Modeled after National Public Radio’s Selected Shorts at Symphony Space, Jersey Shorts will feature prominent local figures for readings of funny and inspiring short stories, along with local musical acts for a night of story and song.

Jersey Shorts will take place Friday, February 10th, 8 – 10 pm at 252 9th Street, just off Hamilton Park.

Richardson Makes Ward F Choice: Before departing on an 11-day Caribbean cruise, newly elected Councilwoman at large Viola Richardson has chosen Michele Massey to succeed her as the council representative for Ward F, says the Journal‘s Augustin C. Torres.

Ramos Calls for Hospital Sale Delay: Concerned about the “rising trend” of for-profit hospitals, District 33 Assemblyman Ruben Ramos has asked the state attorney general to deny Christ Hospital’s request that its pending sale to Prime Healthcare Services be expedited so the deal can be completed before the end of the year.

Jersey City Author Dies: Author, columnist and political enthusiast Matthew F. Amato Jr., of Jersey City, died Wednesday. He was 64.

Crime Blotter: Jersey City cops patrolling near Journal Square nabbed a felon they say was beating a man while trying to take his bike yesterday, officials said; Jersey City police charged a Bayonne woman with driving while intoxicated after her SUV crashed through a chain-link fence and landed on the Kill Van Kull shoreline; a Jersey City man charged with burglarizing the home of a Bayonne police officer and three other residences was arrested after giving police a fake name and finding there was a warrant for that man’s arrest, officials said.

City Offices Closed Today: Municipal offices are closed today for Veterans Day. Regular trash pick-ups will continue, but don’t worry about your car — street sweepings are suspended, according to the city’s website.

Today’s Best Bets:

If you are one of the lucky few who has Veterans Day off, pay your respects at Honoring Our Heroes, a military and musical tribute from noon to 5 pm at Historic Jersey City & Harsimus Cemetery.

It’s 11-11-11! Get your numerology on with Dead Prez, headlining a benefit show for Urban Art Beat at Parlay Studios. Doors open at 8:30 pm. If ’80s music is more your speed, cover band White Wedding plays a show at Zeppelin Hall at 9 pm.

Two Plays Open Tonight: NJCU’s Department of Music, Dance and Theatre presents the musical comedy City of Angels, directed by Marc G. Dalio, which opens tonight at 7:30 pm. At 8 pm, the Attic Ensemble begins a run of Geoffrey Nauffts’ Next Fall — a witty and provocative look at faith, commitment and unconditional love.

Also at 8 pm, Your Move, Jersey City’s second-annual modern dance series, features Lauren Connolly, Alexis Convento, Valerie Green / Dance Entropy and more.

In Statewide News:

Murders Rose in 2010: Murders in New Jersey were up 16 percent last year, and they increased in all corners of the state, from rural towns to the largest the cities, according to statistics released yesterday by the State Police.

NFL Opposes Sports Betting in New Jersey: An NFL spokesman said Thursday that the league has “a long-held unwavering opposition to gambling on NFL games,” but declined to comment on whether the 2014 Super Bowl could become leverage in stopping New Jersey’s plans.

Legislative Democrats Pick Teams: The majority Democrats in the New Jersey Legislature picked their leadership teams Thursday, promising to get tough with Republican Gov. Chris Christie. State Sen. Loretta Weinberg of Teaneck — a frequent critic of Gov. Christie — was unanimously selected by the Senate’s Democratic caucus to serve as its majority leader.

Sweeney and Oliver Face Questions About Norcross: At a joint press conference yesterday, Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) yesterday vowed to stand up to Republican Gov. Chris Christie, but found themselves answering questions about whether they would be answering to South Jersey power broker George Norcross II and Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo.

State Supreme Court to Hear Judge Pension Case: The legal battle over whether New Jersey state judges and justices should have to pay more for their pension and health benefits will be heard by the state Supreme Court and not a state Appellate Court, according to an order signed by Justice Virginia A. Long.

State Eyes Public-Private Partnerships: Officials in Gov. Christie’s administration are close to recommending New Jersey join 23 other states in passing a law authorizing public-private partnerships, a senior official said today.

