Celebrate Glorious Poetry & Theatre at the Ocean County Library

TOMS RIVER – The Ocean County Library is pleased to present a tribute to National Poetry Month and to the heritage of the stage. Renowned actress Michèle LaRue will perform selections from Warren Kliewer’s Places, Please, Act One in April at two Ocean County Library branches.

• Toms River Branch – 6:30 PM Tuesday, April 1, 101 Washington Street, (732) 349-6200
• Little Egg Harbor Branch – 2 PM Friday, April 4, 290 Mathistown Road, (609) 294-1197

Michèle will bring an exuberant, theatrical flair to selected passages from four volumes by her mentor Warren Kliewer, including his Poems around and about theaters, which he called “a glimpse into the private lives of a public art form.”

Her vibrant interpretations of 41 speakers from 35 poems will dazzle you – daydreaming gardener, bewildered New York playwright, stubborn Kansas farm wife, nightmare-ridden scenic designer, accident-prone diva, adventurous eight-year-old, and many more.

Warren Kliewer (1931-1998) was a celebrated poet and essayist starting in the 1950s before beginning his own Act Two in the ‘70s, carving an equally deep niche as an actor, director, playwright and producer. In 1980 he founded the famed East Lynne Company, dedicated to reviving late 19th- and early 20th-century American plays and literature.

Michèle has devoted more than 30 years of her career to performances based on literature from America’s Gilded Age. Her evocative performance of Places, Please, Act One won raves in Back Stage Weekly and from theater notables including Angelo Verga, Curator of Poetry and Spoken Word at New York’s Cornelia Street Café; Allen Davis III, Director, Playwrights Unit, The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre of New York City; and Broadway costume designer Carrie Robbins.

The performances are supported by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Please register at https://tinyurl.com/OclPlaces to attend this free program in the branch of your choice. For more information, stop by or call either participating OCL branch. See the full schedule of Library programs in the online Calendar of Events.

OCL turns 100 this year and you’re why we’re celebrating! See details on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Spotify, Pinterest and www.theoceancountylibrary.org.