'NOW' is the Time for New Theatre Group

Some of the most beloved holiday stories involve people facing unexpected hardship, and then culling victory from those hardships in time to enjoy a true Christmas miracle.

This week, East Brunswick resident Scott Langdon finds himself somewhere in the middle of such a story. With any luck, the successful final act of that tale begins Friday night.

That’s when “” opens at the East Brunswick Performing Arts Center, on the campus of the . The performance, sponsored by the East Brunswick Education Foundation, is the inaugural production of the NOW Theatre Company, a group formed earlier this year by Langdon, an Equity actor, and Lynne Elson, a published playwright who is herself a theater/film teacher at East Brunswick’s .

In fact, Act I of the NOW Theater Company’s soon-to-be-success story begins several months ago, when Langdon also taught in the East Brunswick school system. However, when his position as a Humanities teacher at the high school was eliminated, Langdon found himself with the time and motivation necessary to do what most professional actors only dream of doing one day: starting their own theater company.

“As the name of the group, NOW has a couple of meanings,” Langdon said one night following rehearsal for the group’s upcoming production. “It’s new original works, as we plan to do either new works or newly envisioned classics, but it also is ‘now,’ in that we want to do work now instead of getting other people to hire us.”

The production of a “Dickens Christmas Carol” falls into the ‘newly envisioned classics’ realm of the group’s mission statement. It consists of two Dickens tales reimagined for the stage. The first, “Cricket on the Hearth,” is staged as an adaptation for two actors, while the second, the classic “A Christmas Carol,” has been adapted by Langdon himself as a one-man show.

Both plays are directed by Malissa Langdon, Scott’s wife and herself a drama teacher at Hammarskjold. Faith Dowgin (the wife of this article’s author, John Dowgin), who performed alongside Langdon in a production of “The Crucible” last autumn at East Brunswick’s Playhouse 22, rounds out the cast of “Cricket on the Hearth.”

And ‘rounds out’ is putting it mildly. Over the course of “Cricket on the Hearth”, Langdon and Dowgin portray 10 characters between them. In fact, asking actors to play multiple roles is another element that Langdon and Elson feel sets their group apart. It’s part of a theatrical style known as “Reader’s Theater,” which is common in the Midwest, where Langdon hails from.

The Reader’s Theater convention is similar to a staged reading: actors carry the scripts with them onstage and use affectations of body language and vocal inflection to create numerous characters. “It’s usually only a few actors, one two three actors who create the characters,” Langdon said.

“It kind of goes along our line of wanting to do things a little differently,” Elson said. “We wanted to find ways to use technology and in other ways letting it go, letting your mind fill in the blanks. I am afraid that kids are losing their ability to daydream; of letting their minds go, because everything’s coming in. I think reader’s theater first of all helps the audience interact a little more instead of letting things wash over them… its goal is to highlight the musicality of the text, of the writer’s words. Remembering that it’s literature. It’s like sitting around the fire telling stories in the old days.”

“There are sets that function as visuals but they’re there to create an atmosphere,” Langdon added. “Everything comes from the voice and the physicality.”

If the script plays out as Langdon and Elson hope, NOW Theatre Company’s story will hardly end once “A Dickens Christmas” closes.

“Our plan is to have a full season beginning in the fall,” Langdon said. “So in September 2012, we’re going to do Lynne’s new play called “Stolen; The Glorie Years.’ ”

Elson adds that one way NOW hopes to build an audience is by performing at as many locations they can, whether there’s a traditional theater there or not. “We are excited about doing shows wherever we find the space,” she said. “I envision doing shows in someone’s backyard, or in someone’s really large living room, depending on the show.

“But what we want to do is get involved with the community and partner with businesses,” Langdon adds. “I want there to be a mutual exchange there. I want to be a business entity within the community.

“The exciting thing there is finding ways to advertise maybe even within the set. Businesses today, and those who succeed, especially small businesses, embrace social media. If you invest in our arts, we’d be happy to help you by bringing business to you.”

For a preview of the show, click here.

“A Dickens Christmas” will be performed Friday, Dec. 2, and Saturday, Dec. 3, at 7:30 p.m., at the in . Tickets cost $20 for adults and $12 for students, seniors, and school staff. To learn more about the group, visit NOWtheatrecompany.org.

To purchase tickets, visit the EBPAC website.