• To develop and produce new plays and to make a lasting contribution to the American Stage
• To act as a catalyst for the revitalization and redevelopment of our community
History
The New Jersey Repertory Company was founded in 1997 by SuzAnne and Gabor Barabas. Its current central headquarters is the Lumia Theater located on lower Broadway in Long Branch.
Over two decades NJRep has produced 140 plays of which 125 have been world premieres. The theater has the additional distinction of having had many of its plays produced by other theaters around the country totaling over 200 subsequent productions in the U.S. and overseas.
In 2012 and 2018 NJRep was the recipient of a National Theater Company Grant from the American Theater Wing that sponsors the annual Tony Awards for Broadway in recognition of its contribution to the repertoire of the American Stage. Only seven theaters have had this distinction.
Theatre Brut
Our Theatre Brut Short-Play Festivals focus on visionary and avant-garde works. The idea for Theatre Brut was inspired by the Art Brut movement, derived from a concept first articulated by the German psychiatrist and art historian Hans Prinzhorn with the publication of his ground-breaking visionary book, “Artistry of the Mentally Ill” (“Bildernerei der Geisteskranken”) published in 1922. Prinzhorn felt that these works, crafted by those marginalized by society, needed to be protected for they provided a clear glimpse into the subconscious, and when executed by talented and untutored artists working outside of accepted artistic conventions, deserved the term, art. Theatre Brut seeks to nurture the development of plays unfettered by social and artistic convention where the “strait jacket of logic” (Freud), and “the fossilized debris of dead language” (Esslin), are supplanted by innovation. We readily recognize that unlike the isolated patients whose works inspired Prinzhorn we as a theater are far from insulated from the cultural mainstream. Plays must be new, previously unproduced, unpublished, and no more than 15 minutes in length with cast size not exceed 4 actors. Festivals usually receive between 250-300 submissions and approximately 16-20 are chosen for each event. Although the theme is specified, we are not prescriptive with regard to style and how you interpret the theme is the province of each playwright. Those interested in participating in our next Theatre Brut Short-Play Festival can email us at literary@njrep.org for information about how to submit your play.
West End Arts
In May 2016, NJRep acquired a new property, a 28,000 square-foot school situated on 2 ½ acres and located just five minutes from its Main Stage Lumia Theater and two blocks from the Jersey Shore. The theater plans on gradually transforming the school in stages into a cultural center that will house additional performance spaces, an art cinema, an art museum, a rooftop café, an arts education wing, and residences for out-of-town actors and playwrights. When completed, the center will present a wide array of programs in acting, playwriting, art, sculpture, poetry, music, and photography and will serve as a catalyst for economic development and as the foundation for the cultural renaissance of the community.
Archived Productions
The word THEATRE comes from the ancient Greek and means “THE SEEING PLACE.” It is, as famed actress, director, and teacher Stella Adler once said, “the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation.”
At NJRep we believe that theatre is a moral institution, and as such, has both a moral and ethical responsibility to grapple with the daunting and oftentimes difficult and painful issues and topics that are of crucial concern in our society. This is a responsibility we take seriously. We recognize that we operate within a societal environment of systemic and pervasive racism that has long pre-dated us, as well as favors us. We further recognize that many institutions that we operate alongside also benefit from the same framework, and that deeply woven into the fabric of American society have been policies that directly harm marginalized people, and have led to an unequal system where these communities are unfairly targeted.
We believe, like many of you, that while we inherited these current systems, it is our collective moral and ethical duty to affect change so that we leave a better and a more just world for future generations.
In order to create an equitable environment, it is not enough to just be “not-racist.” We must educate ourselves and embrace those active standards and practices of being “anti-racist” — to identify those policies that are racist or have inequitable outcomes and eradicate them.
Our organization commits to continuing our efforts to meet these goals and to do this by consistently reevaluating, by being active listeners, by lifting up diverse voices, and by changing policies that don’t serve this purpose. We are aware that we must embrace change. We further commit to providing a slate of new plays and new voices and to highlighting the importance of diversity in our work and our community, and continuing to focus on the great importance of creating a work environment for our staff that is equitable.
Our commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is unwavering. And we recognize that it is not enough for us to just make blanket declarations. We recognize that to effect true change we must put in the work so that we can constantly reach for the higher goals that inspire and motivate us to be better citizens of the world as we move into the future.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Tammened, Chief of Delaware Indians
ARTIST: William Luke (1790 – 1839)
YEAR: 1817
MEDIUM: Wood, then Bronze
SUBJECT: Figurehead of the USS Delaware
LOCATION: United States Naval Academy, Annapolis MD
We at NJRep recognize that the land upon which we gather is part of the traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape, called “Lenapehoking.”
Archeologists have been able to trace the Native-American population of Monmouth County back 12,000 years. The Lenni-Lenape (or simply “Lenape”) were a nomadic people belonging to the Algonquian language family and are the ancient root of many other Native American nations.
The largely autonomous bands of Native Americans living on the North Jersey Shore were part of the wider Lenape group, which extended throughout New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, northern Delaware and southeastern New York. They were divided into three bands or sub-tribes: the Minsi (or Munsee, “People of the Stone Country”) inhabited the northern part of New Jersey, the Unalachtigo (“People Who Live by the Ocean”) inhabited the southern area of New Jersey, and the Unami (“People Who Live Down-River”) who inhabited Long Branch and the central region.
A people with a matrilineal clan system, the Lenape People lived in harmony with one another upon this territory for thousands of years. During the colonial era and the last decades of the 18th century, most Lenape were displaced from their homelands by white settlers. In the 1860s, the United States government accelerated this exodus by forcing the remaining Lenape to relocate to the Indian Territory, in present-day Oklahoma and surrounding regions, under the Indian removal policy. Today most Lenape reside in Oklahoma, with some additional communities located in Wisconsin and Ontario. The history of the Lenape is evident here in New Jersey, especially in locales like Port-au-Peck, Navesink, Rumson, Matawan, Manasquan, Takanassee, and Wanamassa, to name a few.
We acknowledge the Lenni-Lenape as the original people of this land and lift up the voice of the great Lenape Chief Tamanend, that there be harmony between the indigenous people of this land and the descendants of the immigrants to this land, “as long as the rivers and creeks flow, and the sun, moon, and stars shine.”
To find out more information and support those that inhabitated the land before us, we encourage you to visit their website at nanticoke-lenape.info/history.htm.