NJ Playwrights Contest Winner: BUICK BECOMES ELECTRA Debuts 6/3, 6/6 & 6/9

William Paterson University Performing Arts Department and the New Jersey Playwrights Contest (NJPC) presents the winner of the Sixth Annual NJ Playwrights Contest, BUICK BECOMES ELECTRA or THE TORRID ZONE. Written by Stanley Werse and directed by Edward Matthews.

Mix together Greek mythology, the TWILIGHT ZONE, film noir, dark comedy and two classic cars and what do you get?...You get the winner of the Sixth Annual NJ Playwrights Contest, BUICK BECOMES ELECTRA or THE TORRID ZONE. Professor Cooper is driving alone in the desert. Bored, he picks up Alexis, a young, strange hitchhiker. Condescending and patronizing, he demands that she tell him stories for his amusement as the price of the ride or be put out in the desert where she would surely die. Though he rebukes each story Alexis tells as foolish and inane, Cooper soon learns that all is not as it seems and hell hath no fury...well, you know the rest...or do you?

When: Thurs., June 3 - Sun., June 6 and Wed., June 9 - Sun., June 13. Show times: Wed.-Sat. at 8:00 pm ET, Sun. at 2:00 PM

Preview Performance Thurs., June 3.
Meet-the-Author session immediately following the Sun., June 6 performance.

Where: William Paterson University's Hunziker Black Box Theatre, Wayne, NJ

Why: A few reasons:
· To support the New Jersey Playwrights Contest (NJPC). The NJPC supports the work of emerging New Jersey playwrights by exposing their work to the public through staged-readings and a full production of the winning play. Unpublished scripts by New Jersey residents are solicited in the summer and through a rigorous selection process one play is selected to receive a professionally designed and directed production the following Spring semester. All playwrights residing in the state of New Jersey are eligible to enter the NJPC. Casts vary widely depending upon the reading or show, but often include undergraduates from a variety of majors, alumni and other members of the University community, as well as local community actors or semi-professional performers and on a rare occasion a professional actor. The artistic and technical staffs for all NJPC shows consist of full-time and part-time theatre professionals working in the northern New Jersey area. The NJPC is coordinated by Ed Matthews and Shari Selke of the University Performing Arts Department, and is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
· This play marks a milestone for the NJPC - the first time a professional actor has been hired to perform. Steve L. Barron will play the part of Professor Cooper. He is a regular performer at the Centenary Stage Company where he has been seen in such shows as You May Go NOW, A LAUGHING MATTER, QUARTERMAINE'S TERMS, SIGHT UNSEEN, TARTUFFE, and WHILE THE SUN SHINES. Steve has also appeared in GOOD EVENING and MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS with the Sarasota-based Florida Studio Theatre. In New York, Steve has appeared in THE BOTHERS KARAMAZOV at LA Mama and LION TAMING IN MIAMI with the Medicine Show. Steve's motion picture debut, THE STICK-UP KIDS, was recently screened at the Peachtree Film Festival in Atlanta. Also look for Steve this fall on

the new HBO series BOARDWALK EMPIRE. Steve has been acting professionally for over 20 years all over the country in such diverse productions as ART, ARCADIA, THE GLASS MENAGERIE, and MOON OVER BUFFALO.

· It's simply entertaining.

How: Tickets are available for purchase at http://ww3.wpunj.edu/wplive/programs/NJplaywrights.htm#. $15.00 Standard, $12.00 WPUNJ Community & Senior Citizens, $9.00 Students