Education and technology collide in Women Playwrights Series

HACKETTSTOWN — Technology and education collide in the play “Start Down” by Eleanor Burgess, the 2nd featured presentation in the Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwright Series, on Wednesday, Apr. 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Lackland Center.

“Start Down” is a provocative look at the rapidly changing face of education, and the impact the introduction of technology potentially has on traditional educational methods. In this cutting-edge play, when a San Francisco programmer develops a program which will change the face of teaching, it ultimately threatens his own fiancé’s position as an educator.

Eleanor Burgess has been a playwriting fellow at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston and a member of the writers’ group at the Arcola Theatre in London. Her work has been developed at the Vineyard Theatre and New Georges Theatre, and her short play Park Slope Minstrel Show was featured in the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival this past summer.

Burgess is originally from Brookline Massachusetts, studied history at Yale College and subsequently taught history, filmmaking and creative writing in London and New Haven. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts which will conclude in May.

Women Playwrights Series Now in its 23nd year, the Centenary Stage Company Women Playwrights Series (WPS) presents three to four new plays each year in rehearsed staged readings throughout the month of April.

Led by Program Director Catherine Rust, the WPS is dedicated to providing a working forum for the unique and underserved voice of women writing for the theater today.

The Series offers emerging playwrights a chance to work with professional directors and actors in a short rehearsal period, followed by a staged reading of the work in front of a live audience, with audience feedback and discussion. Each presentation is followed by lively “talk-backs” with the playwright and cast following the performance.

The Series features the finalists in the Susan Glaspell contest, which offers the winner further development support worth $45,000 in a full production in the CSC professional Equity main-stage season, as well as a cash award to the author.

For reservations and information contact the Centenary Stage Company Box Office at 908-979-0900, or visit www.centenarystageco.org

Coming UpThe final featured presentation of the 2015 WPS will be “True Love ” by Tracy Thorne on Wednesday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m.