The Theater Project Will Present Staged Reading Of B.B.’S In November

The Theater Project, in conjunction with the Friends of the Cranford Library, will present B.B.’S by Bill Mesce, Jr., directed by Lynn Marie Macy, as part of its ongoing series of staged readings of new plays. The event is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 15, and will be followed by a discussion with the author, director, cast, and audience. Admission is free.

Set in a small neighborhood bar and restaurant, B.B.’S unfolds through a series of vignettes featuring the patrons who pass through the titular establishment—some familiar regulars, others simply stopping in for a single visit. Each vignette is inspired by the fiction of three writers with ties to New Jersey: Sean Michael Rice, John Artenstein, and Bill Mesce, Jr.

“I'd always thought Sean's work didn't get the recognition it deserved,” says Mesce. “Adapting his prose for the stage was one way of introducing audiences to his wonderful storytelling. While using Sean's work is a tribute to past achievements, including John Artenstein's material is a look forward—he was one of my most promising writing students, and the caliber of his first novel suggests we’ll hear more from him in the future.”

Sean Michael Rice, a founding member of Montclair’s 12 Miles West theater company, was a playwright, poet, and prose writer whose work appeared nationwide. His short fiction earned a Pushcart Prize nomination, and his play Rounds received six NAACP Image Theater Awards. He passed away in 2017, and his Collected Works was published posthumously in 2018.

John Artenstein earned his bachelor’s degree from Kean University and his MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. Currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Rhode Island, he is also a musician and the author of the 2023 novel Oblivion, written under the pen name John Shepherd.

Bill Mesce, Jr. is the author of more than thirty books spanning fiction and academic studies. His screenwriting credits include Road Ends, starring Dennis Hopper, which screened at several film festivals before airing on Cinemax. His plays include The Advocate, Black Lives/Blue Lives (co-written with Stephen Harper), and B.B.’S, which received a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship Grant Award—his third such honor.

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