Jersey Arts Podcast

MacArthur Genius Dave Isay started StoryCorps in 2003 -- it's an oral history project that has everyday people interview each other about their lives. NPR listeners often say they start crying every time they hear one of the stories drawn from these interviews. NJN is partnering with Storycorps to bring a MobileBooth to Trenton in September, giving New Jerseyans a chance to tell their stories...

Artist Keith Haring, who died in 1990 at the age of 31, is famous for his iconic, graffiti-inspired art -- starting in the subways of NYC, then taking the international art world by storm. In Keith Haring: A New Dimension, Grounds for Sculpture has presented a selection of Haring's lesser-known sculptural work. State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa talks with curator Ellen Landis a...

Fortune smiles as the Passage Play Lab returns with another collection of original one-act plays by Trenton area writers (June 25-27). This year, five writers cracked open fortune cookies in search of inspiration. Producer Susan Wallner spoke with playwright and associate artistic director David White about this popular annual production. White also discusses Passage Theatre's increasing use...

Singer-songwriter Nicole Atkins is performing at the XPoNential Music Festival on the Camden Waterfront this weekend. State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa chats with the Jersey shore native about sharks, couch surfing, touring in mini-vans, and, of course, making music. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player. The Jersey Arts Podcast i...

The 2010 New Jersey International Film Festival’s 15th anniversary season takes place on the Rutgers New Brunswick campus June 4-20. Producer Eric Schultz spoke with the creators of three featured films: "The Hand of Fatima," Augusta Palmer's documentary about her father, rock critic Robert Palmer; "Sneakers & Soul," a romantic feature set in NJ, and "Muskrat John...

Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and the Wright Brothers are the characters in a new musical, "Take Flight," opening at the McCarter Theatre on April 30th. Producer Susan Wallner talks to the writers, a musical theatre dream team of Academy & Tony award winners, composer David Shire ("Saturday Night Fever"), lyricist Richard Maltby ("Ain't Misbehavin'"...

Volunteer DJ Marvin Rosen, host of two shows on Princeton's university station WPRB, joins interviewer Susan Wallner for a podcast about the reinvention of new, accessible music from classically inspired traditions. His show "Classical Discoveries" aims to show people "the beauty of contemporary music" and to "illustrate that music brings us close." The show runs...

New Jersey is holding its fifth annual Poetry Out Loud! recitation contest at Drumthwacket, the governor's mansion in Princeton, on Thursday, March 18. The winner of the State Finals goes on to represent the Garden State at the national competition in Washington, DC. Producer Christopher Benincasa speaks with Poetry Out Loud's MC Alysia Souder about the impact this program is having on t...

Rossen Milanov has been appointed the new Music Director of the Princeton Symphony. Producer Eric Schultz chatted with him at a rehearsal before his debut. Milanov explains how he juggles a whirlwind career as Associate Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Music Director of the Symphony in C, Principal Conductor of the Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra, and as a guest conductor around the wor...

Sia Nyorkor talks with writer/performer, Daniel Beaty, about his newest production, Through the Night, at Crossroads Theatre Company. The play takes us through the minds of six males as they deal with the different stereotypes of being black in America. Beaty shares his creative process and what brought him to this place. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite...

Susan Wallner talks with filmmaker John Waters ("Pink Flamingos," "Hairspray") about his one-man paean to Christmas. Although some call him anti-Christmas, Waters himself says he loves the holiday, and describes his show as a self-help session for the neurotic during what can be a stressful time of year. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorit...

Christopher Benincasa talks with author Louis P. Masur about his book "Runaway Dream: Born to Run and Bruce Springsteen's American Vision." The book chronicles the creation of the now-classic 1975 album "Born To Run"” – a record that Springsteen himself has called "my shot at the title" A 24 year old kid aimin' at the greatest rock and roll record ever.&quot...

Producer Eric Schultz talks with organist Joanne K. Owen, the first performer in a new pipe organ series in Salem County New Jersey. Owen plays a Halloween concert of scary music at historic St. John's Episcopal Church in Salem, NJ on October 23rd. The free concert starts at 6:00 PM right before Salem's annual "Ghost Walking Tour of Historic Market Street." Thanks for listening...

