Rutherford, NJ—Keline Adams, Artistic Director of the “Little Theater at Felician” eagerly awaits the completion of renovations to the building that houses the theater on the Rutherford Campus of Felician College. Once renovations are complete, the theater will seat 95 people and will serve “as a bridge between the college and the community,” says Adams. Amid the noise of hammers and saws, Adams is laying the groundwork for the 2001 New Playwright’s Festival and preparing for the May 2001 re-opening of the Little Theater which has sat vacant for close to a decade.

The theater originated as a carriage house to a private residence and later became part of Farleigh Dickinson University which was founded in 1942 on what is now the Rutherford Campus of Felician College on 223 Montross Avenue. In the late 1940s, Dr. Peter Sammartino, President of Farleigh Dickinson University, wished to convert the carriage house into a theater and asked renowned opera singer, Estelle Liebling—a personal friend of his—to serve as the Artistic Director for what became the “Estelle Liebling Little Theater.” From the 1940s through the 1950s, Liebling organized four operettas per year and professors from Fairleigh Dickinson staged variety shows for students. From the 1960s to early 1980s, the theater remained in operation staging small-scale productions and children’s theater. The use of the theater dwindled in the early 1980s, and by the time Fairleigh Dickinson ceased its operations at the Rutherford campus in 1993, it had closed all together.

As the theater springs back to life, Adams envisions numerous projects for the “Little Theater at Felician.” She seeks to stage small-scale productions from local playwrights, host a summer stock or drama camp, work in conjunction with the Ridgewood Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company to stage a small-scale musical production, as well as host workshops, seminars, and more. The “New Playwright’s Festival 2001,” says Adams, is being developed to encourage and support the work of new playwrights. The New Playwright’s Festival seeks submissions of plays which have not previously been produced, and students are encouraged to submit.

Once submissions are in (Jan. 15 deadline), a panel of six professional artists from varied disciplines will read and evaluate the submitted synopses of plays and will narrow the field of submissions to seven full-length plays to read. From those seven, three will be chosen for staged readings in September of 2001, and one will be presented as a full-length play.

For further information and/or to receive submission guidelines,
please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:

Keline Adams, Artistic Director
The Little Theater at Felician
223 Montross Avenue
Rutherford, NJ 07070

Felician College is a coeducational, Catholic college, founded by the Felician Sisters in the Franciscan tradition. Located on two campuses, in Lodi and Rutherford, N.J., Felician College enrolls 1500 students in undergraduate and graduate degree programs in Arts and Sciences, Teacher Education and Health Sciences.