Local Playwrights Featured In "Harvest Weekend" Somers Point Event

SOMERS POINT, NJ — Local stage company SPQR is hosting its first-ever "Harvest Weekend," a two-day event of new works at studio;space in Somers Point on Oct. 22 and 23.

Harvest Weekend will showcase the original works of local playwrights Heidi Mae, of Ventnor, and North Cape May’s Susan Tischler, the stage company announced in a press release.

Both Mae’s "Jackie and Marilyn" and Tischler’s "The Bohemian Vagabond Freeloader’s Guide to Rome" were staged at studio;space in the spring during SPQR’s "New Works Festival." Both plays have grown substantially in terms of structure, depth and content since then thanks to feedback from audiences.

SPQR Artistic Director Bill Sterritt, a long-time proponent for fresh and original works to have a place to be seen, decided that a second showing of these works was due.

"Harvest Festival is to showcase two of the top plays from 'New Works' with new revisions," Sterritt said. "This will be an annual component of 'New Works,' so that new plays get rewarded, instead of discarded."

Mae’s "Jackie and Marilyn" revolves around two women who find a Grecian remedy in a post-Roe v. Wade world.

Ticshler’s "Bohemian Vagabond …" leads one lucky person to the balcony of the Vatican during a Papal address.

Tickets are $10 at the door. Show times are: 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 22-23. The running time is 30 minutes. Guests may BYOB. Harvest Festival is made possible by a grant from Atlantic County Cultural Heritage Affairs. Studio;space is located at 112 Woodland Ave. in Somers Point. For more information, go to StudioSpaceSPNJ.com.