U.S. Senate Won’t Allow Blocking of EPA Rule on Cross-State Emissions: The U.S. Senate Thursday rejected an effort to block an Environmental Protection Agency rule that would limit polluted air from crossing state lines and affecting downwind states. The regulation would require coal plants in New Jersey and 26 other states to cut polluted emissions that drift across state lines.

Vets Get Preference for Jobs at Port: The International Longshoremen’s Association union and the New York Shipping Association announced that veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan will receive preferential treatment in hiring as jobs become available at the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Head of BPU Steps Down: Board of Public Utilities President Lee Solomon, who oversaw dramatic changes in New Jersey’s energy policies over the past two years, is stepping down from his post.

Gov. Christie Approves Charter Schools: Legislation signed yesterday by Gov. Chris Christie will allow private schools in struggling districts to become charter schools. With two virtual charter schools approved in New Jersey and a third proposed, legislators and advocates are pressing the state to bring its laws up to date with the technology.

Primary Care Shortage: Teaching hospitals are adding primary care residencies, but despite best efforts New Jersey still faces a looming shortage of primary care physicians.

Getting Energy from Biomass: A special panel advising the Christie administration recommended the state build renewable biomass facilities to produce electricity or fuel in the next two to three years.

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TODAY

The Golden Door International Film festival launched last night with a gala opening and screenings of Rohit Gupta’s Another Day Another Life and Sam Borowski’s Night Club at the Loews Jersey Theatre, and films and Q&As continue all weekend. More films screen tonight at the Loews and Art House Productions (starting at 5 pm), with an after party scheduled at Skinner’s Loft. On Saturday, films screen at Studio III VII I, Art House and Bar Majestic (1 to 7 pm), with an after party at Bar Majestic; films include Lily of the Feast, a mafia-themed short starring Paul Sorvino and Federico Castelluccio that was shot in Jersey City. Films screen Sunday at previously mentioned venues and LITM (noon to 5 pm); Sorvino and Academy Award-winning producer-director Leon Gast will be honored at an awards ceremony Sunday (6:30 pm).

It’s a good weekend to be a beer lover. Bar Majestic’s annual Oktoberfest brings a block party to Grove Street outside the bar-restaurant and features brews by Hudson County’s own New Jersey Beer Co. (4 pm to midnight). Zeppelin Hall’s Oktoberfest offers live music by Breidenbach (9 pm to 1 am) and eight Oktoberfest beers on tap. Oktoberfest continues at Zeppelin Hall on Saturday with Breidenbach playing again (5 to 9 pm) and Alpine Squeeze (9 pm to 1 am), plus eight different Oktoberfest beers.

J CITY Theater’s production of Race by David Mamet continues (8 pm tonight and Saturday).

TOMORROW

If you don’t mind getting up early, head to Iris Records to comb through 20-plus boxes of records of all genres that the store is giving away to make room for new inventory. The record free-for-all starts at 7 am and new stock goes on sale at noon.

Check out the closing reception for the inaugural exhibition at WOOLPUNKstudios, which includes artists Caroline Burton, Lisa Dahl, Margaret Murphy, Jon Rappleye, Allison Green, Stephanie Romano and Carol Westfall (2 pm).

Don’t miss Insurgo Stage Projects and Downtown Live’s presentation Art in Motion: This Body, featuring an art installation by Ceallaigh Pender, video by Eugene Yu, and performances by M. Hille Refakis, Elena Callahan, Avianna Perez, Magda Polkowska, Susan Quinn and Kathy Stout. $10 at the door (8 pm).

J CITY’s art exhibition space, Gallery 9, hosts a reception for photographer Noa Griffel (2 pm).

SUNDAY

It feels more fall-like than last weekend, that’s for sure, and Stevens Cooperative School’s 13th annual Harvest Festival celebrates the season with food, arts and crafts, games and activities for kids of all ages. The event is free but ticket sales for food, games and activities benefit the school (11 am to 4 pm).

Curious Matter is showing “Dividing Light Measuring Darkness,” with work by 23 artists (Noon to 3 pm).

Attention DJs: Check out Downtown Live’s monthly forum for DJs to meet, make music and network. DJ Pastiche is your host (4 to 7 pm).

