Look Again on NJN’s State of the Arts
Thursday, October 8 at 8:00 pm on NJN
Friday, October 9 through Thursday, October 15 at 5:00 pm and 11:00 pm on NJN2

STATEWIDE – Look Again is the premiere episode of the 28th season of State of the Arts.  Emily Mann reflects back on 20 eventful years as artistic director at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton and a new exhibit at The Montclair Art Museum explores the impact of Cezanne on American Modernism.

Emily Mann at the McCarter
The 2009-2010 season marks Emily Mann’s 20th anniversary as the artistic director of the McCarter Theatre Center.  During that time, Emily Mann – already a well known playwright – has turned the McCarter into an internationally recognized center for creative work in the theater. In 1994, the McCarter received the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre – just after Mann was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. With the support of the McCarter’s board and its growing audiences, Mann continued to guide the theater during her recovery, overseeing a growing number of world premieres and the construction of a second stage, the Berlind, in 2003. One of the defining characteristics of Mann’s tenure has been the playwrights who have chosen the McCarter to develop and premiere their new work, including Edward Albee, Christopher Durang, Athol Fugard, Beth Henley, and Nilo Cruz. The McCarter is also known for innovative stagings of classics including works by Moliere, Chekhov, Shakespeare, and Shaw.

Emily Mann has continued to both write and direct while at the McCarter, including her plays “Greensboro: A Requiem” (1996) and “Meshugah” (1998). The 1995 season featured “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years,” written and directed by Mann.   The play went on to Broadway, a national tour, and to a CBS television production.  Now, “Having Our Say” has opened McCarter’s new season (September 11-October 18, 2009).  It’s the first time a play has been revived during Mann’s leadership.  As Emily Mann puts it, “One of the things I wanted the 20th anniversary season to do was look at where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. And so I thought we should pick one of our shows that people loved and that we felt was a great artistic success and that mattered. And “Having Our Say” without a doubt is one of the peak experiences of the past 20 years as a production.”

State of the Arts has featured Emily Mann and the productions mounted by the McCarter Theatre over the past 20 years and clips from many of these productions are featured in the story, dating back to “The Glass Menagerie,” the opening play of Mann’s first season.  Emily Mann talks to State of the Arts producer Susan Wallner about the challenges and rewards of balancing her creative energies, and about the importance of theater to her life. Wallner also speaks with Mann’s friends and colleagues, including playwrights Edward Albee and Christopher Durang, scholar Cornel West, and McCarter producing director Mara Isaacs.

Cézanne at the Montclair Art Museum
Offering fresh insights into Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) and his influence on modern art in America, the Montclair Art Museum has mounted the biggest exhibition in its nearly 100-year history, “Cézanne & American Modernism”(September 13, 2009 to January 3, 2010).

The show features 18 works by Cézanne and more than 110 works by American artists who saw Cézanne as the bridge between 19th Century Impressionism and 20th Century Modernism – or, as Picasso called him, “the father of us all.”  The Americans include a diverse group from across America, including Max Weber, Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Morgan Russell, Man Ray and Arshile Gorky, all of whom were influenced by Cézanne's themes, process, and style.

State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa talks with Montclair Art Museum director Lora Urbanelli and chief curator Gail Stavitsky about the exhibition, which was ten years in the making and is co-organized with the Baltimore Museum of Art.  Leading Cézanne scholar Mary Lewis and museum board member Adrian Shelby are also interviewed.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
State of the Arts, the 29 time Emmy award-winning, half-hour arts magazine, airs Thursdays at 8:00 pm on NJN1, followed by encore presentations Fridays through Thursdays at 5:00 pm and 11:00 pm on NJN2.  All new State of the Arts programs are broadcast in high definition (HDTV) on NJN’s digital channel.

The current episode of State of the Arts can be viewed online at www.njn.net.  Photo images for this episode are also available. Individual stories are available to view following their broadcast by visiting the program online at State of the Arts. Selected State of the Arts stories can also be seen on YouTube (look for NJN’s Arts & Culture Channel). 

Funding for State of the Arts is provided by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.  The series producer is Susan Wallner and the executive producer is Nila Aronow.