Circle of Sparks Playback Improv Theater Project
Stay tuned for public Storytelling Improv Theater Events
Beginning in May 2019, Culture Connection Theater launched our Circle of Sparks Playback Improv Theater Project with a company of 15 members. This new community building project combines storytelling and improvisational theater where audience members share their own stories and see them enacted.
Public shows will be announced soon.
The project’s mission is to foster connection between people through improv theater. Enacting the stories of others provides an opportunity to increase understanding of one another. Theater allows us to move beyond talking and get into action.
Actor and musician Laura Hoffman and director and producer Elaine Molinaro have trained at the Centre for Playback Theatre to learn this improv method from company founders Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas who were inspired in part by the psychodrama work of Jacob Moreno.
Playback Theatre has been used as a forum for the exchange of diverse experiences including racial conflict and reconciliation, incarcerated men and women, immigrant and refugee experiences, youth concerns with bullying or interactions with the police, diversity and conduct in the workplace and more. In their Circle of Sparks project Laura and Elaine hope to explore these themes and others.
Company facilitators: Elaine Molinaro, Laura Hoffman, Nadine Bernard
Company members: Donna Dimino, Jill Falozi, Sheri Glorioso, Elizabeth Kaplan, Alyson Linefsky, Michael McMahon, Arthur Pugh, Lindsey Sherwin, Joseph Smith, Linda Wielkotz, Cecile Williams, Jessica Wolf
Winter Mainstage: Castle in Sweden
A French Farce with a unique viewpoint
In 1954, at age 18, Françoise Sagan published her first book, “Bonjour Tristesse” (Hello Sorrow) which was an immediate sensation. Her first play, “Château en Suède” (Castle in Sweden), opened in 1960 on Paris’ famous right bank. As witty and hilarious as the beloved farces of Feydeau, Sagan’s zany farce features the escapades of the free-wheeling Falsen family shut up for a snowy winter in a remote Scandinavian castle.
Sagan’s novels and plays create worlds of fantasy with imaginative, liberated characters and whimsical plots that free audiences for a moment from strict societal boundaries.
As a writer and playwright, Sagan brings a poignant alternative viewpoint by stretching the boundaries for her female characters. Her representation of women disrupts conventions that reinforce women’s limits and presents them as autonomous individuals able to take charge of their own destinies.
Her heroines Cécile in “Hello Sorrow”, Eleanor in “Castle in Sweden” and others manage to control their lives by sticking to their private values and relying on themselves to establish their own rules while never losing their sense of humor.
Join us this winter at the nutty Castle in Sweden for some frolicking fun with a cast of characters who break all the rules.
“Castle in Sweden” by Françoise Sagan, translated by Elaine Molinaro
About Us
Mission Statement
Culture Connection Theater has the mission to foster connection between people of different countries and between people of different cultures at home. Culture Connection Theater produces collaborations between artists of different cultures in order to break down barriers of racism, sexism and prejudice, to allow American audiences to experience other cultures, to shed light on our own culture and to engage, comment and ask questions about world events.
Elaine Molinaro, Artistic Director
Elaine founded Culture Connection Theater (CCT) in 2004. In NJ, Elaine has directed for CCT, the Theater Project, Luna Stage, Dreamcatcher Rep., Centenary Stage, Apricot Sky Productions, Nutley Little Theater, UCC Players, Intersections International, Montclair Early Music and George Street Playhouse. In NY - Lincoln Center, Peculiar Works Project, The Cell, HERE, New Georges, Voice & Vision, Ping Chong and Co. Elaine is President of the Montclair Arts Alliance, Immediate Past Chair and member of the Montclair Arts Advisory Committee to the Montclair Town Council. She is an officer and women’s play contest coordinator of the Women and Theatre Program for the Association of Theatre in Higher Education. Elaine has a Masters of Fine Arts in theater directing.
Gwen Orel, Producer, Playwright in Residence
Gwen is a playwright and teacher. She serves as producer, playwright and teaches playwriting workshops for CCT. She is the Features editor of the Montclair Local; formerly arts editor, The Montclair Times; publications include New York Times, Wall Street Journal, American Theatre, Village Voice, Time Out New York. Dramaturgy includes literary manager, Alabama Shakespeare Festival; Peculiar Work Project. Gwen has had plays produced at: ThinkFast Festival; Apricot Sky Productions; Montclair Arts Festival; National Winter Playwrights Retreat, Creede, Colorado. Outer Critics Circle voter, PhD in theatre, AEA stage manager.
Laura Hoffman, Circle of Sparks Facilitator
Laura Hoffman is a facilitator and participant with Circle of Sparks. This new community building project combines storytelling and improvisational theater and allows audience members a safe place to share their own stories and see them enacted. She is a native New Yorker and works as an ASL interpreter, actor and musician. She and her husband live in Montclair NJ with their amazing teenage daughter.
