Mile Square Theatre stages award-winning play, ‘The Pavilion’
HOBOKEN – When Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken mounts the Pulitzer-nominated play “The Pavilion” in April, audience members will be in on a little theatrical history. When the play had its world debut in 2000, Chris O’Connor, the theatre company’s founder and artistic director, originated the lead role. But it is not sentimentality that brings it to the local stage, but the play’s universal acclaim as “an ‘Our Town’ for our time,” and one of the most popular modern plays coast to coast. “The Pavilion” runs Thursday through Sunday, starting April 12 through April 29 at Monroe Theatrespace, 720 Monroe St., in Hoboken. Tickets are available online (www.milesquaretheatre.org) or before each performance; adults, $30; students and seniors, $18. The April 19 performance is a “Pay What You Will” admission. Evening performances are Thursday – Saturday at 8; matinees on Saturday and Sunday are at 3.
“The Pavilion” by Craig Wright has a simple premise: a man attends his 20-year high school reunion yearning to win back his teenage love. The two act drama is cleverly presented with just three actors: the long ago lovers, Peter and Kari, and a narrator who populates the stage with an assortment of friends and classmates whose appearances explore the event that drove the couple apart and enrich the story with humor and perspective on the universal passage of time. The production takes its name from the reunion’s setting – an events venue that is slated for demolition.
Former Hoboken Parking Utility Director sentenced to seven years in state prison
HOBOKEN — John P. Corea, the former director of the Hoboken Parking Utility, was sentenced to seven years in state prison Monday for his role in the $600,000 theft by a Toms River contractor whose company was hired by the City of Hoboken to collect coins from city parking meters. The sentence includes three years of parole ineligibility. The contractor had previously pleaded guilty, according to a release from the State Attorney General’s Office.
Corea, 48, Hoboken, was ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution to the City of Hoboken, and will be permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey. Corea had pleaded guilty on Dec. 16, 2011 to a second-degree charge of official misconduct, the release said.
“Government officials have a duty to act with complete honesty, integrity and care in dealing with public funds, but Corea corruptly betrayed that duty and the public’s trust, permitting a crooked contractor to literally make off with bags of cash belonging to the City of Hoboken,” said Attorney General Chiesa. “This lengthy prison sentence reflects a policy of zero tolerance when it comes to public officials who abuse their positions and break the law in New Jersey.”