Interior Painting Starts This Saturday! Volunteers needed!

We will be starting the painting of the new theatre this Saturday, May 1st at 8:30AM We will meet at the corner of 4th and Jasper and work on all three floors of the theatre [inside only...the outside has been done]. You don't need to be a great painter. We ask that you bring your own materials [brush, roller, disposable pan, roller covers, paper towels] . The drywall will be complete this Thursday and it is time to start painting our new home on Saturday. Please come if you can. Please bring friends, neighbors or students [painting the inside of the first theatre built just for theatre in Camden's history is great for earning high school service hours]. We can't have too many people! The more the merrier. Please come out. The primer will be waiting and all we need is you! It's also a great time to see the theatre from all three floors! Email me at joep@southcamdentheatre.org with any questions or to let me know you can join us. This is how Camden changes....people working together towards changing a neighborhood. Heal Camden!

Michael McAteer

I received a call this afternoon from my long time friend Ron Chiumento that Michael McAteer had been found dead in LA this morning, having died in his sleep. Michael had produced Howard Zinn's great play "Marx In Soho" directed by my friend John Doyle and featuring my friend Bob Weick this past February in Santa Monica where I was privileged to be invited. A couple weeks before the show, we were stunned by the sad death of Howard Zinn, a death I learned about from Michael via a phone call. It is a sad irony that I found out at noon today of Michael's passing in the same way. Michael had a true passion for right and wrong, Howard Zinn and Camden. He and I were both "Camden kids" and our friendship was quickly a deep one. I cannot attempt to describe the grief his wife Barbara and children feel at this time. I am deeply saddened, as we all are who knew him. We just spoke Friday and had drinks together on Good Friday. There is a seat in the new theatre named after him, a gift of his great friend John Finn. I had planned on sitting next to him in it.

He will always be remembered as a compassionate friend and a true native son of Camden. He will be sorely missed.

Walls go up today!

I was in the theatre for a while yesterday afternoon and was happy to see the insulation was installed preparing for the drywall to start going up today. For the first time, one could really feel the size and warmth of the new theatre. I went room to room imagining what was about to be with such hope for our future. Theatre has the power to transform. It changed me forever and, hopefully, this new space will do the same for people who may have never seen the type of plays we produce. This season we will take you everywhere from Camden in the late 1960's to Harlem in the 40's to New York in the 30's and end the season in Eugene O'Neill's heart.

This year will be all of our transformations...both internally as well externally as a neighborhood comes to blossom. Please join us on the ride we are about to take. We need you to be a part of it. Heal Camden!

"Last Rites" opens Waterfront South Theatre September 10th

I am proud to announce South Camden Theatre Company's sixth season of producing professional theatre in Camden, New Jersey which will be the first season in our new home Waterfront South Theatre. We had hoped to bring you my play "Last Rites" this spring but due to snow delays we decided it is better to bring you a full season starting in the fall in our beautiful new theatre. "Last Rites" will be directed by Christopher "Jumbo" Schimpf and will open September 10th for a full four week run. In October, we celebrate the return of "The Old Settler", written by John Henry Redwood and again directed by Theresa Devine Banford. Our third production is Clifford Odets groundbreaking play "Waiting For Lefty" that I will direct in February 2011. Our season will close next May with a fourth play "A Moon For The Misbegotten" written by Eugene O'Neill and directed by Randy Petersen. Next season's theme is "the past... in the present... is the future". We will have a fundraising event in the theatre this spring that I will tell you about soon. Until then we will be hard at work finishing the theatre and making Camden shine! Heal Camden!

Belmont close / Theatre tour

Thank you to everyone who came out to see "Belmont", a truly outstanding play and well acted and directed production. . If you were there this past Sunday, I hope you enjoyed the tour of the new Waterfront South Theatre after the show. Electricians will begin installing our lighting system today as well as the staircase will go in this week. We are aiming for an April 29th opening of my play "Last Rites" for a full four week run. There is lots to do before we can open but we hope to make that date a reality. Remember, there are still 29 seats in the "please save a seat" program. Go to www.southcamdentheatre.org. We are also still raising money for our lighting system. If you can help, please see our website as well. We are also auditioning actors for "Last Rites" this Saturday. We seek two caucasion males,who look 19-21 years old. Email me for details. I cannot thank Msgr. Michael Doyle enough for allowing us five plus years of productions in the church basement theatre. We now cross the street to our new beginnings. See you at 4th and Jasper!

Final Show at Sacred Heart This Sunday

This Sunday will be SCTC's final show in our beloved theatre in Sacred Heart Basement. In April, we will be moving to the new Waterfront South Theatre as my play"Last Rites" brings up the curtain. If you have ever acted, directed, managed or written for SCTC in the last five years please join us on Sunday. We want as many "SCTC family" members with us as possible to say goodbye to our old space and carry us across the street to our new one.

If you have already seen "Belmont" please come again on us. If you haven't, please come and support SCTC and see a great, biting, political play by Bruce Graham that has left our audiences thrilled.

Art WILL save us. Camden WILL rise again...with your help. We are getting ready to make a major step in our journey and want to there with us.

I hope to see everyone this weekend. Heal Camden!

Bruce Graham in Camden!

Thank you to playwright Bruce Graham for answering questions after last night's great performance of his play "Belmont Avenue Social Club". Bruce was funny and engaging and I am sure everyone who was there had a great time and learned a lot about the writing process. I told Bruce in his car on the way to O'Donnell's after the play that everytime a writer or artist of his magnitude comes to SCTC and Waterfront South we are fulfilling our mission of bringing art to Camden. Art WILL save us. When asked at the bar how he liked the play last night he pointed at me and answered "well I drove him here, didn't I?" A typically funny answer from a brilliant writer.

If he wasn't happy I suppose I'd have had to walk home.

You have four more chances to see this show. Please come. Don't miss it! It's riveting, funny, biting theatre. See you there.