Reasons to watch:
- An eclectic array of performances this fall include a juggling travelogue act, one-woman show, and children’s stage play highlights the variety of programming this fall at HT.
- Funny never gets old and with our monthly comedy performances, you’re sure to laugh out loud.
- Patrons and community members can get involved in the performances through interactive talks include a Pecha Kucha Night and Map of Abundance, A Community Reading.
Prepare yourselves for a new wave of live performances, comedy shows, theatre, and talks coming to Hopewell Theater this Fall.
Michael Menes’ A Juggler’s Travelogue Adventure: Above and Beyond
Friday, September 6, 2019 at 8:00 PM
Part performance, part travelogue, ALL AMAZING. An avid juggler and world traveler, Michael Menes has toured the world for over 3 decades as a virtuoso juggler, mime, physical comedian and video geek. With a long and successful career in the cruise industry, Michael has been virtually everywhere and has brought back an astonishing collection of short travelogue films. These video gems become his onstage partners as he weaves a fascinating journey with projections, variety acts, and world class comedy. The show’s finale is his dazzling new Optical Juggling Act!
Comedy Night: Ross Bennett: Comedy For The Rest Of Us
Saturday, September 28, 2019 at 8:00 PM
MacArthur attended West Point and became a National hero. Eisenhower attended West Point and became the President of the United States. Ross Bennett attended West Point, dropped out and became a comedian. In 1977, 2 years into the academy, Ross had decided that he wanted to take aim and fire jokes at nightclub audiences. So he undertook a giant career change, dropped out of West Point, and landed right square in the middle of the comedy explosion that was taking America by storm. For 30 years, Ross has led a comedy attack, armed with expressive delivery and real life topics. Growing up with a father who was a Marine Colonel (a nice mellow guy!), grade school snow days, disastrous golf games, catastrophic water skiing outings and middle age medical procedures. Bennett is a high-powered performer who takes his act to the audience and comes back with a victory every-time!
Aged Whine: Stand-Up for Grown-Ups with Adam Oliensis, Kyle Ocasio, and Brett Druck
Friday, October 11, 2019 at 8:00 PM
Get a baby-sitter. Leave the kids at home. This is Stand-Up for Grown-Ups.
In his stand-up, Adam Oliensis explores the lessons in humility he’s learning from his wife and children, along with the adjustments being forced on him by being a grown-up. Having lived as a child in East Africa, studied martial arts in India, and languished spiritually in New Jersey, Adam is attuned to the absurdities that arise in the everyday, mining the ironies and silliness found in the most humbling situations (with which he continues to gain vast experience). Adam’s debut comedy album, “Aged Whine” was released earlier this year and can be purchased at www.adamoliensis.com.
Comedian Kyle Ocasio has been performing stand up all over the country for well over a decade. She brought laughter to the US troops in eight different countries while performing with Armed Forces Entertainment in Europe and The Middle East. Before heading to the Edinburgh Fringe festival where she debuted her stand up for an international audience, she was the face of Optimum TV’s Soccer Mom Goals, a show with a comedic twist on “momentating” on the 2018 World Cup. Rooftop Comedy released her debut album “Tell Mommy Your Name Again” which is in regular rotation on Sirius XM and in 2018 she recorded her second album with Rooftop, this time a collaborative piece entitled “Three’s Comedy” with two other comedians. It was number two comedy album of the summer, just behind Jim Gaffigan.
Brett Druck is best known for the viral success of his chivalry joke. He was a cast member and guest host on Laughs TV Show seasons 2 & 3 on FOX and HULU and you may have seen him on America’s Got Talent, in NBC SeeSo’s “SCHTICK OR TREAT: HALLOWEEN STAND UP SPECIAL” , mentioned in Rolling Stone, or heard him on Pandora Comedy Radio. He frequently appears on the front page of Reddit and has had his jokes shared millions of times. He has also been featured in numerous comedy festivals including TBS’s Just for Laughs Chicago, The Charleston Comedy Festival, The Andy Kaufman Award(Finalist), San Francisco Sketchfest, and Hoboken Comedy Festival (2015 Winner). He can be seen now performing in select cities across the U.S. and Canada on the Brewery and Winery Comedy Tour.
