Center Players Present Emerging Artists Play Reading Series

Local theater enthusiasts don’t have to go far for a fix thanks to Freehold’s Center Players’ Emerging Artists Play Reading series. The monthly event, held at the Center Playhouse, 35 South Street in Freehold, showcases readings of shows that the theater might consider producing in the near future, according to Fern Marder, the Center Players Board of Directors secretary.

“The original concept was that we try to fill a 'dark night' at the theater. We found that new playwrights were requesting a chance to have their work heard. It is a great opportunity for original plays to be read, sometimes for the first time,” she said.

Up-and-coming directors have also taken advantage of the opportunity to use the readings as a venue for their talents, Marder said.

“We decided to rename the play reading series to reflect our theater's ability to assist emerging artists in having their work performed before an audience. The series is designed to explore the talents of the emerging actors, playwrights and directors of tomorrow,” Marder added.

The Center Players have presented a monthly play-reading series for years, however they recently renamed and rebranded the series as a venue for emerging artists beginning in 2011.

Marder explained that the theater's Programming Committee handles the schedule of readings.

“We take submissions from directors, actors, producers and playwrights who think they have a perfect show for us and every few months we build a great line-up balanced with comedy and drama,” she continued.

In February, the Players presented Babel Tower, written and directed by Alexis Kozak. The play was a modern twist on the Biblical tale of the Tower of Babel. The play is set in 1950s Texas, where the townspeople come together to construct a mysterious tower. A local high school football star stands alone as the one voice of dissent in the mix. The play explores how far the man will go in his crusade to save the town.

In March, the series featured Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices, written by Dylan Thomas
 and directed by Dan Green
. This was the playwright’s last completed work, and it focuses on the minutiae of one spring day in a Coastal Welsh town. The play is comparable to Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, the classic exploration of life in a small town.

Up next is a reading of  Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, written by Edward Albee and directed by Anthony Marinelli on Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. The action takes place in the living room of George and Martha, who have come home from a faculty party drunk and quarrelsome. When Nick, a young biology professor, and his strange wife, Honey, stop by for a nightcap, they are enlisted as fellow fighters, and the battle begins. A long night of malicious games, insults, humiliations, betrayals, painful confrontations and savage witticisms ensues.

Upcoming readings also include Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, written by Terrence McNally
 and directed by Louis Palermo in May, and All My Sons, written by Arthur Miller and directed by Anthony Greco in June.

All readings being promptly at 7:30 p.m. and are open to the public for a suggested donation of $5.