Jersey Arts Podcast

The 2021 GRAMMY Awards are this weekend, and, for the first time, a Westminster grad participated in each of the five recordings nominated in the Best Choral Performance category. We recently spoke with five of the artists in that category about the nominated recordings. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player. The Jersey Arts Podcast is one mediu...

We recently spoke with the family behind George Street Playhouse’s latest offering – "Bad Dates" – a one-woman show starring Broadway’s Andréa Burns, directed by her husband Peter Flynn, with cinematography by their son Hudson Flynn. The comedy, written by Theresa Rebeck, follows a single mom on the hunt for cute shoes, the perfect dress, and a romantic table for two at a great restauran...

The Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble was planning an in-person visit to the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) when the pandemic hit. Their visit is temporarily on hold, but Buskaid - A Musical Miracle: Brilliant Baroque to Cool Kwela! is a series of five on-demand concerts providing a wonderful introduction to this inspiring musical group. Jersey Arts producer Susan Wallner talks to Marc Uys, the e...

The Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble was planning an in-person visit to the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) when the pandemic hit. Their visit is temporarily on hold, but Buskaid - A Musical Miracle: Brilliant Baroque to Cool Kwela! is a series of five on-demand concerts providing a wonderful introduction to this inspiring musical group. Jersey Arts producer Susan Wallner talks to Marc Uys, the e...

Since 1958, "Christmas in Carol and Song" has been an annual tradition at Rutgers University’s historic Kirkpatrick Chapel in New Brunswick. Patrick Gardner, distinguished professor of music and director of choral activities at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, has led the Rutgers Kirkpatrick Choir and the Rutgers University Glee Club for more than 25 years. With the help of both choir...

Ada Trillo is a bilingual documentary photographer who grew up–literally–crossing the border. Born in El Paso, her family moved to Juárez when she was young, but she attended school in Texas, which meant an hours-long commute over the border every day. Trillo went on to become a painter, but Donald Trump’s hateful comments about Mexicans caused her to make a radical shift. The Noyes Museum’s Krame...

We recently spoke with Fort Lee, New Jersey native David Meyers, who left the world of Washington, DC politics behind to pursue a career as an actor, playwright, and screenwriter. In between projects for the stage and screen, he co-created the comedic web series Bloomywood, in which he stars as Hollywood hopeful Michael Bloomstein. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your...

Given Circumstance: New Plays in the Virtual World is an ambitious project from Mile Square Theatre: seven new plays written specifically for the Zoom format. The first, “Sitting and Talking” by Lia Romeo, stars Wendie Malick (“Just Shoot Me!”) and Dan Lauria (“The Wonder Years”). Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player. The Jersey Arts Podcast is...

The Hudson Theatre Works Virtual Festival kicked off earlier this month, and, so far, there’s no end in sight. The Festival is currently presenting readings of new short plays by contemporary playwrights, giving them and the actors involved an opportunity to share their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player. Th...

“The show must go on!” is part of Bonnie Monte’s DNA. As the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey for 30 years this season, shutting down was hard for her to do. But Monte found a way out, working with a group of eight actors originally employed as part of the theatre’s “Shakespeare Live!” company. The actors formed a new troupe (the Shrewd Mechanicals, in a nod to “A Midsumm...

Last month, the New Jersey Governor’s Awards in Arts Education celebrated its 40th year. Established in 1980, the program was created to promote awareness and appreciation for the arts by honoring individual students, and to honor education leaders who have demonstrated excellence in, and dedication to, arts education. Usually held in May at the historic Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Tre...

Art House Productions was founded after 9/11 to bring Jersey City’s community together through the arts. They’ve thrived over the years, with live theatre, dance, and comedy events, and more. The coronavirus has made them return to their roots of providing connection for the community, this time through live virtual events. Executive director Meredith Burns talks to producer Susan Wallner about Vi...

While we’re all staying at home to do our part to stop the coronavirus, everyone’s developing different media diets, and that includes the art we’re choosing to enrich our days in isolation. For this podcast, we’re focusing on some of the new music that’s being made available online. We got on the phone with the folks behind the online content programming for four New Jersey arts organizations – N...

