MLemonade Reading

   On July 21 at 7 p.m. I attended my first-ever staged reading of a play at the New Jersey Repertory Company at 179 Broadway in Long Branch. Well, to be more accurate, it was my first-ever staged reading of any play, anywhere, but that's really neither here nor there.
   The play was "Lemonade," written by Mike Folie, directed by Evan Bergman and starring Bruce Faulk, Ben Masur, Tricia Burr, Katrina Ferguson and Doris Dunigan. It was done as part of the Company's new "Script-in-Hand" series; held every Monday at 7 p.m.
   Quickly noting the fact that at 20 I was the youngest person in the audience by a good thirty years or so, I also observed that the relatively small theater was absolutely packed for the reading that evening. It became necessary to set chairs along the aisles to accommodate everyone. People scrunched together and fire codes were possibly violated that evening, all in the name of theater.

”Lemonade” players

   Despite the self-explanatory nature of the term, I was still somehow surprised when I found that a staged reading is exactly what it sounds like; the actors sit in chairs on the stage and read from the script. They act just with their voices and occasionally mime gestures or even physical combat, but rarely, if ever, stand up, except to exchange positions with one another when it becomes necessary. Stage directions were read out loud by the narrator (Dunigan), and much of the actual action was left to the imagination of the viewer. Typically this created no problem for me and only became strange when we were told that a character had exited but…there they were, still seated there.
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Lifeless
“Street Life”

Ed. Note: This article is based on only one Street Life event and is the opinion of the author, not necessarily of NJCoast. com. Readers should check out the Saturday events and draw their own conclusions.
   Red Bank's "Street Life" has no life. The River Center's sad attempt at drawing a crowd and cultivating income for Red Bank falls just short of mediocre.
   The River Center organized musicians to play on the streets, galleries to stay open late, and other shops to cooperate in this event. However, there were many flaws in their plans.
   First, wannabe posh boutiques refused the original vocal stylings of a local musician in favor of their migraine-inducing, tasteless techno music. On the other hand, however, I did hear from owners who were willing to leave out electrical equipment for the musician to use even though their shop would be closed.
   Second, the "Life" is supposed to start at 7:00pm on Friday nights. The town was dead, though, at 7-7:30pm, whether it was because it's summer and everyone is at the beach or at their beach house, or just somewhere better!
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