Art Supports Art Auction - New Jersey Youth Theatre

Due largely to public demand as well as the need to raise funding, the New Jersey Youth Theatre (NJYT) is again planning to host the “Art Supports Art” auction at the James Ward Mansion, 169 East Broad Street on May 10, 2012 from 6 pm - 9pm in NJYT’s hometown of Westfield, New Jersey.  Attendees will have the opportunity to bid on an assortment of paintings, artistic items and jewelry.  Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students.

U.S. Treasures from East Hanover, New Jersey will again be supplying the artwork for the auction.  U.S. treasures, specializing in fine art, antiques and reproductions, acquires artwork from estates all over the tri-state area. Owner Avi Lugashi said, “We are happy to help an organization that does so much for the young people of New Jersey.  John Ward, owner of the New Orleans-inspired Mansion, has again graciously donated the venue for the event.  In this beautifully renovated mansion, guests will enjoy historic charm and elegance amid the mansion’s 24 foot ceilings, gold gilded architectural detail, spiral staircases, fireplaces, and French appointments.

Catering for the event will be donated by various companies, restaurants and individuals in the area including Feast Catering, Pastry Chic, Saladworks, El Toro Asado Restaurant and Pepsico.  NJYT alumni, who have starred in NJYT past summer productions, will lend their talents to provide the entertainment for the evening with vocals by Elyse Langely (“Kiss Me Kate,” “Ragtime”), Catherine Downey (“Carousel,” “Midnight Madness”), Amanda Maxfield (“Midnight Madness,” “South Pacific”), and James Smith (“Kiss Me, Kate,” “Rent”) with Geoff Langely and Gonzalo Valencia at the piano.

“All nonprofit arts organizations are feeling the crunch of this country’s present economy," said NJYT’s Artistic Director and founder, Cynthia Meryl.  “It is necessary to find ways other than ticket revenue and grants to keep our summer program free to participants and our school tuition as low as possible. We don’t just teach theatre.  Kids learn about teamwork and discipline, and  emerge with a lifetime appreciation of the arts,” she added.

“I’ve not yet come into a class where I wasn’t the best-informed student in the room,” said alumnus Caroline Moore.  It is no wonder that NJYT performances have caught the eye of theatre reviewer Peter Filichia, who called NJYT's “Carousel” the “Best Surprise of 2007,”  “Ragtime, the Musical” and “Sweeney Todd” New Jersey’s “Best Musical Revivals" of 2006 and 2009, and last summer’s “Kiss Me, Kate” an “astonishment.”

While NJYT’s summer program has been free to participating youth for 21 years, the nonprofit theatre will incur expenses of more than $115,000 this coming summer for its professional-grade summer production of “Smokey Joe’s Café” in association with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark.  This joint venture produced by NJYT and NJPAC will be presented this year for the first time at Montclair State University’s Kasser Theatre July 18-22, 2012 and at the Sitnick Theatre at the Lackland Performing Arts Center in Hackettstown July 26-29, 2012. NJYT hopes to cover more than half of the expenses through contributions and special events such as the “Art Supports Art” Auction and NJYT’s annual car wash.  Two River Community Bank, 520 South Avenue in Westfield, has again invited NJYT to hold its 21st annual car wash on its premises on May 5 from 2PM – 5PM. 

For further information about either of the above-mentioned fundraisers or supporting NJYT, please call 908-233-3200 or visit www.njyouththeatre.org. 

ABOUT NEW JERSEY YOUTH THEATRE (NJYT)

Founded in 1991, NJYT (formerly the Westfield Young Artists’ Cooperative Theatre or WYACT) has produced more than 40 main-stage productions.  For fourteen years, NJYT’s award-winning summer programs have been co-produced with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and also at the Algonquin Arts Theatre in Manasquan, New Jersey.  The productions, ranging from “Carousel” to “West Side Story” (winner of the Music Theatre International Award of Excellence) to “Rent,” have served more than 80,000 patrons from the tri-state area and more than 2000 talented young performers from the Garden State. 

Since 1991, from October through mid-May, New Jersey Youth Theatre’s School for the Performing Arts, located at 172 W. Westfield Avenue in Roselle Park, has offered classes in drama, dance, musical theatre, and voice to young performing artists eight to twenty years of age.  Cynthia Meryl offers free audition workshops each year to public schools in various communities state-wide. 

The mission of NJYT is to provide the highest-quality theatre-arts education and professional-level on-stage experience at little or no cost to aspiring young performers and technicians.