We saw ‘Joseph,’ an amazing technicolor dream of a play performed right here at home

To the Editor:

Last Saturday night, Cappy and I went to a play. We didn’t take the bus to Port Authority. We didn’t take a cab to Smith & Walesnski’s for dinner, and we didn’t walk to the theater district in New York. Instead, we took the Newton Sparta Road to Dominick’s in Newton and then drove on to the community college. We saw the North Star Theater Company’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.” It was spectacular.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a letter about valet parking at the Plaza Barber Shop and stated, “Sparta had arrived.” Well, theater presentation in Sussex County has also arrived.

What was also of significance was to see local faces that we recognized. There was James McGovern, a deacon at Our Lady of the Lake Church, who traded in his clerical garments for that of a guard guarding Joseph and also as Pharaoh’ s aide. In addition, there was John Klump, whom your readers have heard from by means of his many liberal letters to the editor. I have participated in many standing ovations, but this one was clearly appropriate.

I know that a lot of your readers upon seeing this letter will wonder why such a spectacular play did not receive the appropriate advertising in the local media. The problem is the local media is no longer local. I’m not talking about the Sparta Independent. I’m talking about the New Jersey Herald, which has abandoned us, and which for years was a wonderful source of Sussex County information yet now has turned its attention to Morris, Bergen, Essex and Union counties. We don’t want to know what the Mayor of Union City is saying, we want to know what our local officials are saying and doing. We don’t want to read letters to the editor concerning problems in Lodi. We want to see our locals writing letters about local events.

Now back to the play. As stated above, it was phenomenal, and I ask that Director Allison Ognibene and Producer Nathan Simmons not let this play disappear. It was that good and should be kept alive.

George T. Daggett, Esq.

Sparta