Tuesday, October 15, 2019 at 7:00 PM
Calling all storytellers! Pecha Kucha Nights are informal and fun gatherings where creative people get together and share their ideas, works, thoughts, holiday snaps — just about anything, really — in the Pecha Kucha format. PechaKucha is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and you talk along to the images. It was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.
Good Pecha Kucha presentations are the ones that uncover the unexpected — unexpected talent, unexpected ideas. Some PechaKuchas tell great stories about a project or a trip. Some are incredibly personal, some are incredibly funny, but all are very different, and they turn each Pecha Kucha Night into “a box of chocolates.”
Funny Women of a Certain Age: #FunnyNeverGetsOld
Saturday, November 9, 2019 at 8:00 PM
Creator Carole Montgomery and her cast of some of the most respected names in comedy return to Hopewell Theater for a night of laughs! Funny Women of a Certain Age is a show straight from the unfettered mouths and uninhibited minds of the funniest, most daring, most experienced people in comedy: the women that have seen it all. They’ve raised children both on and off the road, having club bouncers watch their babies while onstage. These women have stayed in comedy condos where you don’t want to use a blacklight on anything. They’ve been told women aren’t funny and asked to trade sexual favors for work. Trust us, they have A LOT to say and they say it hysterically.
A live taping of Funny Women of a Certain Age premiered on Showtime in March of 2019. The comedy special features Fran Drescher and other ace comedians including Montgomery, Luenell, Lynne Koplitz, Kerri Louise and Vanessa Hollingshead.
Remembrance Day: One Woman Show Written and Performed by June Ballinger
Friday, November 15, 2019 at 8:00 PM
What is the cost of keeping a secret for 50 years? An 80-year-old former British code breaker at Bletchley Park attends a Remembrance Day service in England. She looks back on her life and the secrets about her work and identity that she has held onto for 50 years. Will she ever be truly known by her children? How will she be remembered? Written and performed by June Ballinger and inspired by her mother’s work at Bletchley Park during WWII, this profoundly moving story is created through memories, letters, and a diary discovered after her mother’s death in 2013.
Ballinger was born in New Jersey, raised in Connecticut, and currently lives in Trenton. She has worked on Broadway, off-Broadway, regional theater and in television and film. She is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre in NYC since 1993, a company member of NYC’s The Actors Center, and Artistic Director Emeritus of Trenton’s Passage Theatre Company. As a writer she has co-created with David Lee White, the interview based plays Trenton Lights and Profiles (Passage Theatre) as well as numerous plays for teens developed from writing workshops (Word for Word). She works privately as an acting coach with young adults, and teaches mixed groups of teens, adults, and seniors in the Greater Trenton area, currently in collaboration with Bucks County Playhouse.
The Shadow Box Theatre Presents: Tobias Turkey, a Storytelling Performance
Saturday, November 16, 2019 at 12:00 PM
The Shadowbox Theater brings its 50 years of experience to the Hopewell Theater stage for a performance of Tobias Turkey! Tobias is the most determined baby turkey on the farm. In this Thanksgiving tale, Tobias provides children with lots of laughs and valuable lessons. You and your children will be laughing and clapping along with the Shadow Box Theater’s expert storyteller and guitarist as they listen to this delightful funny and wise holiday tale. Expect plenty of laughs and lessons (plus a Thanksgiving-themed sing-along) during a performance of this book-turned–puppet show.
For over five decades, The Shadow Box Theatre’s multiethnic theatre troupe and their musical multimedia puppet shows have brought love, laughter and affirmation to over two million children. The Shadow Box Theatre is recognized as one of New York City’s major arts resources and is an award-winning non-profit repertory company dedicated to creativity, diversity and providing children with a positive view of themselves, their world and their future.
Map of Abundance, A Community Reading
Sunday, November 17, 2019 at 7:30 PM
Tracking turning points and moments of fulfillment from the smallest random glimpses of serenity to full on transcendence this evening of theater will take audiences on a tour of the Map of Abundance – life’s remarkable moments. Community players are invited to share a passage they’ve written or one dear to their heart. All will celebrate experiences of gratitude and what makes life worth living. Hopewell Theater will have pre-selected readings for those who want to participate but do not have a work to share. More details for auditions to be announced.
Be sure to sign up for our weekly e-blast to stay in the loop of exciting program updates, concessions specials, and other deals!
