Getting 'Intimate' at Playhouse 22

Most people think of theater, especially at the community level, as productions of big, bustling musicals with toe-tapping numbers and gigantic casts.

There’s another side to theater, however, at any level. Quieter, smaller, more intense pieces that are every bit as deserving of an audience’s attention as a traditional song and dance show.

With their “On the Edge” series, , East Brunswick’s community theater located on Cranbury Road, is trying to build an audience for such lesser known pieces, and to extend the breadth of theatrical productions they offer their audience base.

Eve Ensler’s “Necessary Targets” opens this Friday, and is the latest installment of the “On the Edge” series. And while the show may only require a small cast of women, it also packs an emotional punch.

“The play is about Bosnian war refugees,” explains Walter Placzek, the show’s director. “The play depicts the relationship between two women, J.S., an older psychiatrist, and Melissa, a younger trauma counselor, as they seek to help women in war-torn Bosnia cope with their individual and collective situations.

“The stories the women relate are based upon actual events which occurred in Bosnia in the mid-1990s.  The struggle to understand how different individuals cope with similar situations in different ways is universal, and the approaches which J.S. and Melissa take with the women are equally valid if contrasting. In other words, both sides have a point."

Placzek first came across the play while researching plays recently released for amateur production, and it sparked his interest.

“I liked it because it's very raw and realistic,” he said, “and because it inverts the usual experience dynamic. J.S., the older character, is inexperienced, while Melissa, the younger, is the experienced one—it's a flip of the 'old cop shows young rookie' routine.”

It’s also the perfect sort of play for the intimate style of the “On the Edge” series, where audience seating is placed directly on the stage.

“Anything where the audience is right on top of the action aids the intensity,” Placzek said, “as well as the fact the actors don't have to project as far through the artificial proscenium, so that gives the production a closeness and intensity which you would not have in a larger venue.  There is both a physical and emotional minimalism between the actors and audience.”

The cast of “Necessary Targets” includes local actresses Colleen Cohan Johnson, Jaime Mazza, Joy Salerno, Colleen Smith, Suzanne Lawrence, Carolyn Vicari, and Christina Cruz.

“Necessary Targets” runs from Jan. 13 to Jan. 22 at Playhouse 22, located at the . Friday and Saturday performances start at 8p.m., and Sundays at 3pm. All General Admission tickets are $12. For more information, visit www.playhouse22.org or call 732-254-3939.