Yesterday was the third annual Everything Jersey City Festival. What a marvelous day! The vendors came out, set up their tents, and the music was playing. This festival had just about everything I can imagine. A soccer field set up, kids activities including a wall to climb, face painting for all ages, & tattooing. All kinds of art, accessories, baby clothes, skin care and more. The restaurants had outdoor spaces or tents with all kinds of yummy things.
I walked around to the various booths and met many new people and businesses. My friend and client Florence of Hudson Theatre Ensemble was manning the booth for Hudson County Theatre Alliance, and we got a shot together.
So many interesting people came by. Being an environmentalist as well as a designer, and trying to spread the message about Frogs and amphibians being in trouble (Frogs Are Green) I was greeted by two guys, one with a snake around his neck, the other with an iguana. The frog lady just had to get in there…
Anyway, it was a banner day for Jersey City Heights! Gallery photos!
Sunday, May 2 felt more like August 2! It was 90+ degrees, humid and as I walked around, seeing friends, listening to musicians and handing out postcards for Frogs Are Green, the day was exhausting, but great as usual.
It was great seeing so many friends who’re also artists, among them were, Anna (Art by Anna, I have quite a few pieces of hers already!), Beth (Baublettes, have some rings and earrings), Florence (Hudson Theatre Ensemble, who was out there with my latest poster for “the 3 Little Pigs” advertising that next production which is coming in June). I didn’t get a chance to say howdy to Sissi (Face Capades) because the line sure was long with kids, (Hi Sissi!)
For the last few festivals, Mother Nature hasn’t been too kind, rain outs and wind, but when it’s a nice day, thousands of people flock to Washington St. I’m not sure how well the sales were given the economy, but they couldn’t have a bigger turnout, so hopefully everyone did well.
I met up with Mary Jo, my business partner for FROGS ARE GREEN, and off we went wearing our matching company t-shirts to alert all of Hoboken about our cause. We walked down Washington St. looking left and right to see the booths and handing out postcards as we walked. Once we got down to Newark St. we decided we needed to find a shady (and cooler) spot with good foot traffic.
Red-Eyed Tree Frog poster and postcard
Slightly around the corner from Starbucks was perfect! People coming from the PATH and people leaving to get to the PATH. What was quite interesting was the different types of people walking back and forth, and who was interested in what we were doing and who snubbed us. Older people, and families stopped and when kids saw our graphic with the lovely red-eyed tree frog, they’d squeal, ooooooooohhhh!
However, they don’t call it the “me” generation for no reason. I’ve never seen so many self-absorbed young adults in my life. They’d walk past ignoring us, texting into their phones or shooting dirty looks. Geez, I hate to tell you young people this, but this planet you’re living on—is yours too… so you better look around at what’s happening.
Anyway, we did hand out hundreds of cards, and hopefully each person at least read the card, even if they then trashed it. That’s our goal. To enlighten. We don’t care if they hang the card up, just that they are now aware of the crisis frogs and other amphibians face.
Later in the afternoon, I walked over to listen to Freedy Johnston (click to see Gallery shots). He’s awesome and wowed the crowd. If you haven’t yet heard him, check him out!
Freedy Johnston performs at the First Street Stage, Hoboken Arts & Music Festival, May 2, 2010
By the time I got home, I was beat, but it was a great day for us and for the FROGS!
I have been been working with the Hudson Theatre Ensemble since 2004. I always enjoy creating the graphics for each new show, but especially sweet is seeing each production. Over the years they have delighted me and captured audiences with their plays, musicals, original tales and adaptations of classics for young children from their own “Silly on Sixth!”
Over the last two weekends HTE blew me away with their production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I loved it so much the first time, I went to see it again this past weekend. The plays are located at the Hudson School Performance Space in Hoboken, NJ.
Adapted by nationally renowned playwright Jeffrey Hatcher from the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson. Hatcher’s fiendishly clever and complex psychological thriller is hipper, more erotic, and theatrically intense. ”But beware, this was definitely not your grandfather’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!”
It challenged us to look within and see that we are made up of both Jekyll and Hyde, and that no one is fully good or evil. The screams were authentic, the goose bumps I had real, and the intensity and acting outstanding! There were five Mr. Hydes and one is a woman.
The set design was simple and brilliant. A red door moves around the stage and the audience quickly associates where the door is with where we are in the story, the laboratory, someone’s home, a park, etc…
Bravo to the fabulous cast: Paul Berman, Anneli Curnock, Sam Egge, Lou Martino, Florence Pape, Emma Peele, Thomas Tyburski, and Toby Wherry.
To see fabulous photographs from the play by John Crittenden, click here.
I hope that this exciting play moves to NYC next, so they can thrill more audiences.
Poster design by Susan Newman for Hudson Theatre Ensemble
Adapted by nationally renowned playwright Jeffrey Hatcher from the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson.
But beware, this is definitely not your grandfather’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!
Hatcher’s fiendishly clever and complex psychological thriller is hipper, more erotic, and theatrically intense.
The Cast: Paul Berman, Anneli Curnock, Sam Egge, Lou Martino, Florence Pape, Emma Peele, Thomas Tyburski, Toby Wherry.
