IF you want an excuse to step out Hoboken and see a classic play from New Jersey’s newest equity theatre company you can check out this performance of John Steinbeck’s “of Mice and Men” coming in April. There are many shows and Union City is not very far at all.

 HUDSON THEATRE WORKS, STAGES ITS FIRST PRODUCTION,

JOHN STEINBECK’S OF MICE AND MEN,

AT THE PARK PERFORMING ARTS CENTERIN UNION CITY, NEW JERSEY

Hudson Theatre Works, New Jersey’s newest Equity theatre company will begin its inaugural season with John Steinbeck’s classic tale of friendship and compassion, Of Mice and Men.  It is scheduled to run Thursdays thru Sundays, April 5th – 21st, at the historic Park Performing Arts Center (www.parkpac.org), 560 32nd Street, Union City, New Jersey, evenings at 8PM and matinees at 2PM. Tickets are $25 each with senior and student discounts available.

The production is directed by the company’s Artistic Director, Frank Licato. Mr. Licato (director of the Off-Broadway productions of Requiem for a Heavyweight, Lamppost Reunion, and Michael Puzzo’s Spirits of Exit Eleven) is the winner of a Perry Award for Best Director for his production of Grapes of Wrath, as well as an Applause Award from the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.

Actors, Randy Noojin (Boardwalk Empire, Royal Pains) and Gregory Erbach (On The Waterfront, The Shannon Doyle Incident) will lead a cast of ten.  Both veterans of stage, film, and television, they will co-star as the play’s iconic leads, George and Lennie. Randy Noojin’s theatre credits include Hard Travelin’ with Woody and America Hurrah Revisited. Gregory Erbach is a multi-talented theatre artist who played Terry Malloy in the Northeast premier of Waterfront at the Renegade Theatre and he also starred in Glenn Alterman’s God in Bed.  Also in the cast as Candy is Stuart Rudin (Stake Land, Silence of the Lambs).  His theatre credits inlcude Rimers Of Eldrich at Second Stage and Measure for Measure at NY Shakespeare Festival.

Nobel Prize-winning writer John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men was published in 1937 and its themes still ring true today.  Based on Steinbeck’s own experiences as a migrant worker in the 1920s, the play tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two down-on-their-luck ranch workers traveling together in California during the Great Depression.  The play speaks to many different audiences through its treatment of economic inequality and racism, as well as friendship and compassion.  The play remains, after 75 years, an American classic.

Other members of the creative team include actors Kevin Huelbig, Keith Chambers, Darci Smith, Frank Blaeuer, Ian McGonigle, Victor Gallo and Jeff Foote. Production team is stage manager D. D’Arrigo, scenic/lighting designer John C. Shimrock, costume designer Anne Lowe, and sound designer Donald Stark. Hudson Theatre Works was founded by New Jersey residents Frank Licato, Gregory Erbach, and Karen Brady. The company first produced its PlayWorks series, which is a developmental series for new plays.

Hudson Theatre Works is committed to ensemble collaboration as well as artistic risk through its work with its permanent company, guest artists, partner institutions and the surrounding community.  It is dedicated to a “rugged” aesthetic and will seek to tell stories both new and old, classic and contemporary, which reflect our lives, relationships and world today.  Hudson Theatre Works’ primary focus is in bringing a living theatre community to the area of Hudson and greater North Jersey through performance, outreach and theatre arts education.

For tickets please call: 1-800-838-3006

or visit:  http://hudsontheatreworks.bpt.me or www.hudsontheatreworks.org