A week before the show my director came to me and said, “Don’t freak out or anything, but there is going to be a BIG wedding until 8 pm in the same venue where we are doing the show at 8:30 pm on the same night.”

Me: “Um … OK well, there’s no going back; we have already put out show cards and publicity, started a Facebook page and created a whole art installation with multiple artists around this show.” So “the show must go on”! Wedding- schmedding, we have got a whole half an hour to take over the space, set the stage, clear out the wedding and … sure, we can do this, no problem.

We quickly down scaled the show. Our set became just one moveable dollhouse, a chair and an end table (it was going to be a desk but desks take up space and are hard to move). I planned on getting into costume, doing hair and makeup at home, having someone at the door to greet any early comers and we are a go.

My director and I both work and have families, so we only scheduled four rehearsals of the show in the actual space. We saved most of the sound, lighting and even a bit of the staging for the final dress rehearsal. But when we got to the church the night before the show we found that the BIG, BIG wedding had already taken over the space.

So we wing it.

I get to the church at 7:45 pm opening night and surprise, surprise the BIG, BIG, BIG wedding is still very much “IN” the space. Photos are being taken; gifts are in piles from one end of the church to the other. The church is in full lavender and white bloom complete with arbors, flowers and massive tufts tulle. The radiant bride and the dapper groom along with their arbors and tulle do not appear to be in a great hurry to depart. And … whole walls of art have disappeared from the show, artists are on their way and their $800 pieces are gone!?! And oh yeah, I have a show to put on.

OK, I can do this.

But then my director’s wife calls. “Gabby, I don’t want you to worry but we might not make the show.” WHAT?!? (My director is also in charge of sound, lighting, the backdrop photos and movie that were in the show, yep basically everything.) It turns out that they were in an accident (not their fault) on the way to the performance and someone had quite literally BROKEN A LEG. They were being held for police questioning when she made the call. Really!

And it’s now 8 pm.

A few friends arrive; one agrees to do the sound, another lighting. We all send out good vibes to my director and his wife and pray that everything is going to be OK for them. The rest we can just do without and once again we are back on track. The artwork has been located, the walls are back up and the BIG, BIG, BIG wedding is magically wrapping up and they have even agreed to let us keep the chairs that are set up for the show.

8:15 pm: My Director and his saintly wife arrive. OK, yes, there is a god!

8:30 pm: We have an audience seated in the lovely (and comfy) borrowed wedding chairs and it’s better than anything we ever hoped for. A full house! We are a go with show! By this time all of us are thinking ahead to the after-party and really looking forward to a few beverages after the show. But then … my mother calls me.

“Uh mom, I’m about to start the show, aren’t you here?” I ask. Mom: “My car just got towed from the BJ’s parking lot … with the wine for the after-party in it.” Well, of course it did.

And I went on … as in on stage … from there. The show got a standing ovation, my mom and the friends that helped her get her car out hock made it back for the show and even the wine came through in the end. The really big wedding sent over the left over really big wedding cake and we all survived. Heck we did more than survive; it was an amazing evening.

For the past week or so, I have been reading about and watching Occupy Wall Street, and our own local Occupy JC and I have really, really wanted to get involved and help out in some way. But I keep making excuses, like I have to pick the kids up from school and get them to their various activities. Homework, dinner and high school entrance exams are my priorities right now and so on.

But as I reflect back on the play I am beginning to realize that these really are just excuses. I could have given up at any time during the course of that crazy evening and no one would have faulted me for it.

Homework, dinner and high school exams are all things that I am doing for my kids. They are important and they really do have to get done. But I know I can do both. And becoming active in all of this may mean more to them and their future than any of the other stuff.

In the end, “the show must go on” and this is a BIG, BIG, BIG show. This is “show” Wall Street, “show” corporate America, “show” the politicians and — yes — “show” us that we have a voice and we will be heard.

This has been a long, painful journey for me and I realized quite some time back that all of this is not “their” fault. It’s my fault. I bought into whatever it was they were selling lock, stock and barrel and I made one hell of a mess out of my life and my family’s life in the process.

