(SUMMIT, NJ) — Vivid Stage presents Summer Solos readings every week from July 1-24, 2024 at the Visual Arts Center of NJ at 68 Elm Street in Summit. Performances in the series will take place on the lawn of the Arts Center at 6:30pm. Patrons are invited to bring chairs or blankets and a picnic dinner. The rain and extreme heat location for all performances is the Oakes Center at 120 Morris Avenue, Summit, NJ.

On Monday, July 1, 2024 at 6:30pm, Scott McGowan, Emaline Williams and Angela Della Ventura will perform Three Viewings by Jeffrey Hatcher. A funeral parlor in a small Midwestern town is the setting for these three darkly funny and touching short plays. In Tell Tale, we enter the private thoughts of a respectable married mortician, lost in passion for a beautiful real estate broker who markets to the bereaved. In Thief of Tears, we meet Mac, the attractive daughter of an upper-class WASP family who frequents the Viper Room and steals jewelry from corpses. And in Thirteen Things about Ed Carpolotti, a newly widowed suburban matron finds her world crashing about her only to be rescued by love from beyond the grave.

The following Wednesday, July 10, 2024 at 6:30pm, Becca Landis McLarty will perform David Cale’s play, Sandra. A one-woman mystery-thriller, the solo play Sandra is the story of a charismatic Brooklyn café owner who travels to Mexico to solve the disappearance of her closest friend. As she stumbles into a highly-charged erotic affair, she also finds herself in dangerous territory; a journey which ultimately leads to a complete transformation of her life. Sandra is part thriller, part love story, part journey of self-discovery, as this captivating woman ventures out of the safety of her life into the unknown.

On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 6:30pm, Laura Ekstrand will perform What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen. Everything 44-year-old Alice thought she knew is turned upside-down when an emergency CAT scan reveals that she’s six months pregnant. A dark comedy performed by one actress playing forty roles, Alice faces the most wrenching decision a woman can make, in her odyssey through doubt, a broken health-care system, the complexities of reproductive rights, and the infinite unpredictability of parenthood. An O’Neill finalist and Jane Chambers Award Honorable Mention, What I Thought I Knew is adapted from Cohen’s acclaimed memoir—winner of Oprah magazine’s 25 Best Books of Summer and Elle Literary Grand Prize for Nonfiction.

On Wednesday, July 24, 2024 at 6:30pm, Daria M. Sullivan will perform I F***ing Hate Shakespeare by Gina Femia. Gina Femia is a playwright. William Shakespeare is a playwright, too – maybe you’ve heard of him? Through the lens of different Shakespeare plays, and juxtaposing him with the abusive relationships that defined her coming of age, Gina discusses how her experience with the Bard has shaped her origin story as a playwright.

Tickets for all Summer Solos are $23 and can be purchased in advance at 2024 Vivid Summer Solos. The Visual Arts Center of NJ is located at 68 Elm Street in Summit, and free parking is available. All shows begin at 6:30pm, and the rain and extreme heat location is the same date and time at Oakes Center.

Vivid Stage was founded in 1994 as Dreamcatcher Rep, and is a non-profit professional ensemble of actors who build community with the audience by sharing contemporary, life-affirming stories that challenge, energize and entertain. Their work has at its heart a belief in the essential goodness of people and the power of live performance to connect people through our shared humanity. They expose theatregoers to ideas and lives like and unlike their own with the intention of awakening their imaginations and creating empathy for others. They deepen the experience of all their patrons with personal contact through receptions, talkbacks, and interactive programs.

The company’s activities include mainstage productions, improvisational comedy and cabarets, new play readings and a variety of educational and senior outreach programs.

Vivid Stage’s programs are funded by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and many other corporations, foundations and individuals.  Vivid Stage is an Equity Producing member of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.

Vivid Stage, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) corporation, incorporated under the laws of the State of New Jersey.

Graphic by Yolanda Fundora