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Hauntings is a special seasonal episode of State of the Arts featuring the art of the grotesque, the macabre, and the simply spooky. An orchestra plays live scary music as a score to the 1931 classic film Frankenstein, the craft of the theatrical mask maker, a tour of New Jersey’s cemeteries and tombstones, and the Jersey Devil makes an appearance in a ballet.
| eternal souls: new jersey’s cemeteries and tombstones |
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 eternal souls story
Anyone who has ever wandered through a cemetery knows that tombstones can tell you more than just when people lived and died. In a new book, anthropologists and historians Richard Veit and Mark Nonestied give a sweeping tour of New Jersey’s burial sites from the seventeenth century through today. From early Native American memorials, through the colonial and Victorian eras, to the truly unusual, the authors use grave markers to give a fascinating account of New Jersey’s history. New Jersey Cemeteries and Tombstones: History in the Landscape will be published by Rutgers University Press in February 2008.
State of the Arts producer Susan Wallner takes a tour of colonial-era cemetery at the First Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth with the authors, visiting headstones with images of skulls, hourglasses, and crossed bones illustrating the brevity of life. Some of these historical sandstone markers are now being restored. Veit and Nonestied also visit the Victorian-era Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Newark. The landscaped grounds are decorated with obelisks, pillars, and ornate statuary revealing the elaborate funerary culture of the time.
Richard J. Veit is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and Anthropology at Monmouth University, and the author of Digging New Jersey’s Past: Historical Archaeology in the Garden State. Mark Nonestied has been a staff member of the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission since 1991. He currently serves as the Director of Exhibits and Programs at an historic site in Piscataway.
- where to see
• First Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth
42 Broad Street,
Elizabeth, NJ
(908) 353-1518
• Mt. Pleasant Cemetery
375 Broadway,
Newark, NJ
(973) 483-0288
- also visit
Rutgers University Press
rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
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New Jersey Cemeteries and Tombstones (Rutgers University Press, 2008)
Colonial tombstone
Mark Nonestied and Richard Veit, authors
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| frankenstein |
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frankenstein story
The classic 1931 horror/monster film Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff, did not have a musical score (unlike the later Karloff sequels, which did). Westfield Symphony conductor David Wroe saw an opportunity – Wroe arranged famous scary music for orchestra and performed it live during a screening of the original film. The evening includes music by Saint-Saëns, Liszt, Prokofiev and Strauss. State of the Arts producer Eric Schultz goes to the theater for a perfectly scary Halloween evening.
- where to see
Westfield Symphony Orchestra
The Perfect Storms
November 17, 2007
The Presbyterian Church,
Westfield, NJ
(908) 232-9400
www.westfieldsymphony.org
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Frankenstein
Conductor David Wroe
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| blood and roses |
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blood and roses story
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey is presenting Blood & Roses: The Henry VI plays by William Shakespeare, three plays about England's War of the Roses condensed into one highly-charged and thrilling evening of political theatre. State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa goes behind the scenes of this epic production to get a first-hand look at how the horrors of war are brought to the stage through innovative (and gruesome) set design.
Viewers are treated to the process of casting the heads that will be the stand-ins for severed heads placed on pikes after battle. Interviews include the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s artistic director, Bonnie J. Monte, Artistic Director and the director, Brian B. Crowe.
- where to see
Blood & Roses: The Henry VI plays by William Shakespeare
October 9 – November 11, 2007
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
36 Madison Avenue at Lancaster Road,
Drew University,
Madison, NJ
(973) 408-5600
www.shakespearenj.org
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Blood and Roses, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
Young King Henry
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| the beast |
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State of the Arts producer Eric Schultz goes behind the scenes at the American Repertory Ballet’s (ARB) production of the classic fairy tale, “Beauty and the Beast.” Choreographer and ARB Artistic Director Graham Lustig created this major work for children and families, “Beauty and the Beast: A Gothic Romance.” Based on Madam Le Prince De Beaumont’s story, Lustig has set the ballet in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey in the 1820s with the Jersey Devil as the beast. The ballet is set to the string music of Rossini, written in the 1820s when Rossini was 12 years old. Lustig says that “Beauty and the Beast” is the classic fable exploring the contrast between inner and outer beauty.
 watch the pas de deux from beauty and the beast
- where to see
Beauty and the Beast: A Gothic Romance
December 12, 2007
South Orange Performing Arts Center
One SOPAC Way,
South Orange, NJ
(973) 313-ARTS (2787)
www.sopacnow.org
- also visit
American Repertory Ballet
www.arballet.org
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American Repertory Ballet’s
Beauty and the Beast
American Repertory Ballet’s
Beauty and the Beast
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