Independent Arts News Reporting New Theatrical Works take to the McDonnell Theater Stage
Friday, November 17, 2023.
Pictured Above: The exterior of Frenchtown, NJ’s ArtYard art center. Photo Credit: Sourced.
Newsroom Post: FRENCHTOWN, NJ
Frenchtown, NJ – ArtYard invites you to get a front-row seat to three new theatre works that will transport audiences from a barber’s chair, inside a game show stacked against the contestant, and into the mountains of the Kurdish region of Turkey, all coming to ArtYard’s McDonnell Theater this winter.
The plays and live performance are part of incubation residencies with TyLie Shider, ArtYard Playwright Fellow; Desi Shelton, Artistic Director and Founder of Camden Repertory Theater; and Audrey Rose Dégez and Daria Holovchanska, of Creative People for Peace.
Pictured Above: Shoptalk’s show art. Photo Credit: Contributed.
A staged reading of Shider’s newest play, Shoptalk, which explores the transformative, often unsung, power of salons and the intimate relationship between hairdressers and their clientele is set for 3 PM on Saturday, Nov. 18. Following the reading is a talkback and reception. Tickets are $10.
Pictured Above: A scene from “Child Support”. Photo Credit: Contributed.
Shelton brings her “urgent, searing, and wildly inventive” Child Support to Frenchtown on Dec. 9 & 10, for the first time being performed outside Camden. The play uses humor and elements of immersive theatre to examine single motherhood and financial responsibility from the points of view of everyone impacted by a broken system. A talkback follows the performance. Tickets are $20.
Pictured Above: Show art for “I will dance with those oak trees as long as’. Photo Credit: Contributed.
On Jan. 6 & 7, Creative People for Peace presents I will dance with the oak trees as long as, a new work that takes us on a poetic voyage into the life of three Kurdish women inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh. Carpets, chairs, and strings create the environment in which women react to a violent and unstable outside world. Performers use objects, puppets, and a multilayered world of reality, dreams, memories, and visions explore the question of what it means to be a hero when you have no other choice. Tickets are $20.
ArtYard is located at 13 Front St., Frenchtown, NJ, 08825. Free public hours are Wednesday through Sunday from 11 AM to 5 PM and late night Thursdays until 7 PM.
ArtYard is an incubator for creative expression and a catalyst for collaborations that reveal the transformational power of art. We are an interdisciplinary alternative contemporary art center comprised of an exhibition space, theater, and residency program, dedicated to presenting transformative artwork, fostering unexpected collaborations, and incubating original new work.
