NEW BRUNSWICK – It’s been a while since she last officially “acted” in a grade school production, but State Senator Barbara Buono said she is ready for her opening night, guest appearance Friday at the George Street Playhouse comedy production of “Inspecting Carol.”
“I think it must have been back in the sixth grade,” Senator Buono, D-Middlesex, said of her last play participation. “We did a class play every year.”
The lawyer-trained mother who is a full-time legislator said family life and lawmaking left little spare time for her to be actively engaged in her lifelong interest in the arts.
“My husband (Martin) and I get to New York when we can, but it’s also very important to maintain the vitality of live regional theater like we have right here at the George Street Playhouse,” Senator Buono said.
Senator Buono’s role as Betty Andrews, an inspector for the National Endowment for the Arts, has several lines in parts of the comedy described by the Home News Tribune as “at the center of the mayhem.”
The comedy by Daniel Sullivan and the Seattle Reportory Company is about a dysfunctional regional theater group and its annual attempt to present the Charles Dickens classic, “A Christmas Carol.”
It runs through December 31st and features a different guest NEA inspector nightly.
Other guests in the production include former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman who will follow Senator Buono with a guest appearance scheduled for this Saturday.