Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series will kick off with a reading of Abducted by Michele Aldin Kushner. The reading will take place on Wednesday, April 5 at 7:30 pm in the Sitnik 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 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 centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company’s box office at (908) 979-0900.

Michele Aldin Kushner’s recent play Radio Galaxy, has been optioned and is in development with commercial producers. Abducted was read at The Barrow Group, and the WorkShop Theater Company, NYC. Her play, The Text Of Sex premiered in FringeNYC and was a semi-finalist for Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwright Series. Another of her works, The Baby Game is the recipient of the Fulton Theatre’s 2012 Discovery Project New Play Contest and Advanced Women is the 2009 recipient of the Todd McNerney Playwriting Award; it took part in the 2010 Piccolo Spoleto Festival and The Great Plains Theatre Conference Playlabs 2010. Other plays have been at FringeNYC and around the country.

Abducted by Michele Aldin Kushner gives audiences the story of a successful businesswoman and mother of two grown children, Diane. Diane is getting her things in order. As she prepares for ‘departure’ from her present life, her daughter fights to get her psychiatric help. Her boyfriend wants to reclaim the woman with he fell in love – and her son wants to go with her. Is this departure being forced upon her or does she wish to live life on her own terms? Abducted by Michele Aldin Kushner will be presented on Wednesday, April 5 at 7:30 pm

The reading will feature the acting talents of Rosie McCooe, Clark Scott Carmichael, Ashley Kowzen, Christopher Rice, and Michael Jay. The reading is directed by Lauren Moran Mills.

Centenary Stage Company will also offer a live streaming option accompanying the in-person performances. Live stream access is free to participate with donations appreciated. WPS live streams will be made available for viewing at www.centenarystageco.org

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.

The Women Playwrights Series is part of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance 2023 Stages Festival, made possible by support from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey; OceanFirst Foundation; Fund for the New Jersey Blind; New Jersey Manufacturers; and Customers Bank. www.njtheatrealliance.org/stages

For more information, or to reserve tickets, visit centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979-0900. The Centenary Stage Company box office is open Monday through Friday from 1:00-5:00 pm and two hours prior to performances. The box office is located in the Lackland Performing Arts Center on the campus of Centenary University at 715 Grand Ave. Hackettstown, NJ. Centenary Stage Company can also be found across social media platforms; Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. Like and follow to receive the latest in CSC news and special offers.

The 2022-23 Season of Performing Arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Sandra Kupperman Foundation, the John and Margaret Post Foundation, the CSC corporate sponsors, including Platinum Season Sponsor the House of the Good Shepherd, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Medical Center Atlantic Health System, Heath Village, Visions Federal Credit Union, and Fulton Bank, and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.