OnStage Seniors to to Present FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING at McCarter

McCarter Theatre Center will present the first public performance of First Time for Everything, a new play created and performed by OnStage Seniors: A Community Project of McCarter Theatre. The performance will take place on Friday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. in McCarter's Berlind Rehearsal Room.

This community-based performance is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Seating reservations may be made by calling the McCarter Box Office at 609-258-2787.

Working closely with director Adam Immerwahr (also McCarter's Associate Artistic Director) since 2009, this group of community performers (all over 55 years of age) works each year on a combination of acting training, creation of a new work drawn from interviews on a chosen theme, and rehearsal/performance. Each performance is followed by a post-show discussion with the audience.

Originally formed in 2007 as a program of Princeton's Community Without Walls support network, OnStage Seniors creates documentary style theatre pieces that generate insight and positive affirmation of senior experience and other issues important to our community. OnStage Seniors joined McCarter Theatre Center in the fall of 2014.

First Time for Everything is a documentary performance based on word-for-word interviews with community members of all ages about "firsts" - first loves, first day of school, first borns, and more. The subject matter is especially appropriate because this is the first year that OnStage has been part of McCarter Theatre Center's slate of Education and Engagement programming. The group has held private preview performances of this piece for local senior centers and for a group of students from Homefront who have been working with McCarter and the Arts Council of Princeton all year to learn theatre and performance skills. The performance on May 15 will be the public debut of this year's play.

For more information on Onstage Seniors: A Community Project of McCarter Theatre, please visit www.mccarter.org/onstageseniors.

For more information on McCarter Theatre Center's full slate of Education and Engagement programming, please visit www.mccarter.org/education.

Photo by Matt Pilsner