N.J. Theater Alliance invites you back if you’re vaxed and masked

Masks will be a must this season at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre Center, along with proof of vaccination for anyone over 12. Children under 12, along with people who are unvaccinated for religious or medical reasons, must show proof of a negative PCR test taken with 72 hours of the performance or a negative antigen test taken within six hours of showtime.

These same guidelines are being followed by at least two dozen theater company members of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, including the Eagle Theatre in Hammonton, the East Lynne Theatre Co. in Cape May, and the Passage Theatre Co. in Trenton.

It’s part of the alliance’s “Opening Night, Opening Right” anti-COVID-19 campaign. “In conversations with our audiences and artists, we know that there is a great desire to come together and share the experience of live performance. The science of masks, vaccines, and tests will help make this happen,” Sarah Rasmussen, McCarter’s artistic director, said in a statement.

» READ MORE: These are the Philadelphia performance venues and festivals that require proof of vaccination

Pig Iron Theatre Company’s offering for the annual Philly Fringe Festival always stands out as a highlight. This year, the company reprises its poignant 2006 Fringe premiere, Love Unpunished, which imagines the moments just before the collapse of the World Trade Center towers during the 9/11 attacks 20 years ago.

The dance-theater piece, mostly wordless, makes no specific reference to the attacks, but its set evokes the movement between chaos and calm, between life and memory, as waiters, traders, custodians, and secretaries, move up and down the set, a 20-foot escape staircase.

Set designer Mimi Lien was the first set designer to be named a MacArthur Fellow, receiving what is informally known as the MacArthur genius grant.

Copresented by Swarthmore College, Sept. 3-11, Prince Theater, 1412 Chestnut St.

11th Hour Theatre Company cofounder and producing artistic director Michael Philip O’Brien will be leaving the boutique musical theater company to become the new executive producer at Gretna Theatre in Mount Gretna, Pa., near Hershey.

But O’Brien, who has led 11th Hour for 16 seasons, isn’t escaping without a final show, Soon, which will be staged at Christ Church Neighborhood House Oct. 28 through Nov. 7.

Written by Nick Blaemire and in coproduction with Lancaster’s Prima Theatre, Soon centers on the humorous musings of a young woman, who, anticipating a catastrophe, takes to her sofa with peanut butter, Wolf Blitzer, … and Herschel, the fish.

The theater company’s other cofounder, Steve Pacek, will become transitional artistic director. He’s been the longest-serving board member at Theatre Philadelphia, the city’s umbrella theater marketing organization.

Lantern Theater Company’s 2021-2022 season starts online this fall with Me and the Devil (streaming Sept. 9-Oct. 17) about a blues musician’s deal with you-know-who, and The Plague (Oct. 7-Nov. 7), the American premiere of Neil Bartlett’s adaption of the Camus novel.

For the holidays, Lantern returns to live theater with Anthony Lawton’s acclaimed performance of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (Dec. 3-30).

In 2022, live theater begins in earnest with four productions: Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation or the Re-Education of Undine, Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, and Tom Stoppard’s Travesties, plus a fourth play, not yet announced.

Season details at lanterntheater.org.

The new Cannonball Festival, a festival within the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, is named to evoke one of those big, exuberant jumps into a swimming pool. “You jump into the pool, and you make a really big splash,” said Ben Grinberg, cofounder of Almanac Dance Circus Theatre, which is producing the Cannonball Festival Sept. 9 through Oct. 9 in conjunction with the owners of the Maas Building, near Fifth Street and Girard Avenue.

By pooling their resources and producing their shows in one venue, Cannonball’s artists “can make a bigger splash than we would if we were all producing our shows at separate corners of the pool,” Grinberg explained.

For a fee, Cannonball’s organizers take care of ticketing, organize the venue, handle lighting and sound, and help with setting up and tearing down between shows, all tasks show creators must accomplish themselves in the Fringe.

In addition to 100-plus performances of approximately 30 shows, the Cannonball will present Overboard! Cabaret. Look for a bar and ever-changing lineup of music, storytelling, “strange anthems to toaster ovens,” and circus. Grinberg hopes it will become a post-festival hangout.

The lineup, playing in repertoire Sept. 5-17, includes $7 Girl, about sex workers; Awoke the Musical, about incarceration; and Violence of the Lambs, where the animals take over, and many dance/circus performances. Grinberg himself will perform in Happy Hour, an immersive dance piece from Almanac, and Permission to Monster, Almanac’s offering for young audiences.

“It’s very ambitious,” Grinberg said. “We feel like we’re being shot out of a cannon.”

Details and tickets at cannonballfestival.org.