CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY – December 20, 2019 – South Camden Theatre Company and the Waterfront South Theatre in Camden, NJ along with our Artistic Director, Raymond Croce are proud to announce the new, 2020 Season of Celebration! We are also excited to announce that we are one of nine new organizations to be selected by PNC Bank to participate in PNC Arts Alive. This is a very prestigious grant award. Just over 30 total organizations in the Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey region were selected for bold thinking around increasing arts access and engagement.
Raymond Croce says, “South Camden Theatre Company’s 2020 Season of Celebration has heart, tackles the issue of immigration and takes on the issue of race in America. It’s a season that you can’t see anywhere else. Our four productions have four dynamic directors. Our directors were selected because of their passion for the theatre and for the skills they have shown either on our stage or as directors of shows on our stage.”
The first of our four productions is Abigail/1702 – A Twice-Told Tale, by Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa. This is a regional premiere directed by Josh Samors. The Times Herald-Record states, “Aguirre-Sacasa’s skillful expression of religion and depiction of a woman’s struggle for her soul is mesmerizing.” This show opens our season in February 2020.
Our second production, on stage in April 2020, also a regional premiere, is called Terminus by Gabriel Jason Dean and is directed by Gabrielle Affleck. “Terminus is a tale of Southern Gothic horror where fantasy and reality, past and present, freely intermingle.” states the NY Times. The playwright has sprawling imaginative power, is focused on delivery, and takes on a tremendous weight—the intractable problem of race in the United States.
Our third production from playwright Sharyn Rothstein — A Good Farmer comes to the stage in September of 2020. This is also a regional premiere. Ms. Rothstein also wrote By The Water, an audience favorite, from our 13th season. This production is being directed by Scott Grumling who also directed By The Water. Broadway World wrote of The Good Farmer, “…outstanding…brings the much-needed sense of humanity to the issue of immigration and addresses many of the moral questions we face…This is an important piece of theatre…[a] gem of a show…”.
The fourth and final production of our Season of Celebration is The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney. Flights of poetry, music, dance and West African mythology combine in a contemporary tale that explores the tenuousness of freedom and the need to belong somewhere, to something, to someone. The Chicago Tribune wrote that this is “The greatest piece of writing by an American playwright under 30 in a generation or more.”
Mr. Croce also noted,” This 2020 Season of Celebration will also include special events honoring the people who have made a theatre in Camden possible. He reminded us that in 2005, when the theatre company was formed, so many said, “No one will come.”. And, here we are celebrating our 15th season and the 10th Anniversary of The Waterfront South Theatre. It’s remarkable.“
South Camden Theatre Company is proud to call Camden home. When the company was founded in 2005, performances were first held in the basement of the Sacred Heart Church. We’re also proud to know that The Waterfront South Theatre is the first, free-standing theatre building erected in Camden in more than 100 years.
Along with the theatre company, the Waterfront South neighborhood is also a growing arts community. Our arts neighbors now include Camden FireWorks, artist studio spaces, and art gallery, The Nick Virgilio Writer’s House, Bee Still Studios, The Camden Shipyard & Maritime Museum, Camden Boat Works and the Center For Environmental Transformation along with The Heart of Camden and The Sacred Heart Church.
About PNC Arts Alive
“Through PNC Arts Alive, we continue to help invigorate local arts organizations while bringing new and exciting programs to our community,” said Joe Meterchick, PNC regional president for Philadelphia, Delaware and Southern New Jersey. “The creativity and collaboration demonstrated by the local arts community is evident in the programs that will be introduced while enabling new visitors and residents alike to experience a diverse range of exhibits and performances.”
PNC Arts Alive is a multi-year, multi-million dollar grant initiative of PNC and the PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. Now in its eleventh year, PNC Arts Alive challenges visual and performing arts organizations to put forth their best, most original thinking in expanding audience participation and engagement. A very prestigious grant, just over 30 organizations were selected in 2019–and this notably includes several first-time grantees, through a newly expanded PNC Arts Alive initiative designed to support smaller, community-based arts and cultural organizations whose programming directly benefits the neighborhoods in which they operate. Read more here: www.PNCARTSALIVE.com
About South Camden Theatre Company and The Waterfront South Theatre:
All seating is general admission and is first-come, first-seated. Doors open one hour before curtain. Each show opens with a preview performance on the Wednesday evening prior to opening night at 8:00pm. Friday and Saturday night performances are at 8:00pm and Sunday matinées are at 2:00pm.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.southcamdentheatre.org, over the phone at (866) 811-4111 or at the door. General admission tickets are $25.00. SCTC offers a Camden Resident ticketing program with tickets just $5 each. This program is sponsored in part by Holman Enterprise group.
To learn more about each show, visit the website at www.southcamdentheatre.org
Where:
The Waterfront South Theatre
Home of South Camden Theatre Company
400 Jasper Street, Michael Doyle Lane
Camden, NJ 08104
Group rates are available. Call for information.
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Contact:
Theatre Company Office: (856) 409-0365
Robert Bingaman, Communications, Mobile: (609) 471-4168
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