Livingston playwright Eric Alter will mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks with a free two-night show at Montclair's Grove Street Theater.
"Tributes," an evening of six short plays and three monologues, opens at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11, and runs again Saturday, Sept. 12. Admission is free. A $20 donation is suggested at the door, with all proceeds going to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City.
Alter, founder and artistic director of Apricot Sky Productions, wrote all nine pieces in the lineup. Many of the artists involved watched the Twin Towers fall from their own front steps, Patch reported.
"I didn't want to hit the audience over the head," Alter told Patch. "The goal is to balance the weight with some levity."
Not every piece is set on Sept. 11, 2001. One play, "The Eleventh of September," follows a man pulled in two directions until he must make a defining choice. Another, "And Now I Read to You," centers on a woman facing memory loss and the former student who returns to remind her what she meant to him.
Nearly 750 New Jersey residents were killed in the 2001 attacks. Alter, a Livingston native and member of the Dramatist Guild, has written 182 plays over his career. He also serves as director of the Deron School, the Montclair school that houses the 360-seat Grove Street Theater at 130 Grove St.
Apricot Sky Productions, which Alter founded in 1999, has staged more than 100 original plays. The company held a similar fundraiser for the 20th anniversary in 2021, raising $2,400 for the same museum, according to the company's website.
Credit and debit cards will not be accepted. Phone reservations at (973) 509-2350 are suggested. The show is for ages 12 and older.
Upcoming 9/11 remembrance events
- Friday, Sept. 11, 3 p.m.: Millburn remembrance ceremony at the Taylor Park Memorial (entrance near Main Street).
- Friday, Sept. 11, 4 p.m.: Livingston Ceremony of Remembrance at the 9/11 Living Memorial Garden on the Livingston Memorial Oval, honoring the seven Livingston residents killed in the attacks.
