front of a live audience – a critical part of the development process. Lively talkbacks with the playwright and cast follow each presentation, and one play is selected each year as the winner of the Susan Glaspell Award and receives a full production in the following main-stage season with CSC.
Centenary Stage Company will also offer a live streaming option accompanying the in-person performances. Live stream access is free to participate with donations appreciated. WPS live streams will be made available for viewing at centenarystageco.org.
The Women Playwright Series readings are free to attend with donations welcome, advanced reservations have a $5.00 fee. For those who are unable to attend in-person, the Women Playwrights Series readings will also be live streamed, free of charge, through the Centenary Stage Company website. For more information, go to centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company’s box office at 908-979-0900.
The Women Playwrights Series is part of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance 2023 Stages Festival, made possible by support from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey; OceanFirst Foundation; Fund for the New Jersey Blind; New Jersey Manufacturers; and Customers Bank. www.njtheatrealliance.org/stages.
