NJN’s State of the Arts: Tales of Innocence and Experience
On NJN Public Television
Friday, January 21, at 8:30 pm; rebroadcast at 11:30 pm 

STATEWIDE – State of the Arts, NJN’s award-winning, half-hour arts magazine, invites viewers to explore the artistic and cultural worlds of New Jersey . On Friday, January 21, at 8:30 pm and again at 11:30 pm , State of the Arts presents Tales of Innocence and Experience, an episode exploring the worlds of love, theater and music through the eyes of the young – and the not so young! State of the Arts is streamed on the web site at www.njn.net. The program is closed captioned.

Harold and Maude
Based on the 1971 cult film, Harold and Maude: The Musical stars Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons in one of the most unconventional love stories ever written. When Harold, a 19-year-old obsessed with death, meets Maude, a vivacious and eccentric 70-year-old widow, an unlikely May-December romance blooms as Maude becomes a life-affirming beacon for this self-destructive rich boy. With music by newcomer Joseph Thalkin and lyrics by theater veteran Tom Jones (The Fantasticks), the very creation of Harold and Maude: The Musical offers another variation on the May-December theme. The musical will be performed at the Paper Mill Playhouse from January 5 th through February 13 th.

Student Composition Winner
Kyle Boatwright, a senior at Princeton Day School in Princeton , was last year’s Grand Prize winner of the Harmonium Choral Society competition for high school composers throughout New Jersey . The composition, entitled The Rain, is the setting for a poem by Robert Creeley. Boatwright plans to pursue a career in music and has studied composition with the renowned composer and jazz pianist Laurie Altman. State of the Arts introduces viewers to both teacher and student as a way of exploring how the proper mentor can create such a profound difference in the life and career of an artist.

State of the Arts is the recipient of 22 regional Emmy Awards including a 2004 Mid-Atlantic Emmy.

State of the Arts is produced by series producer Susan Wallner and executive producer Nila Aronow . Funding is provided by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.