But this isn’t about placing blame (at least not for me). It’s about addressing the white elephant in the middle of the room and “calling a spade a spade.” If I don’t speak out then I run the risk of leading my kids down the same path that has derailed my life and led me astray.

I definitely do not want this for them.

So obstacles or not, the show will go on. I’m part of the 99% and I am ready to be heard. How about you?

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TODAY

58 Gallery hosts an opening reception for its annual group exhibition tonight; the show features work by a few handfuls of talented artists: Beau Stanton, Dylan Egon, Fefe Talavera, Isaac Fortoul, Joe Russo, John Besante, Kai Margarida-Ramirez de Arellano, Lenny ‘lny’ Correa, Melissa Cody, Nyugen Smith, Scott Albrecht and Sean’ 9′ Lugo (7 pm).

J CITY Theater kicks off its New Jersey premier of David Mamet’s Race this weekend (8 pm tonight and Saturday), while Hudson Pride Connections Center hosts A Night at the Paradise Burlesque as it gears up for Sunday’s Pride Festival (8:30 pm tonight; 8 pm and 10:30 pm Saturday).

And speaking of Pride, there are a few other worthy Pride-related events tonight. Chillfest hosts a free screening of the documentary Outrage at City Hall (7 pm), while Gayborhood Jersey City and Pint team up for an Oktoberfest event at the latter (9 pm).

SATURDAY

Boxing fans and history buffs will want to check out the free afternoon talk at the New Jersey Room by Jim Waltzer, the author of The Battle of the Century: Dempsey, Carpentier, and the Birth of Modern Promotion (2 pm). Later on, the Pershing Field Babe Ruth League hosts a tricky tray auction and dinner fundraiser for the little baseballers (6 pm). And the Lamp Post hosts a great bill of intense rock, with No Pasaran!, They Had Faces Then and Polyabuse (10 pm).

SUNDAY

Forget resting, Sunday is jam-packed with stuff to do around Jersey City.

First up, there’s the massive 2011 Hudson Pride Festival & Parade. Forced to move from its original August date to October due to Hurricane Irene, the festival features tons of live music, vendors, food and more at Exchange Place (11 am to 7 pm). Once that’s done, there’s also the Official After-Pride Block Party at and outside of Hard Grove Cafe (7 pm).

On a related front, Chillfest presents a screening at LITM today of We Were Here, the acclaimed documentary that explores how San Francisco’s gay and lesbian community came together with compassion and determination in response to the AIDS epidemic (4 pm).

Elsewhere, there is the annual Columbus Day Parade, ending at City Hall; a “From Broadway to Hollywood” organ concert at the Loew’s (3 pm); and the one-year anniversary party for Madame Claude Wine (7 pm).

But that’s just what happened to J CITY Theater, which this week will produce the New Jersey premier of David Mamet’s Race — a show that was wowing audiences on Broadway just last year.

“When we learned that David Mamet had agreed to let our company be the New Jersey premier of Race, we were at first over the moon with excitement — then scared to death,” says J CITY executive producer Clay Cockrell. “I think this opportunity is a real testament to the grow and quality of our company. In the end, it’s the same with every script we approach: tell the story and tell it well.”

J CITY will stage 10 performances of the show, a legal drama/detective story that follows three lawyers who find themselves defending a rich, white businessman accused of a crime against a young African-American woman.

“As one of America’s leading playwrights, Mamet is doing what he does best: choosing an incendiary topic and then asking more questions than he answers,” J CITY says in promotional materials. “Race has the quick banter of Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, the gloves-off approach of his Speed The Plow and provocative subject matter of Oleanna.”

The cast for Race will feature a number of Jersey City residents: Ron Nummi as Charles Strickland, Dianna Lauren Jones as Susan, and Sandy Cockrell as Jack Lawson. (NYC’s Brian Richardson rounds out the cast as Henry Brown.)

Cockrell, who also serves as J CITY’s artistic director, says Mamet’s script fits in well with the overall mission of the troupe.

“When we started J CITY Theater, our goal was to present cutting edge scripts that would challenge us and our audiences,” she says. “Race asks more questions than it answers, and for me as a director and an actress, that’s very attractive.”