Songwriters by the Sea started in Asbury Park at a coffee shop in 2008, with a tip jar passed around. Since then it’s grown to a ticketed event, but with an informal vibe. Top name performers play alongside local favorites. It was founded by singer/songwriters Joe D’Urso and Joe Rapolla. Rapolla is also a former music industry executive, and the chair of Monmouth University’s Music & Theatre A...

Did you know that New Brunswick, N.J. is the only place in the country where you can see live, world-class jazz every week for free? You can thank the New Brunswick Jazz Project. We recently sat down with the NBJP team at Tavern on George, where most of their events take place. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player. The Jersey Arts Podcast is on...

It’s been called the perfect romantic comedy. Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night" begins with sister-brother twins losing each other in a shipwreck, leading to a high-spirited tale of gender-bending and mixed-up love affairs. Director Sara Holdren recalls falling in love with Shakespeare at a very early age, and the creative fun of interpreting his plays. Hint: Sara’s making the most of the music i...

This Sunday, the New Jersey Youth Symphony will perform two "Nutcrackers" side by side – bouncing Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s 1960s arrangements off of Tchaikovsky’s original compositions. Listen in as we talk to the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of NJYS and Director of the NJYS’s Jazz Orchestra about putting this ambitious project together to challenge their student...

Hannah Arendt is a philosopher for our times, and the unlikely title character in a new play “Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library.” Jenny Lyn Bader's gripping play is inspired by the true story of how Arendt, a 26 year-old married Jewish woman at the beginning of her career as a philosopher, was arrested with her mother in Nazi Germany in 1933. Arendt, who’s married name is Stern, i...

The Great Cheesy Movie Circus Tour is coming to town. It’s the latest live tour from "Mystery Science Theater 3000," the classic television show in which a spaceship janitor and his homemade robot friends are subjected to a cruel experiment by mad scientists - meaning they are forced to watch the worst movies ever made until they go insane. Creator and original host Joel Hodgson (and com...

Emily Mann is a triple threat: an award-winning playwright known for her “theater of testimony,” a sought-after director, and the artistic director of one of America’s preeminent regional theaters, the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey. She is stepping down as artistic director after the 2019-2020 season, her 30th at the McCarter. In this special edition of the Jersey Arts Podcast,...

We recently spoke with artist and designer Molly Hatch, whose signature style is currently on display in a large-scale ceramics installation at the Newark Museum called Repertoire. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player. The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature Stories on Discover Jersey Arts (jerseyarts.com) , where articles and videos a...

Artist Dion Hitchings just opened a new solo exhibit at the Monmouth Museum in Lincroft. The show, "Dion Hitchings, Portraits on Recycled Consumer Boxes," be on view until September 18. Christopher Benincasa recently sat down with Hitchings to talk about the exhibit, outsider art, and migrating from St. Louis to New York City to rural Milford. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jerse...

"A Jazzy Nutcracker" is Lustig Dance Theatre's new take on the beloved classic, performed with a six-piece jazz band and guest appearances from high school marching bands. Choreographer Graham Lustig talks with producer Susan Wallner about growing up in London in the 1960s and how it inspired his production, with the Nutcracker re-imagined as the Boy Next Door. LDT performs December...

Suzzy Roche is the youngest of the influential trio The Roches, alongside sisters Maggie and Terre. In addition, she has a solo career, is an author, and does the occasional bit of acting. On August 15, she'll be appearing at The Minstrel at the Folk Project in Morristown with her daughter, Lucy Wainwright Roche, singing songs off their recent album "Fairytale and Myth." Lucy's...

In Princeton and New Brunswick, art by women from the Middle East is opening eyes and challenging stereotypes. Susan Wallner talks with Iranian Parastou Forouhar and Nigerian Fatimah Tuggar, two of the many artists involved. Both women grew up in political families and openly address political and social themes in their work. Exhibitions and events that are part of The Fertile Crescent: Gender, Ar...