The Valley Arts District

Sunday night I was transported into a crucible of creativity. I was one of 52 people in Luna Space on Tompkins Street experiencing a play reading. Young playwright Matt Schatz has written The Tallest Building in the World, about the architect, engineer and Port Authority project manager planning the design and execution the World Trade Center. 

 

This was the first reading in the Luna 2009/2010 New Moon Reading Series. The quality of the reading/acting was remarkable and the power of the play eliminated the need for scenery. Everyone of us bought into the characters and their evolving conflicts despite the fact that they were sitting on folding chairs reading from scripts. 

 

A week earlier at the Daily Soup Café I experienced four soul singers who blew the roof off the place. ALT (A Love Thang) are four women with incredibly powerful voices – and the place was packed. The scene in the rear space of Daily Soup is a jazz café. Its BYOB with Daily Soup providing the food and set-ups. 

 

Both Luna Stage and Daily Soup are proving to be greater additions to the Valley Arts District then we first imagined. Check their websites and find out more. 

 

www.lunastage.org

 

www.dailysoup.com

 

Have you seen the banners? Fourteen of them mark Art Spots on both sides of the Orange/West Orange border within the 10-block ValleyArts District.