Hudson Reporter Archive

Theater group announces spring schedule

Hudson Theater Works has announced its upcoming spring production, the New Jersey premiere of Keith Huff’s “A Steady Rain,” and its slate for Playworks, the annual play reading series.
In “A Steady Rain,” directed by Frank Licato, Joey and Denny have been best friends since kindergarten. After working together for several years as policemen in Chicago, they are practically family.
But when a domestic disturbance call takes a turn for the worse, their friendship is put on the line. The result is a difficult journey into a moral gray area where trust and loyalty struggle for survival against a sobering backdrop of criminal lowlifes. A dark duologue filled with sharp storytelling and biting repartee, “A Steady Rain” explores the complexities of a lifelong bond tainted by domestic affairs, violence, and the rough streets of Chicago.
Keith Huff’s plays have been produced Off-Broadway, internationally, and nationally. Recent productions include the sold-out Broadway run of “A Steady Rain” featuring Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, the critically acclaimed smash hit “The Bird and Mr. Banks” at the Road Theater in LA.
Keith is currently adapting “A Steady Rain” for film, developing a Chicago-based series “The Brothers Buczakowski” for HBO, and has been a co-producer for AMC’s Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning series “Mad Men.”
Frank Licato is artistic director of Hudson Theatre Works. He is a member of the Actors Studio Playwright and Director Unit and Director’s Unit.
“A Steady Rain” will be performed May 6 through May 22 at the Historic Weehawken Water Tower, 4078 Park Ave., Weehawken, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $20 general admission, and can be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets, 1-800-838-3006, or by visiting www.brownpapertickets.org. For students with student ID and seniors 65 and older, tickets are $15 at all times.
For transportation information please go to http://www.weehawken-nj.us/transportation.html.

PlayWorks series

On sequential Mondays, May 9 and 16, Hudson Theater Works continues their PlayWorks series of new play readings with two playwrights from Hudson County.
On May 9, “The Jar Behind the Jakes” will be presented. In this survival story written by Mark McCarthy, the McGranahan family is struggling through the great hunger of 19th century Ireland. Young Mikeen has a decision to make: Should he stay by his family and help them survive, or emigrate and hope to get work and send back money for the rest of them before it’s too late? Humor, poetry, and quotes from the historical record of the British parliament intersperse this story of how the Irish wound up in America.
Mark McCarthy is an actor, director, stage combat choreographer, dialect coach, all around theatre educator, and published playwright with nationwide experience. “The Jar Behind the Jakes” is his first full-length play.
On May 16, Playworks continues with “Starring Eliza-beth, the Musical,” book and lyrics written by “Jackson Is Gone” author Joanne Hoersch and with music by Donald Stark.
In 2010, at the height of the recession, Carthage Financial, a prestigious Wall Street accounting firm, begins a series of layoffs and cutbacks, all supposedly done for the greater cause of saving the firm from financial ruin. But when a standard issue desk chair turns out to be a cardboard box, and the most recent hire is a blow-up doll named Charlotte, Elizabeth Bailen, the manager of the IT department, begins to wonder what hidden motives are actually driving this “new reality.” As the situation deteriorates, as loyalties break down and belief systems crumble, she realizes that cosmic forces and new life forms are emerging from the ruins.
Joanne Hoersch is a recipient of a 2012 grant from the NJ State Council on the Arts for her play, “Jackson is Gone.” Prior to becoming a playwright, she was a fiction writer. She received a Woolrich fellowship for fiction from Columbia University, was a semi-finalist in the Heekin Foundation’s national short story contest, and was a 1998 grantee from the NJ State Council on the Arts for her short story, “Josie Going Places.” She is currently working on a new play about the Romantic poet Percy Shelley.
Donald Stark is resident composer and sound designer for Hudson Theatre Works. He designs sound for theater and composes music for stage, film, and other media.
Playworks readings are presented Monday evenings May 9 and 16 at 7:30 pm. A $10 donation is suggested.

The theater

Hudson Theatre Works is a new member of the New Jersey Theater Alliance and nominated for the 2015 New Jersey Stage Award as one of the “Best Places to See a World Premiere”. Hudson Theatre Works is a not for profit, equity theatre committed to ensemble col-laboration as well as artistic risk through its work with its permanent company, guest artists, partner institutions and the surrounding community. It is dedicated to a rugged aesthetic and seeks to tell stories, both new and old, classic and contemporary, which reflect our lives, relationships and the world today.
Past productions have included “Of Mice and Men,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the world premiere play “3 Men” which won Best Non Fiction piece at this years’ Solo Fest, the New Jersey Premiere of Neil Labute’s “Bash” and last year’s world premiere of “Jackson Is Gone” by New Jersey State Council on the Arts winner Joanne Hoersch.
The company operates out of two venues, the theater at Weehawken High School and the intimate Weehawken Water Tower. For more, visit http://www.hudsontheatreworks.org.

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