JCTC’s 6th Annual New Play Festival

Jersey City Theater Center Presents the
6th Annual New Play Festival: STRENGTH May 5 – May 26, 2022
The month long festival, part of New Jersey Theatre Alliance’s Stages Festival, features 10 new works from emerging playwrights

2022 New Play Festival Week One: Online Short Series
Thursday, May 5, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. E.T. Online
The New Play Festival kicks off with a series of short plays directed by Lynne Marie Rosenberg and Michelle Chan. A Q&A and discussion will follow the performance. This is an online-only event.
Sometimes I Feel Like I’m Not Even Me by Camryn Chew (Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia) Ahavah by Dana Hall and David Lipschutz (United States, Chicago, IL)
Lovers and Survivors by Aaron Leventman (United States, Santa Fe, NM)
Unwrap Your Pain by Marj O’Neill-Butler (United States, Miami, FL)

2022 New Play Festival Week Two: Woman with a Parasol Friday, May 13, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. E.T. (doors open at 7:00 p.m.) JCTC Studios, 165 Newark Ave, Jersey City (enter at Barrow St)
New Play Festival Week Two showcases a full-length play, Woman with a Parasol, written by Molly Kirschner (United States, Montvale, NJ), and directed by Hamutal Posklinksy. A Q&A and discussion will follow the performance.
Woman with a Parasol tells the story of a neighborhood cat who frequents three different households, taking the place of what is missing in each. It takes strength for a couple to bring a child into a world like ours: a polluted world with a limited lifespan. It requires strength for an abandoned young man to love, particularly to love a cat that belongs to someone else, which he can’t possibly keep. Strength is also what drives a woman’s decision to eschew a conventional life to pursue her artistic dreams, even at the cost of forsaking her child. In this tale of interconnectedness and unspeakable emotional distances, the characters struggle to find the strength necessary to fulfill their desires, and in the process, cause harm to those closest to them.

The Jersey City Theater Center (JCTC) staff have transferred the remaining programs scheduled for its 2022 New Play Festival to an online format. Due to COVID-19, productions taking place during Week 3 (Thursday, May 19, 2022) and Week 4 (Thursday, May 26, 2022) can now be accessed via Zoom at www.jctcenter.org.

2022 New Play Festival Week Three: Short Series

Thursday, May 19, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. E.T. 

Online: Click Link Here 

The New Play Festival Week Three showcases a series of short plays directed by Lynne Marie Rosenberg and Michelle Chan. A Q&A and discussion will follow the performance.

A Universal Question by Kathleen Maule Holen (United States, Hays, KS)

Two Lovers and a Bear by Tjaša Ferme (Slovenia and United States, New York, NY)

The Men from the Mechanical Age by Ioana Cosma (Romania, Pitesti, Arges)

Unconventional by Kristin Cotts (United States, Washington, D.C.)

2022 New Play Festival Week Four: Little Did I Know by Doc Andersen-Bloomfield

Thursday, May 26, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. E.T. 

Online: Click Link Here

The 2022 New Play Festival concludes with the full-length play, Little Did I Know, written by Doc Andersen-Bloomfield (United Kingdom, Oxford and United States), and directed by Jessica Silsby Brater, Ph.D. A Q&A and discussion will follow the performance.

Told from Yarl’s Wood Detention and Removal Centre (for Women Asylum Seekers) in England, Aaneseh recounts her horrendous and sometimes amusing journey as a teen refugee, pretending to be a boy, and all those she meets along her journey from Syria to England. Little Did I Know is a realistic drama about the difficult lives refugees must deal with in seeking freedom from war, terror, dictatorship. It focuses on the horrific and sometimes even humorous journey of one young girl, pretending to be a boy, in order to secure freedom and peace for her family. She finally reaches England, only to be detained in a Women’s Detention and Removal Centre for Asylum Seekers.