Broadway actress to speak today at SCCC

NEWTON. The talk Wednesday is part of the Alpha Arts Institute’s Artist Lecture Series.

Newton /
| 01 Mar 2023 | 06:35

Broadway actress Charissa Bertels will share her experiences as a professional artist Wednesday, March 1 at Sussex County Community College (SCCC).

The talk at 1 p.m. in the college’s Student Center Theater, located in the Student Center, is free and open to the public.

It is part of the Alpha Arts Institute’s Artist Lecture Series featuring professional artists in the visual, performing and literary arts.

Professor James Jeffreys will host the series, which will feature a question-and-answer session after the lecture.

For information about the lecture series and to sign up, send email to jjeffreys@sussex.edu

‘A Christmas Story’

Bertels has performed on Broadway and at Madison Square Garden in “A Christmas Story” and toured the country in the first national tour of the musical “If/Then.” She was a member of the singing ensemble for New York City Center Encores’ productions of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Lady Be Good.”

 Bertels performed her original one-woman musical, “My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend,” at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company and the Human Race Theatre Company.

Her newest collaboration, “The Uncivil Ones,” features unheard female, non-binary and BIPOC voices from the American Civil War. 

She is a professor at New York Film Academy’s Professional Conservatory of Musical Theatre, a recent MFA recipient from the University of Idaho, and a member of Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA. 

The Alpha Arts Institute is planning its first Festival of the Arts, bringing together all disciplines of the arts in a three-day festival at the college the weekend of May 5-7. The institute is also organizing a film festival, complementing SCCC’s film program in collaboration with community leaders in film.

For information about upcoming events, go online to https://www.sussex.edu/community/alpha-arts-institute/

Funding has been made available in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, through the State/County Partnership Block Grant Program, as administered by the Sussex County Arts and Heritage Council.