Nadine Bernard, Circle of Sparks Facilitator
Nadine is a playwright, actor, and drama therapist. She is a facilitator and member of Circle of Sparks. Nadine’s plays - In the Shadow of My Son, Miss Valentine, Then Let the Fish Go, Seize the Day After, Veils, The Way to Summer - have been presented in NYC and across the country. She has a drama therapy and life coaching practice in Montclair and has brought drama therapy techniques to the Bergen County Department of Family Guidance, Celebrate the Children School, summer camp at Luna Stage, and Sibshop Montclair of which she is the director. She holds an MFA in theater and MA in clinical psychology. www.PersonalPlays.com
Andreina Botto Roever, Education Coordinator
Andreina hails from Argentina and now lives in the US with her husband and three daughters. She coordinated enrollment for CCT’s Young Writers workshop which her daughters Valentina and Sophia participated in where they wrote and performed the script « The Brownie » with their classmates. Andreina fundraises for The Sisters Foundation founded to buy books and supplies for underfunded schools in the Argentine province of Mendoza. Her mother Clarisa Ares and Valentina co-wrote and illustrated the book « The Savior Bridge » (El Puente Salvador), an Inka legend, and donated the profits to the foundation.
Past Productions
Space In-Between
One-acts by French female playwrights:
"Savannah Bay" by Marguerite Duras
"Over Nothing at All" by Nathalie Sarraute
Directed by Elaine Molinaro
at Luna Stage,
West Orange, NJ
Tidings Brought to Mary
by Paul Claudel
Directed by Elaine Molinaro
at Union Congregational Church, Montclair, NJ
Roar
by Betty Shemiah
Directed by Elaine Molinaro
at Where Eagles Dare Theater,
New York, NY
Opera Buffoonia
by Ivan Tairzacra
Directed by Elaine Molinaro
at the Play Outside Festival,
New York, NY
Couples Therapy One-Act Festival
"News" by Gwen Orel
Directed by Elaine Molinaro
Apricot Sky Productions
at Grove Street Theatre,
Montclair, NJ
Think Fast One-Act Festival
"Graveyard Shift"
"Casting Away"
by Gwen Orel
Directed by Elaine Molinaro
The Theater Project
at Burgdorff Arts Center,
Maplewood, NJ
Dream on Church Street
written by Chuk Obasi
in collaboration with company of
Uniform Justice Montclair
Directed by Elaine Molinaro
A devised project on police-community relations
with Intersections International
at Glenfield Middle School and
Union Congregational Church
New Moon Short Play Festival
“ASK ZSUZANNA - Single Motherhood at 50”
by C.J. Ehrlich
“The Bar Mitzvah of Jesus Goldfarb”
by Andrew Heinze
Directed by Elaine Molinaro
at Luna Stage
*above: playwrights at post performance talkback
Tongue of a Bird
by Ellen McLaughlin
Directed by Elaine Molinaro
at Union Congregational Church
Montclair, NJ
Youth Programs
Productions
“St. George and the Dragon”
Traditional English Mummers Play
Directed by Elaine Molinaro
at the Montclair Arts Festival
and the Montclair Early Music
Winter Concert
Workshops
Young Writers workshop
taught by Gwen Orel
coordinated by Andreina Botto Roever
at the Culture Loft
School Residency
“Bullock's Got Talent”
run and directed by Elaine Molinaro
and Lindsey Sag annually in February
performances by 130 students in
K-5th grade
at Charles H. Bullock
Elementary School
Collaborations
Flush
by Rachel Calnek-Sugin
Jane Chambers Student Contest Winner
through the Women & Theatre Program
reading directed and
contest coordinated by
Elaine Molinaro
Son of Soil
by Andie Berry
Jane Chambers Student Contest Winner
through the Women & Theatre Program
reading directed and
contest coordinated by
Elaine Molinaro
Montclair Arts Festival
Culture Connection Theater participated in and collaborated with the Montclair Arts Alliance to produce a four-day arts festival of theater, music, dance and visual arts featuring over 30 arts organizations
at United Way Theater
Montclair, NJ
Montclair Arts Alliance
Culture Connection Theater is a proud member of the Montclair Arts Alliance (MAA), a service organization for the arts community of the Montclair area in New Jersey. Elaine Molinaro serves as the MAA president working to create space, marketing opportunities and other support for arts organisations in Montclair and the surrounding areas.
Montclair Arts Advisory Committee
Elaine Molinaro of Culture Connection Theater is a founder, member and immediate past chair of the Montclair Arts Advisory Committee to the Montclair Town Council. MAAC advises the Council on arts matters and serves as the arts liaison to local arts groups.
Women & Theatre Program
Elaine Molinaro of Culture Connection Theater serves as an officer of the Women & Theatre Program (WTP) with the Association of Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) to support female artists, academics and activists. Elaine serves as a program assistant and reader for the Jane Chambers Women’s Playwriting Contest and presents at the annual ATHE conference.