This weekend is GlassWeekend at WheatonArts & Cultural Center in Millville. The Creative Glass Center of America at WheatonArts is opening its doors to the public for a weekend full of exhibits, hands-on glassmaking, demonstrations by artists from around the world, and much more. Christopher Benincasa talks with Pamela Weichmann of WheatonArts about this international celebration of contemporary glass art. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast pl...
Jun 05, 2013•9 min
He first grabbed the world's attention as the lead vocalist for "Men at Work," the Australian band that was a worldwide hit in the early 1980s. The band broke up quickly, and Colin Hay has been a solo act ever since. In fact, a new generation knows him more because of the "Garden State" soundtrack than from "Men at Work!" Hay talks to producer Susan Wallner about his love of music and his current world tour, playing music from three decades to a fan base that continues to grow. On June 1, he'll ...
May 15, 2013•9 min
"Venus In Fur" - a play about a play that’s based on an 1870 classic erotic novel by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch - opens this week at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick. Christopher Benincasa met up with director Kip Fagan to talk about the play, and its complicated relationship with the cultural legacy of the novel. 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 ...
Apr 24, 2013•11 min
Two-time Tony winner Christine Ebersole (Grey Gardens, 42nd Street) “is in a class by herself,” says The New York Times. Her career spans from Broadway to Hollywood where she's currently in production with the second season of “Sullivan & Son,” a TBS sit-com, and starring in two movies out later this year. She also sings cabaret, and on May 11th, Christine Ebersole returns to NJPAC with her new show of standards and Broadway favorites. Susan Wallner talks to the Maplewood, NJ resident about ...
Apr 03, 2013•12 min
Continuing to spotlight home-grown filmmakers with "Jersey Fresh" programFor over three decades, the New Jersey Film Festival has been a film laboratory of sorts, presenting work by independent and experimental filmmakers from around the world – and keeping a spotlight on home-grown filmmakers from the Garden State with their Jersey Fresh program. Festival Director and Rutgers University Professor Albert G. Nigrin talks about the current season, which features the documentary Set For Life, a rom...
Feb 19, 2013•15 min
Podcast producer Eric Schultz talks with American Repertory Ballet's artistic director Douglas Martin. Martin has choreographed a new, soon-to-debut version of Stravinsky's ballet "The Rite of Spring." A hundred years ago, the first performances of the ballet caused a riot in Paris! Martin has a special connection to the music and ballet. He danced in the Joffrey Ballet's famous 1987 recreation of Nijinsky's original choreography. American Repertory Ballet's "The Rite of Spring" will be performe...
Feb 13, 2013•13 min
August Wilson wrote a ten-play cycle set in a black Pittsburgh neighborhood, one for each decade of the 20th century. Last year, Two River Theater in Red Bank mounted an acclaimed production of "Jitney," the 1970s play, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and starring Chuck Cooper. The two are both back this season for "Two Trains Running," set in the 1960s. Tony Award-winning actor Chuck Cooper talks to Susan Wallner about working with Ruben, the musicality of August Wilson's plays, and about mee...
Jan 30, 2013•12 min
Ai Weiwei disappeared for 81 days in April 2011 while trying to board a plane from Beijing to Hong Kong, and has not been able to leave China since. Yet his voice grows ever stronger around the world. He communicates through his art, through video, and, ever since his blog was shut down by Chinese censors, through Twitter. A new book by Princeton University Press collects some of his most evocative sayings. Susan Wallner talks to the editor of “Weiwei-isms,” Larry Warsh. He’s a longtime friend a...
Dec 31, 2012•12 min
This holiday season, Andrew Megill, one of the leading choral conductors of his generation, will conduct the 100-voice Masterwork Chorus, with orchestra and soloists, in their signature interpretation of Handel’s Messiah. The Masterwork Chorus has been performing Messiah in New York and New Jersey since 1957, and this year marks their 250th full performance. On Saturday, December 22nd, Messiah will be performed by the Masterwork Chorus for the 249th time at the Dorothy Young Theater at Drew Univ...
Dec 12, 2012•24 min
Two River Theater presents an original production for the holidays – A Wind in the Willows Christmas. This new musical follows the adventures of the story’s beloved characters – Mole, the Water Rat, Dr. Badger, and Mr. Toad – as they discover that home is where your friends are. We spoke with Grammy Award-winning composer – and ex-NFL player – Mike Reid about writing new music for a beloved children’s classic, as well as writing songs for artists like Kenny Chesney, Bonnie Raitt, Prince, and Wil...
