Arts are alive and well in central New Jersey
By: John Dunphy
Come see my show.
No, that’s it. Come see my show. Need directions?
Somerset Valley Playhouse, 689 Amwell Road, Hillsborough. "All in the Timing," a set of one-act comedies, opening Friday, March 23. Visit www.svptheater.com for more information.
… what? That’s not enough? You mean I need to have a point in these columns? You mean they can’t just be a self-marketing shill? OK, fine, then.
Well, there is a point to the fluffy bit of promotion above. You see, it was sheer coincidence, rather than "it’s not what you know, but who you know" that allowed Leona and David Maffei’s Lawrenceville Repertory Company and my turn at SVP to be so interconnected.
I’ll explain. Sometime in early January, I decided I needed to get involved in theater again.
What can I say I love it. It drives me, much like playing an instrument (like violinists Jaroslaw and Katarzyna Powichrowski) drives others, or like playing sports drives others, still.
So, I did a Web search and found Somerset Valley Players. I tried out, and I was cast. And I promise my shameless self-promotion ends there.
Anyway, one of the other performers, Mike Muller, of Bedminster, mentioned some movie he’d been in and how it was going to be shown at the AMC Hamilton in March. Well, that sounded neat, and I naturally wanted to support a fellow actor. I made plans to go to the show.
Some time later, an e-mail arrived on my work account. It talked about a movie, made by a Lawrence Township-based production concern, which was showing on March 27 at wait for it AMC Hamilton.
Could the two seemingly unrelated incidents in my life somehow be connected? Well, of course they are. If they weren’t, this sure would be a pretty pointless rant, now wouldn’t it?
Turns out David Maffei, who plays the title character and performs the music in the Lawrenceville Repertory Company’s "Rumi," had performed with Mr. Muller a while back in another SVP production. The two, along with several others, became friends and proceeded to collaborate with each other. And somewhere along the way, I came along. And here I am.
While it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility, it definitely shows that creativity is alive and well in this area. And this in the same week that two professional-grade violinists, Jaroslaw and Katarzyna Powichrowski, are performing their "violin virtuosos" concert at The Church of Saint Ann. Those are pretty good odds.
One of the few upsides of being in the most densely populated state: you’re never short on creative talent. As we say goodbye to winter and hello to spring, I for one hope these warmer months provide as many opportunities for warm, rewarding experiences as their colder counterparts have done so far.
John Dunphy is managing editor of The Lawrence Ledger. He can be reached at [email protected]

