Venue: 4th Wall Theatre, Inc.
Town: Bloomfield, US

4th Wall Theatre, Inc. (aka 4th Wall Musical Theatre) is a non-equity theatre company in residence at the Westminster Arts Center on the campus of Bloomfield College, in Bloomfield, New Jersey, approximately 10 miles from Manhattan. The group derived its name from the theatre term the fourth wall coined by Denis Diderot which describes it as “the imaginary wall at the front of the stage in a proscenium, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play”. Friends, who all worked as performers or artistic staff members at the Montclair Operetta Club in Montclair, NJ, conceived the idea of the non-profit 4th Wall Musical Theatre in 1996. The original founding members included Mark Frawley and Deborah Martin (artistic directors) with original board members, Richard Colonna, Lisa Hughes, Kathi Iannacone, Ed Kamholz, Nancy Marino, Gwen Ricks-Spencer, along with Charles Alexander Hay and Beth Vecchio. The group wanted to do smaller, lesser known musicals which focused more on ensemble work, rather than serving as a “star” vehicle for a performer. The group was incorporated in 1997 and began work its first fundraising production Star Dust: A Tribute to the Music of the 1940s. This was followed by production of the group's first full-length show, the musical Working, based on Studs Terkels’ book of the same name with music by a variety of artists including Stephen Schwartz, James Taylor and Micki Grant to name a few. During 4th Wall's early years, the group continued to fine tune its mission and saw both audience growth and critical recognition for its presentations of musicals such as Pippin, Is there life after high school?, Godspell, Falsettos, Violet and A New Brain in addition to many others. The group produced at the Morristown-Beard School in Morristown, NJ. In 2002, 4th Wall was asked by the Bickford Theatre, located in the Morris Museum, to begin producing in its state-of-the-art theatre space. 4th Wall moved and presented musicals such as Songs fo