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  • A Bronx Tale: The One Man Show starring Chazz Palminteri

    Bronx-born and raised Chazz Palminteri wrote A Bronx Tale in 1988. The powerful one-man stage play depicted his bruising childhood which included witnessing a gangland killing when he was nine years old.

    Palminteri played 18 characters and brought them all to life in his autobiographical play. His friends, enemies and family came alive on stage. Hollywood Studios went crazy after seeing it and offered him millions of dollars to turn it into a major movie. There was one catch. They wanted to put a star in the role of Sonny and someone else to write the screenplay. With $200 dollars in the bank…Palminteri said No… he would hold out and wait. He wanted to play Sonny and write the screenplay. Then one night Palminteri walked into his dressing room and sitting there was Robert De Niro who just saw the show.  Robert DeNiro gave Palminteri the chance he was waiting for; and as they say in Hollywood the rest is history.

    Palminteri wrote the screenplay for the film A Bronx Tale and then most recently wrote the book for the Broadway Musical. It was the first time in history that the same actor wrote the one-man play, the movie, and the Broadway Musical and starred in each one.

    In the past 35 years, Chazz has appeared in over 60 films.  To name a few – The Usual Suspects, Analyze This, Mulholland Falls, Jade, Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Legend, and Bullets over Broadway, which he was nominated for an Academy Award.  He has starred in over 20 television series and has won 3 Emmy’s. Chazz is most recently seen in Modern Family, Godfather of Harlem, Law & Order and Gravesend.

  • CANCELLED – Gemini

    The play is set in the backyard of two adjoining houses in the working class neighborhood of South Philadelphia. They are about to celebrate the 21st birthday of Francis Geminiani, a Harvard student, when two classmate friends from Harvard and Yale, Judith and Randy, show up unexpectedly. Since there isn’t a spare bedroom in either house they pitch a tent in the backyard. Francis’ classmates, the wealthy Judith seeks romance with Francis not realizing that her brother Randy is the object of Francis’ unexpressed affection. Each of the characters in the play are dysfunctional to some degree and their celebration of Francis’ birthday brings out the best of comedy and drama. The birthday party is a series of comic incidents that provide laughter and serious realizations that lead up to the final joyous ending. The crazy fast moving celebration leaves each character a bit wiser and happier having celebrated Francis’ 21st birthday. 

  • Sylvia

    Feb. 28 – March 4 & March 6-8, 2018
    All shows 8 PM except Sun. matinees at 3 PM. 

    Sylvia is one of A.R.Gurney’s funniest plays. Greg and Kate move back to New York city after raising two children and wanting the active life of Manhattan. Greg finds an adorable mutt while on a walk and decides to bring the pooch home. Sylvia immediately becomes an issue for Greg and Kate and begins to test their marriage in both funny and touching ways. Gurney is an expert at examining middle class life as we watch Sylvia bring Greg and Kate back on track in their new but lonely city life.

  • HAIR – 50th Anniversary!

    November 10-12 &
    15-19
    All
    shows 8 PM except Sun. matinees at 3 PM   

    HAIR celebrates the sixties counterculture in all its barefoot, long-haired, bell-bottomed, beaded and fringed glory. To an infectiously energetic rock beat, the show wows audiences with songs like “Aquarius,” “Good Morning, Starshine,” “Hair,” “I Got Life,” and “Let The Sun Shine.” Exploring ideas of identity, community, global responsibility and peace, HAIR remains relevant as ever as it examines what it means to be a young person in a changing world. Directed by Sheri Anderson.

  • Improvedy – Spontaneous Comedy!

    Join us for a fun improve show on Friday nights in November! A cast of five will use: your suggestions, props, “Cards Against Humanity”, music, something you throw at them and miss, and actually YOU on stage! Their quick-wits and dangerous minds to keep you entertained for AT LEAST AN HOUR!

  • Mike Richison’s Election Collection: 2004-2024

    Mike Richison’s Election Collection: 2004-2020 showcases 20 years of design and video art inspired by the presidential election cycle. Richison began working with this topic in 2004 when he created a short video loop of George W. Bush drinking water during the debates. This evolved into performances and interactive video projects that break down language into musical and abstract elements.

    The culmination of these explorations is Electo Electro 2024, an interactive installation that enables participants to produce techno-inspired beats using video clips of presidential candidates. This project combines iMacs, iPads, custom software, and the housing from decommissioned Diebold AccuVote TS voting booths. Users can remix videos from political rallies and debates in a structured sixteen beat loop. An iPad-based touchscreen design parodies the system employed by the AccuVote, a voting system that was difficult to audit and susceptible to hacking.

    As a parody, the format of Richison’s installation resembles a polling station, while the branding and graphic elements of the project hearken back to vintage electronic devices. The AccuVote debuted in the early 2000s as the poster child of the Help America Vote Act. After its widespread adoption, a group of researchers discovered a long list of vulnerabilities that can lead to stolen votes, lost votes, or a failure of the computer itself. The project deals with expectation, failure, and vulnerability

    On the opening day and throughout the run of the exhibit, Richison will perform and demonstrate this project. His goal is to “encourage users to examine media and become individuals who can control media, rather than be controlled by it.”

