Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series will continue with the third reading of 4 in the series for 2023 with a reading of Backwards, Forwards, Back by Jaqueline Goldfinger. The reading will take place on Wednesday, April 19 at 7:30 pm in the Kutz Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center at 715 Grand Avenue, Hackettstown, NJ on the campus of Centenary University.

The Women Playwright Series readings are free to attend with donations welcome, advanced reservations have a $5.00 fee. For those who are unable to attend in-person, the Women Playwrights Series readings will also be live streamed, free of charge, through the Centenary Stage Company website. For more information, go to www.centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company’s box office at (908) 979-0900.

Jacqueline Goldfinger (she/they) is a playwright, dramaturg, and librettist who grew up in rural North Florida with a love of music and storytelling. Today, they are an artist who seeks out unique collaborations, working across disciplines to create singular works of theater and opera. Backwards Forwards Back is their third NNPN Rolling World Premiere (Arsonists, 2017-2018; Babel, 2020-2022, winner of NNPN’s Smith Prize). They are currently developing a new play, The Grand Lady, about America’s first female Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor as part of a commission with NNPN Core Member Florida Studio Theatre. Learn more about their work with NNPN and other organizations at: jacquelinegoldfinger.com

When a soldier returns from war carrying the ghosts of the tour, she is faced with a sobering decision: address the alarming PTSD with virtual reality therapy, or risk losing access to her family forever. Can this new technology recalibrate the and bodies of wounded soldiers? This electric, vivid, one-person show explores the power of healing and finding strength in vulnerability. 

The reading will feature Bess Miller as the leading role and is directed by WPS Series Director, Mikaela Kafka.

Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series has featured the work of more than 80 emerging playwrights. The program has also taken 19 plays to full production from the series. Led by the new program director Mikaela Kafka, the Women Playwrights Series offers playwrights the opportunity to work with professional actors and directors in a workshop rehearsal process, and to hear their work in front of a live audience – a critical part of the development process. Lively talkbacks with the playwright and cast follow each presentation, and one play is selected each year as the winner of the Susan Glaspell Award and receives a full production in the following main-stage season with CSC.