Dec 04, 2012•16 min
The Black Cat and The Cask of Amontillado , for a double bill of short one-man plays. Poe, Times Two runs through November 16th. Bodine received a 2012 NYIT Award nomination for his chilling performance. 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 also cover New Jersey’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene. Discover Jersey ...
Oct 25, 2012•10 min
Emari DiGiorgio’s poems range from the political to the personal. She’s a featured poet at this year’s Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in Newark (Oct. 11-14), and she teaches poetry at the Richard Stockton College of NJ. Christopher Benincasa talks to DiGiorgio about poetry and split-boarding the Tasman Glacier while on her recent honeymoon. 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 D...
Oct 04, 2012•12 min
The McCarter Theatre has a hit on its hands with, of all things, a comic take on the melancholy Russian plays of Chekhov. "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" stars Sigourney Weaver, Kristine Nielsen, and David Hyde Pierce as siblings whose literary parents named them after Chekhov characters. Masha (played by Sigourney Weaver) is a glamorous actress who descends upon her stay-at-home brother and sister with Spike, her new boy toy (played by Billy Magnussen). Susan Wallner talks with playwright...
Sep 17, 2012•13 min
Seward Johnson is an artist known for his whimsy, and his popular appeal – and for founding Grounds for Sculpture 20 years ago. The park is now 42 acres of art in beautifully landscaped settings. With galleries, restaurants and performance areas, this Hamilton, New Jersey sculpture park has become one of America’s unique destinations. Susan Wallner talks to Seward Johnson about the beginnings of the park, his 3-dimensional renderings of Impressionist masterpieces, and one of his most renowned sc...
Aug 20, 2012•12 min
Ocean City Pops concerts at the historic Ocean City Music Pier, built in 1929, are a much loved summer tradition at the the Jersey Shore. Producer Eric Schultz talks with the Pops veteran conductor William Scheible, now in his 26th season as Artistic Director. The orchestra performs 3 evenings a week all summer long, with music as varied as Mozart, Sinatra, Broadway tunes, and much more. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player. The Jersey Arts P...
Jul 30, 2012•13 min
The musician John Wesley Harding is also the novelist Wesley Stace. As host of the new NPR variety show "The Cabinet of Wonders," he calls on his friends from both worlds to perform. Rosanne Cash, Josh Ritter, and the Decemberists have all been on the show, as well as Audrey Niffenegger, author of "The Time Traveler's Wife," and Pulitzer Prize winning writer Paul Harding. Producer Susan Wallner talked to John Wesley Harding about his many interests, and the evolution of his new show in advance o...
Jul 09, 2012•15 min
Christopher Benincasa talks to Father Michael Doyle, of Camden's Sacred Heart Church, about the up-and-coming Waterfront South neighborhood - and the legacy of American Haiku poet, and Camden native, Nick Virgilio. Father Doyle and the church have been instrumental in helping to establish the South Camden Theatre Company - the first theatre to be built in Camden in 100 years - a thriving community garden and greenhouse, and the Nick Virgilio Haiku Society. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The ...
May 14, 2012•8 min
The American Boy Choir, celebrating its 75th anniversary, has performed at the Oscars, with pop diva Beyoncé and with major orchestras around the world. Producer Eric Schultz recently visited the bucolic campus of the American Boy Choir School in Princeton, NJ to chat with President and CEO Dean Orton and Assistant Music Director Kerry Heimann about the choir's extraordinary history. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player. The Jersey Arts Podca...
May 13, 2012•11 min
Susan Wallner talks to one of the luminaries of the English speaking theater world, playwright John Guare. He’s won Tonys, Obies, and NY Drama Critics Circle Awards, as well as an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of Louis Malle’s “Atlantic City.” Guare’s newest play, “Are You There, McPhee?” has its world premiere at the McCarter Theatre in May. It’s his fourth play to be set on the island of Nantucket, a place Guare acknowledges as key to his own identity as a playwright and person. Thanks f...
Apr 23, 2012•15 min
Christopher Benincasa speaks with Eran Egozy and Gary Marcus at The Music, Mind & Invention Workshop at The College of New Jersey. Egozy is co-founder of Harmonix Music Systems, and one of the creators of the phenomenally popular games Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Gary Marcus is Professor of Psychology and Director of the NYU Center for Language & Music, and he recently wrote the book Guitar Zero: The New Musician and The Science of Learning. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey A...