    This event is being held in conjuction with ArtNOW’s Mike Richison, Electo Electro 2024 on October 4 at 10:15 AM. 

    About the artist, Mike Richison: Mike Richison is a multimedia artist and an Associate Professor at Monmouth University, where he teaches motion graphics. He employs a variety of approaches to artmaking, including sculpture, graphic design, and interactive video. His work utilizes found objects, such as turntables, voting booths, and scavenged video clips as well as the Max MSP Jitter programming environment. Richison has exhibited at Autonomous Cultural Centre Medika (Zagreb, Croatia); Figment NYC and Art in Odd Places (New York); and Peters Valley School of Craft and Morris Museum (New Jersey). His projects have received attention in outlets such as Leonardo, VICE, FACT Magazine, Hyperallergic, WABC-TV Channel 7 News New York, and The Washington Post. Before moving to New Jersey in 2007, he lived in the Detroit, MI, area for several years.

  • John Vercher

    John’s debut novel, Three-Fifths, was named one of the best books of 2019 by the Chicago Tribune. In the U.K., Three-Fifths was named a Book of the Year by The Sunday Times, The Financial Times, and The Guardian. His second novel, After the Lights Go Out, was published by Soho Press. It’s been called “simply brilliant” by Publishers Weekly in a starred review, “shrewd and explosive” by The New York Times, and was named an Editors’ Choice in Adult Fiction for 2022 by Booklist. His third novel, Devil Is Fine has received starred reviews from Booklist and BookPage, was named a Best New Book of the Summer by TIME Magazine and The Root, an Indie Next pick for July, and one of the Top Ten Books to Add to Your Reading List in June by the Los Angeles Times. Additionally, Devil is Fine was a June book pick by The Center for Fiction, one of the 12 Must-Read Books of June by The Chicago Review of Books, a Book of the Day for July by NPR, and was featured on NPR’s It’s Been A Minute.

  • Brute Force

    Born in 1940, Monmouth University alumnus Stephen Friedland performs under the name Brute Force. A lifelong singer-songwriter, Friedland began his musical journey a songwriter for Bright Tunes Productions at the behest of doo-wop group The Tokens, who had scored a hit with “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Friedland joined the band as their keyboard player. For Bright Tunes, Friedland composed the Chiffons’ 1965 hit “Nobody Knows What’s Goin’ On (in My Mind But Me).” He also composed hit songs for Del Shannon, Peggy March,  and The Cyrkle. 
     
    In 1968, The Beatles famously invited musicians around the world to submit their work for consideration for release by Apple Records. Friedland answered the call with his original composition “The King of Fuh,” which has emerged as one of the most notorious songs in annals of Apple Records history. Against all odds, John Lennon and George Harrison opted to release the song, which tells the tongue-in-cheek story about a monarch toiling in the land of Fuh. Under Harrison’s supervision, the song was overdubbed with a string arrangement composed by John Barham. Given the song’s irreverent nature, EMI (Apple’s parent company) refused to distribute the single, of which only 1,000 copies were pressed. In 2010, more than four decades after its original rejection by EMI, “The King of Fuh” was released by Apple Records on the Come and Get It compilation. Friedland is currently developing a play entitled Color Talk for production.
     

  • Hurricanes of Color

    Michael Frankel, the author of Hurricanes of Color and Monmouth University alumnus will be giving an artist’s talk and book-signing hosted by Prof. Ken Womack and Prof. Joe Rapolla.

    Hurricanes of Color 
    In 1964, fifteen-year-old Mike Frankel found himself among professional photojournalists covering a Beatles concert during the band’s first tour in the United States. A few years later, he was a regular photographer at the Fillmore East, a storied venue in classic rock. And in 1969, he was onstage at Woodstock, documenting one of the most important events in American music history.

    Featuring Frankel’s stunning photographs of nearly every major rock figure from the 1960s and ’70s―including Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, and the Grateful Dead―as well as many unpublished images of the Beatles, Hurricanes ofColor chronicles an extraordinary moment. Frankel, who was for a time a personal photographer for Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, developed an innovative style―one that layered images with multiple exposures to capture the spirit of the music of the era and the experience of listening to the bands live.

    A must-have for fans of classic rock, this is a spectacular and profound collection of photography that complements the music of the world’s biggest performers.

  • The Importance of being Earnest

    by Oscar Wilde
    directed by Max Webster

    Three-time Olivier Award-winner Sharon D Clarke is joined by Ncuti Gatwa (Doctor Who; Sex Education) in this joyful reimagining of Oscar Wilde’s most celebrated comedy.
 While assuming the role of a dutiful guardian in the country, Jack lets loose in town under a false identity. Meanwhile, his friend Algy adopts a similar facade. Hoping to impress two eligible ladies, the gentlemen find themselves caught in a web of lies they must carefully navigate.

    Max Webster (Life of Pi) directs this hilarious story of identity, impersonation and romance, filmed live from the National Theatre in London.