Backwards, Forwards, Back is Back for a Full Production at CSC

After its appearance in Centenary Stage Company’s 2023 Women Playwrights Series, a program developed to provide a working forum for women's theatre writing, Jaqueline Goldfinger’s Backwards, Forwards, Back is back for a full production running April 4-14. As part of the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, a free symposium will follow the April 7 show at 2 p.m. with a seven guest panel of veterans and professionals discussing veterans’ affairs, the content of the play, current PTSD therapies, and more.

Playwright and dramaturg Goldfinger has been produced by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Court Theatre in New Zealand, Ecole nationale de theatre in Canada, Vortex Rep, and Urbanite Theatre with opera and choral libretti produced at Opera Columbus, Resonance Works, BBC Radio 3 and Voces8 in the United Kingdom to name a few. 

Goldfinger’s plays, including this one winning CSC’s Susan Glaspell Award, have won the Yale Drama Prize, Smith Prize, Generations Award, and Barrymore Award, with opera awards including the Opera America Discovery Award for Alice Tierney and composer Melissa Dunphy. Goldfinger’s work has been developed at MAryland Opera Studio, The Nationa Theater, New Georges, La Mama, Disquiet and supported by YADDO, NEA, and the Sloan Foundation. These plays, libretti, and poetry have been published by Yale Press, Edition Peters, TRWPlays, and InBetween Literary Magazine. Visit jacquelinegoldfinger.com to learn more.

Backwards, Forwards, Back star, Bess Miller, has many accolades including Off-Broadway shows A Midsummer Night's Dream, Double Blind at Theatre Row, and Technodramatists at TheatreLAB. Miller also performed with the Speranza Theatre Company in Votes For Women, a production directed by Mikaela Kafka, who is also directing Backwards, Forwards, Back.

Kafka serves as the Program Director for the WPS, and has been working in theatre for over 30 years, as an actor and director. Her true passion has always been ‘New Works,’ and celebrating new voices emerging in theatre. Kafka’s directing credits include Apples in Winter at CSC, Wendy’s Shadow, and Women Rising: Stories of Hope to name a few. She also directed the Zoom version of the office farce, The Bigsley Project by Catherine Castellani which can be streamed on YouTube at http://www.kafkaexperiment.com

Ticket prices range $22.50 – $29.50 for adults with discounts for children under 12 on select performances. Special 50% off tickets for active and veteran service members are available for the April 7 and 13 performances at 2 p.m.. Thursday evening performances feature family night with buy one get one rush ticket special.

All performances will take place in the Kutz Blackbox Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center located on the campus of Centenary University at 715 Grand Avenue, Hackettstown, NJ.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company box office at 908-979-0900. The Centenary Stage Company box office is open Monday through Friday from 1-5 p.m. and two hours prior to performances. Centenary Stage Company can also be found across social media platforms; Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. Like and follow to receive the latest in CSC news and special offers.

The 2023-24 Season of Performing Arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Sandra Kupperman Foundation, the John and Margaret Post Foundation, The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, the CSC corporate sponsors, including Platinum Season Sponsor the House of the Good Shepherd, Silver Sponsors, Heath Village, Visions Federal Credit Union, Explore Warren, and Fulton Bank, and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.