The Poetry of Coming Home

With all the snowstorms, it is hard to believe that Spring is just around the corner and so is my return to New Brunswick, NJ, where I will be working at the State Theatre. I will be Poet-in-Residence for the month of March. Since this is my third return visit, I now think of NJ as my home away from home. Last year I enjoyed working in the schools, senior citizen homes, vocational centers, corporations, and several halfway homes. The great joy last year was culminating with a community reading at the theater with the participants that took my workshop. They were people from all walks of life. The joy in the room that night made me an even more fervent believer that poetry is a great equalizer.

This year, as every year, I am taking my lead from what is weighing on my heart: Place. I will be facilitating workshop participants to reflect and discover their own Sense of Place. It is my belief there are two types of landscapes: the external and the internal, when we reflect and go deep we make connections and find the nexus between the two and what generally surfaces is poetry. I look forward to returning to my 2nd home and having great conversations and classes that will lead to powerful expressions.

Yours-n-Verse,
Glenis Redmond

Performance Poet Glenis Redmond returns to State Theatre

We at the State Theatre are happy to announce the return of performance poet Glenis Redmond as this year’s Artist-in Residence. The North Carolina poet (who is back by popular demand after last year's residency) will appear in a variety of settings during her three-week residency, May 11-28. During her stay, she will be the State Theatre’s artistic ambassador, offering free poetry performances and writing workshops throughout New Jersey. Her busy schedule takes her to 13 different host sites—encompassing public schools, social service organizations, corporate headquarters, residential treatment centers, transitional housing facilities, and senior communities from Princeton to Newark, Whitehouse Station to Trenton. The three-week residency will culminate in a free public performance at Crossroads Theatre on Friday, May 28 at 7pm. All residency activities are offered to the public free of charge. To reserve tickets for the May 28 public performance at Crossroads Theatre call 732-246-7469, ext. 545. (Look below for a video featuring Glenis.)

For more information on the residency program or on Glenis Redmond’s visit : http://www.statetheatrenj.org/education/artistresidencies.asp.

And a big thank you to The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey and The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation for their support of this wonderful program.

State Theatre presents school performances of Harold and the Purple Crayon and more for 2009-2010

Now that the 2008-2009 education season has wrapped up, we are well on our way to putting out information about next season’s shows. We’ve got some orders in already and school’s not even out! The 2009-2010 education season is looking to be a great one, seeing some familiar titles like The Grapes of Wrath, Harold and the Purple Crayon, The Nutcracker, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We’ve also got some shows that you may not have heard of, including MacHomer, a one-man version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth told in the voices of characters from The Simpsons. Also, The Man Who Planted Trees a show based on a children’s book about a man who makes it his life’s work to plant trees all over the south of France. Although it’s still very early and we have just put these shows and several others on sale, we already seem to have some favorites including The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other Eric Carle Favorites for the preK-3rd grade crowd. This is a return event for us and already we have some big orders for the 3 performances. For older students, it looks like the returning of performance poets and New Jersey’s own the Mayhem Poets will be a favorite. They will be here to help us celebrate National Poetry Month in April. You can find more information about the entire education season at http://www.statetheatrenj.org/education/performancesschools.asp.

–Jenn Cunha, Education

The State Theatre is located at 15 Livingston Avenue in New Brunswick, NJ. For information or to purchase tickets call 732-246-SHOW(7469) or visit http://www.statetheatrenj.org/. Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace.