Cold got you down? Time to “thaw out!”

Tickets are now available for Centenary Stage Company’s January Thaw Music Festival.

This year, the festival features concert performances by Dominick Farinacci Quartet on Jan. 14, Damn Tall Buildings on Jan. 21, and Chuchito Valdés on Jan. 28, with all performances at 8 p.m. in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center on the campus of Centenary University at 715 Grand Avenue, Hackettstown.

Ticket prices range from $15 to $25. For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979-0900.

Kicking off the festival will be Dominick Farinacci and his quartet. They have performed in more than 120 cities in 14 countries around the world and was named the very first Global Ambassador to Jazz at Lincoln Center. His most recent recording “Short Stories” is produced by four-time Grammy Award winning producer, Tommy Lipuma.

Damn Tall Buildings takes to the stage on Jan. 21 at 8 p.m. Former buskers, the Brooklyn-based group still radiates the energy of a ragtag crew of music students. Bluegrass at heart but pulling from a wide range of influences from swing to ragtime, jazz to contemporary, their lyrics tell the story of the mundane while keeping to their message of “Carry on.”

Chuchito Valdés returns to Centenary Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. With influences of Caribbean rhythms and jazz, he creates an exciting and energetic blend of spicy music that drives audiences wild. He is recognized as a master of Cuban music and has also studied classical music extensively. This piano master captivates and drives excitement with his dynamic band.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979-0900. The box office is open Monday through Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. and two hours prior to performances. The box office is located in the Lackland Performing Arts Center.y

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.

Do You Want To Be A Ladykiller?

Centenary State Company will hold an Equity Principal Audition call for its upcoming production of “The Ladykillers” by Graham Linehan on Tuesday, Jan. 10 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

To schedule an appointment, call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979-0900. Walk-ins will be seen as time permits.

Auditions will be in the Lackland Performing Arts Center of the Centenary University campus at 715 Grand Avenue, Hackettstown. Actors unable to attend in-person may send digital submissions. Please send resumes, headshots, and monologue to CentenaryStageCasting@gmail.com with the subject line “Attn: Casting”. Performers may prepare a monologue appropriate to the material or read from sides which can be found online at centenarystageco.org and will also be provided the day of auditions.

The first rehearsal will be Jan. 30, 2023. Performances will run Feb. 17 through March 5. All performers must show proof of vaccination. For more information, go to centenarystageco.org or call the box office.

“The Ladykillers” is a classic, dark comedy. A sweet little old lady, alone in her house, is pitted against a gang of criminal misfits who will stop at nothing. Posing as amateur musicians, Professor Marcus and his gang rent rooms in the lopsided house of sweet but strict Mrs. Wilberforce. The villains plot to involve her, unwittingly, in Marcus’ brilliantly conceived heist. The police are left stumped, but Mrs. Wilberforce becomes wise to their ruse and Marcus concludes there is only one way to keep the old lady quiet. With only her parrot, General Gordon, to help her, Mrs. Wilberforce is alone with five desperate men. But who will be forced to face the music?

Seeking:

CONSTABLE MACDONALD (25-50): > Policeman, constable, frustrated, friendly. English cockney accent.

MRS. WILBERFORCE (70’s): English Londoner, widow, eccentric, bumbling, caring, lonely. (CAST)

PROFFESOR MARCUS: Leader criminal gang, cunning, maniacal, charming, intelligent, controlling, savvy, quick-witted, con man (CAST)

HAROLD ROBINSON (20’s): Cockney accent. Londoner, spy, streetwise, criminal, drug use, addiction, OCD.

MAJOR COURTNEY (50’s): Cross-dresser, nervous, worrier, con man, gang member, bumbling.

LOUIS (30’s-40’s): Criminal gang member, Romanian accent, suspicious, killer.

ONE ROUND (30’s-40’s): A large boxer, thick, slow, strong, London cockney, punch drunk, criminal, kind-hearted dim-witted.

MRS. JANE TROMLEYTON (70’s): Friend of Mrs. Wilberforce, enthusiastic, middle-class English, effusive.

To schedule your audition, call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979-0900. The box office is open Monday through Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. and two hours prior to performances. It is in the Lackland Performing Arts Center on the campus of Centenary University.

Audition Workshop

Centenary Stage Company is offering an Audition Workshop from on Fridays from Jan. 13 through April 28 from 4 to 5:40 p.m.

The workshop will be taught by Carl Wallnau for the 2023 Spring Semester, chair of the Centenary theater department and artistic director of CSC.

The Audition Workshop covers the business side of theatre from headshots to agents, finding material, dealing with cold readings, commercial techniques, and interviews. Students will work on finding and performing appropriate monologues for professional auditions. The cost of the 15-week course is $250 per registrant. This workshop is suitable for amateur and experienced actors.

For more information, visit centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979-0900.