Tales of Innocence and Experience
On NJN’s State of the Arts
Friday, September 1 at 8:30 pm; and Wednesday, September 6 at 11:30 pm

STATEWIDE – NJN’s State of the Arts explores the worlds of love, theater, and music through the eyes of the young — and the not so young! This encore presentation of Tales of Innocence and Experience airs on NJN on Friday, September 1 at 8:30 pm, with a rebroadcast on Wednesday, September 6 at 11:30 pm.

• Harold & Maude: The Musical
Based on the 1971 cult film, the Paper Mill Playhouse 2005 premiere of Harold & Maude: The Musical starred 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 79-year-old widow, an unlikely May-December romance blooms, as Maude becomes a life-affirming beacon for this self-destructive rich boy. As State of the Arts producer Amber Edwards shows, the music by newcomer Joseph Thalkin and the lyrics by theater veteran Tom Jones (The Fantasticks) makes the very creation of Harold & Maude: The Musical yet another variation on the May-December theme.

• Kyle Boatwright, Student Composer
Kyle Boatwright’s choral composition Rain was the Grand Prize winner of the 2004 Harmonium Choral Society competition for high school composers throughout New Jersey. Her winning composition is set to a poem by Robert Creeley. Boatwright, then a junior at Princeton Day School, in Princeton, New Jersey, plans to pursue a career in music. At the Princeton Day School she studied composition with the renowned composer and jazz pianist Laurie Altman. State of the Arts producer Eric Schultz introduces viewers to both teacher and student, as a way of exploring how the right mentor can make a profound difference in the life and career of an artist.

• Bucky And John Pizzarelli
Most people have heard of the charismatic jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli. Jazz devotees probably knew about his dad Bucky first. As Bucky tells it, John avoided jazz — a genre his father had mastered — and played rock music before going full circle to become one of the most famous contemporary jazz musicians in the world. State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa visits with Bucky at his home in Saddle River, New Jersey, and learns about his career and his musical family – including how a musical father can influence his musical son.

• Fusaye Kazaoka, Japanese Dollmaker
Born in California in the 1930’s, Fusaye Kazaoka saw her childhood shattered when Japanese-Americans living on the west coast were deported to internment camps following the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the war, Kazaoka and her family found both work and tolerance in Charles Seabrook’s vegetable processing plant in Seabrook, New Jersey. Currently living in Bridgeton, Kazaoka is a master of both Japanese doll making and origami and is committed to sharing with others the arts and culture of her family’s native Japan.

State of the Arts, the award-winning, half-hour arts magazine airs every Friday at 8:30 pm, followed by an encore presentation each Wednesday at 11:30 pm.

The current episode of State of the Arts can be viewed online at www.njn.net. Individual stories will be available to view online following their broadcast by visiting the program online at State of the Arts.

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