Free Italian Folk Music And Theater Sunday In East Brunswick

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — Come celebrate the holiday season in authentic Italian style! Middlesex County’s Office of Arts and History is proud to present an Italian folk theater piece with music from performance troupe I Giullari di Piazza. The piece, “La Cantata Dei Pastori,” combines holiday cheer with the Italian love of music and humor.

The program is free of charge and is scheduled to take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10 at the East Brunswick Vocational-Technical High School at 112 Rues Lane.

This musical play, also known as “The Shepherd’s Cantata,” is adapted and directed by Alessandra Belloni and is based on a 17th-century Southern Italian play by Andrea Perrucci.

I Giullari di Piazza specializes in traditional Italian music, theater and dance, and will perform in Italian with English narration.

Freeholder Director Ronald G. Rios said, “This performance is a fun and free way to celebrate the holidays, and to support a group working to keep cultural traditions alive. This story has been performed for centuries of holiday seasons in the streets of Naples, and it will be exciting to see it arrive in Middlesex County.”

Freeholder Kenneth Armwood, chair of the County’s Business Development and Education Committee, said: “I hope many people will attend this event. It offers a firsthand look at Italian culture, including their equivalent of Santa Claus, La Befana.”

Registration for this event is required. To register or for more information on this and other cultural programs visit the County website atwww.middlesexcountynj.gov or text “Culture” to 56512 or call (732) 745-4489.

Funding for “La Cantata Dei Pastori” is provided in part by the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders, Middlesex County Office of Arts and History, the Folklife Program for New Jersey, New Jersey State Council on the Arts/ Dept. of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.