The Strand

Playwrights on the Rise

This project in its 7th year features local Playwrights presenting their original works.  Readings are staged in the intimate setting of the theater’s gallery.  After the reading, the floor is open for discussion about the characters and plots. This discussion plays a vital role in the development of the play and helps the playwright understand if the audience fully captures the author’s intentions. Readings are conducted monthly during the academic year. Over 30 original plays have been read since the inception of the project.  “Quiet Desperation” by M. Lennon Perricone, the first play read by Playwrights on the Rise, has been purchased by a theater company in the mid-west and is currently being staged.

Some of our past reading have been:

LOVE UP IN FLAMES by NYU Tisch School of the Arts graduate Sherise Pruitt (Neptune resident)
A cultural examination and perspective on love (and lack there-of) in the black culture and today's generation.

DUST IN THE INFIELD  by John Hillyard (Spring Lake Heights resident)
Baseball, our national pastime, is the background
for this one act play about winning and losing on
and off the field.

THE DEVIL'$ LA$T DANCE by  Joe Anodide
THE DEVIL'$ LA$T DANCE by Brick Memorial High School senior Joe Anodide is a play that will be MC'd and rapped by the playwright.  It tells a story based on true events involving a money controlling stepfather, a drug addict girlfriend, and a few close friends
 

MO' TELL by Rich Quatrone
 What happens when a hungry poet works the desk at a crazy motel at the Jersey Shore?  He witnesses people doing strange, often unmentionable, and on rare occasion, holy things.  Some have been told. But there is so much more to tell.  Come see a first staged reading of this comedy/farce that will never let you see a motel the same way again.

An Evening With Pa by Tyrone Laws
Meet Pa, a ninety-seven year old man, who shares memories of the past,
reasons for the present, and keys to the future.  Pa is ready, willing, and able to make you say...Whhhhaaaattt?

LIFE IS NOT A DRESS REHEARSAL by Betsy Ryan

This play increases awareness about Special Education students.
It takes on the issue of discrimination against the handicapped
with the aim of ending such discrimination.  The play premiered
in Spring Lake in 1989.

Oband the Boy Wonder or (Curse of the Werewolf)
                by Mark Antonio Henderson
Oband the Boy Wonder or (Curse of the Werewolf) by Mark Antonio Henderson is a darkly comic, two character piece that exposes the underbelly of show business.  This new play is in the tradition of Sam Shepard's True West and Suzan-LoriPark's Topdog Underdog.