This week’s State of the Arts program begins with a feature we produced about 15-year-old Jay Gaunt, an amazing young blues and jazz harmonic player. (Read More)
Our NJN film crew spent three days with Jay, following him from one end of New Jersey to other. Meeting Jay made me think about how mysterious real talent is. His parents aren’t musicians, nobody in his family was a musician, and there was nothing in his upbringing, at least on the surface, that would make you think he would become a blues harmonica player.
Jay at Saddle River Day School
Our first day was at his high school, the Saddle River Day School. It was a Monday, the only day all the boys wear their blue blazer uniforms. The preppy look just accentuated the contrast between the mild mannered high school kid and the blues power house Jay becomes on stage. At first, he was embarrassed to have our NJN crew following him around school. I felt like a pushy producer, but he got over it, and we got some good candid footage. Continue Reading »
Tyne Daly and Rosie O’Donnell are just two of the stars now appearing in Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron’s new play on Broadway, “Love, Loss, and What I Wore.” The New York Times calls it a “show about matters of the heart and matters of the closet.” It’s based on the book by Ilene Beckerman, who was a guest on State of the Arts in 1996. A self-described “grandmother from New Jersey,” her first book – a kind of visual memoir – had become a surprise bestseller. In this interview with Amber Edwards, Ilene, or “Gingy,” describes a dream she had of a dress. It motivated her to create her first drawing for what became “Love, Loss, and What I Wore.”
As producers of State of the Arts, Eric, Chris, and I see what’s happening on New Jersey’s cultural scene from a particular, sometimes frustrating, vantage point. An exciting international artist might be in town, but timing makes it impossible to cover. An up and coming writer might be giving a workshop, but we know it’s a story that will be tough to tell in images. As producers, we are constantly debating how to spend our precious production resources. Then there are the stories we wish we could spend an hour on, instead of the allotted 10 minutes or so. Emily Mann’s 20th anniversary as artistic director at the McCarter Theatre was one of these.
Emily Mann at her first press conference, 1990 (photo by Randall Hagadorn)