In this podcast Christopher Benincasa interviews Jersey City Museum’s Rocio Aranda-Alvarado about the museum’s new show I Love Jersey City: Everybody Counts. This exhibition, running through December, includes 4 x 6 inch images sent in by the public of people they know who live, work, or play in Jersey City. I Love Jersey City: Everybody Counts is in honor of the 2010 National Census. Thanks for l...

John Hoomes travels throughout the world directing opera. He has staged more than 75 productions. Producer Eric Schultz chatted with the veteran director in Princeton after the dress rehearsal of his Opera New Jersey 2009 summer production of "Lucia di Lammermoor." Hoomes worked with an incredible young cast, including Metropolitan Opera star Lisette Oropesa. Thanks for listening! Subscr...

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s popular outdoor offering this summer is “The Tempest.” From June 24-August 2, Shakespeare’s magical play is being staged in a stone amphitheater based on the Dionysus Theater in Greece. As artistic director Bonnie Monte tells Susan Wallner, it’s a perfect play and a perfect setting for the whole family – and picnics are encouraged. Thanks for listening! Subs...

Christopher Benincasa talks with New Jersey International Film Festival curator Al Nigrin and four of the festival's featured filmmakers - Paul Marcus (Sounds Good To Me), Beth Toni Krunant (Heart of Stone), Neil and Lee Selden (Final Gift) - all from New Jersey. This summer's festival runs from June 5th through the 21st. The full schedule can be foud at njfilmfest.com. Thanks for listen...

Christopher Benincasa talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon and poet/author Susan Wheeler about the inaugural Princeton Poetry Festival, which was presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts in April of 2009 at Princeton University. The festival featured world-renowned poets John Ashbery, Seamus Heaney, Galway Kinnell, Gerald Stern, and many others. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to...

Susan Wallner talks to Playwright Tarell McCrane. The 28 year old is playwright in residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and he’s opening a trilogy, “The Brother/Sister Plays,” at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton. The plays deal with poverty, jail, sex, and drugs – the same issues Tarell dealt with growing up in Miami. The first of “The Brother/Sister Plays” opens on Apl 24th and runs throu...

The New Jersey Ballet 50th anniversary features a season of works choreographed by some of the greatest names in dance. Producer Eric Schultz speaks with the company’s founding director, Carolyn Clarke, and Paul Hilliard McRae, New Jersey Ballet’s Assistant Artistic Director. There will be an NJ Ballet Gala Performance at NJPAC on April 18th. www.njballet.org Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The...

Michael Rees creates sculptures that are products of the intersection of art and technology. State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa meets up with the 2007 NJSCA Fellowship recipient at Matrix Art Collective in Guttenberg, New Jersey where he designs and fabricates his pieces. Rees teaches classes in sculpture and digital media at William Paterson University, and shows his work internatio...

At McCarter’s Berlind Theatre, two ancient Greek plays explore a bloody story tying family values to international politics. In “Iphigenia at Aulis” by Euripides, Iphigenia is sacrificed by her father for the cause of war; in “Agamemnon” by Aeschylus, his life is taken in turn. Susan Wallner talks to Princeton University director Tim Vasen about the production and its relevance to today’s headline...

State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa follows poet Joe Weil around his home town of Elizabeth, New Jersey, stopping along the way to read work from his two recent collections – What Remains and Painting the Christmas Trees. Weil was born and raised in Elizabeth and has been described by The New York Times as personifying that town. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podc...

Celebrated realist painter Mel Leipzig, from Trenton, NJ, is as prolific at 73 as he has ever been. State of the Arts producer Eric Schultz chatted with Leipzig recently as he was working on his new show, a retrospective of paintings from 2006 through 2009, which opens at the Villanova University Art Gallery January 9, 2009. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favori...

NJN producer Christopher Benincasa meets up with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa at a Trenton bookstore. Komunyakaa has a new book of poetry coming out this fall called Warhorses, which delves into an age of war and conflict, both global and internal, racial and sexual. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player. The Jersey Arts Podcast...