Apr 03, 2012•11 min
Chris interviews veteran television writer Winnie Holzman - creator of the series My So-called Life, and librettist for the hit Broadway musical Wicked. Holzman recently kicked off a series of talks at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University. The series concludes with a Musical Theatre Symposium, "Making Broadway Musicals: Artists and Scholars in Conversation". Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player. The Jersey Arts Podcast is one...
Feb 21, 2012•17 min
Christopher Benincasa talks with curator Donna Gustafson about fifty years of Fluxus at Rutgers University. Fluxus was a radical and experimental art movement that started in the sixties and involved a group of Rutgers faculty members. The exhibit "art/around/beyond: Fluxus at Rutgers" is on view at the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick through April 1. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in your favorite podcast player. The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature ...
Jan 30, 2012•12 min
Young playwright Danai Gurira first made waves with “Eclipsed,” her play about 5 young Liberian women during that country’s civil war. She is now writing a cycle of plays about Zimbabwe and Zimbabwean identity. Part one, “The Convert,” premieres at the McCarter Theatre January 13th to February 12th. It starts at the beginning, during the first black/white conflict in 1895, with the story of Jekesai (aka Ester), a young village girl who escapes a forced marriage by embracing Christianity. Susan W...
Jan 10, 2012•15 min
Producer Eric Schultz visits comic artist, painter, illustrator and author Daves Devries at his Budd Lake, NJ home. In 1998, Devries asked the question, what would a child's drawing look like if it were painted realistically? The answer is The Monster Engine, and a book, gallery exhibitions, lectures and a website that went viral in its first month with over 17 million hits followed. For more on Dave Devries, check out his website. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The Jersey Arts Podcast in yo...
Dec 19, 2011•14 min
Inspired by a true story, an unemployed bartender living in a trailer park buys a painting at a thrift store for three dollars – and then comes to believe that it might be a long-lost Jackson Pollock worth millions. However, as she learns, words like “authenticity” can become slippery when the art world is forced to clash with the rest of the world. That’s the premise of Bakersfield Mist, which will have its Garden State premiere this week at the New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch. It r...
Nov 29, 2011•7 min
Harper Lee's 1960 novel To Kill A Mockingbird was an instant classic that was made into a great movie. Mary Badham played the role of "Scout" when she was 10 years old, and it transformed her life. Susan Wallner talks to Badham about her special relationship with Gregory Peck ("Atticus") and the universal appeal of this Southern tale of race, justice, and childhood. The play To Kill A Mockingbird runs at the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ through November 20th. Thanks for listening! Subscribe to The ...
Nov 08, 2011•14 min
The Atlantic City Ballet is performing Dracula just in time for Halloween. Producer Eric Schultz recently chatted with AC Ballet's founding director Phyllis Papa, who created the work five years ago. She says, "It's more of a dance experience than a ballet -- scary, sexy and dramatic." 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 vi...
Oct 17, 2011•12 min
For years, Junot Díaz was known for his explosive collection of short stories, "Drown," set in New Jersey and the Dominican Republic. His readers loyally waited for his next book - a novel that took him 11 years to write. "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," about a Dominican American nerd from Paterson, New Jersey, won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize. Susan Wallner talks to Díaz about what New Jersey means to him, as a writer and as a one-time resident of the state. Thanks for listening! Subscribe t...
Sep 26, 2011•13 min
The 1992 Disney movie-musical "Newsies" was not a box office smash - the epic, fact-inspired tale of a newsboys' labor strike in 1890s New York was a notorious flop. However, nearly two decades later, the movie's passionate cult following - and Menken and Feldman's enduring pop score - have helped to create enough demand for a new expanded version for the stage. The NEW Newsies musical will premiere at Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey on September 15th. Christopher Benincasa met up w...
Sep 06, 2011•9 min
Conductor Jed Gaylin has transformed the Bay Atlantic Symphony during his fourteen years as Music Director. Eric Schultz talks to Gaylin about sold out concert halls, summers performances in Avalon and all the great music the Bay Atlantic Symphony will be performing this year, including a Motown pops concert in Atlantic City. 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...
Aug 15, 2011•14 min