As it usually does, J CITY has teamed up with local restaurants to offer Dinner and a Show deals. The Embankment will offer a $30 prix fixe menu on performance nights, while the Hamilton Inn will offer 10 percent of the entire bill for theater-goers.

In addition, J CITY’s exhibition space, Gallery 9, will feature photography by Noa Griffel in a show curated by Hernando Rico Sanchez (a special artist reception is scheduled for Saturday, October 15, from 2 to 4 pm).

THE DETAILS

J CITY Theater presents Race; at The Underground Theater at St. Michael’s Church, 252 9th Street. Show opens Friday, October 7 and runs on Wednesdays through Saturdays, until Saturday, October 22. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased in advance via Brown Paper Tickets.

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TODAY

The City Love Project, an interactive public art show, comes to Jersey City today, stopping in McGinley Square (9 am), Journal Square (1 pm) and the Creative Grove Artist Market downtown today (5 pm). Participants will paint “what their city loves,” transforming a canvas “into a living portrait of the city through the eyes of the people,” according to the project’s website.

You can attend a gospel concert or just practice your line dancing at the annual festival at St. Aedan’s Parish, which offers live music, dancing, karaoke and entertainment all weekend.

The fundraiser for the upcoming production of Your Move, Jersey City’s second annual modern dance series, includes live music by Sylvana Joyce and The Moment, PHWG and DJ Purple Stuff, as well as innovative movement performances by Insurgo Stage Project, raffles, treats, and more (8 pm at Art House Productions).

At Grace Church, Con Vivo opens its new season with a free concert featuring three pieces of classical music — Pierrot Lunaire by Arnold Schoenberg, Stories from my Grandmother by Lembit Beecher and Four Nocturnes from The Oblivion Ha-Ha by Carl Schimmel (8 pm).

On stage, the Attic Ensemble’s comedy Fully Committed continues through the weekend (8 pm tonight and Saturday; 3 pm Sunday); while Puccini’s opera La Boheme is at NJCU’s West Side Theatre all weekend as well (7:30 pm tonight and Saturday; 3 pm Sunday).

SATURDAY

There are festivals galore this weekend. The Irish Festival kicks off at 11 am at Exchange Place, with music by Black 47, Celtic Thunder and the Eamon Ryan Band, plus food and drink (11 am to 10 pm). The Jersey City Greek Festival begins at noon at the Evangelismos Greek Orthodox Church on Montgomery Street, with Greek and American music, homemade Greek pastries and other food and drink; Saturday night will turn into Taverna Night, complete with an indoor bar, DJ and food stands (noon to midnight, also Sunday from noon to 8 pm).

The Hamilton Park BBQ Festival offers a not-to-be-missed lineup of bands and BBQ, and funds raised will benefit the Hamilton Park Conservancy. Most of the vendors at this year’s festival will be familiar to the hundreds who turned out last year; Jimmy’s BBQ (Pennsylvania), Joey’s BBQ (Hoboken) and Legal Beans (Jersey City) will all be returning to fire up their grills, and Made with Love and Tamworth Supper Club, both of Jersey City, will both return to offer desserts. The Hamilton Inn will make a reprise appearance at the festival, but it will have food in addition to the drinks it served last year; it will be joined by Bar Majestic, which will also serve both food and drinks this year. New Jersey Beer Company will also be on site, serving beer on tap, and Fizzy Lizzy will be there with its natural sodas (12 to 8 pm).

Double-feature: The Loew’s Jersey Theatre tonight presents Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run (6:15 pm), part of the “For Money, Love or Laughs” — Capers in the Movies — Weekend at the Loew’s. Stick around to watch Paul Newman and Robert Redford in The Sting at 8:15 pm.

SUNDAY

Enjoy a classical piano concert by Yukiko Tanaka, who will play a number of classical selections on the piano — including the Bach-Busoni Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, and Chopin’s Polonaise in F# Minor — at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (12:30 pm).

Jersey City Art School founder Thomas John Carlson celebrates the official “Going into Business Sale” of his Jersey City Art School Workshop, located just a few blocks from the school’s home base. Today’s grand opening for the 1,800 square foot facility features art (on display and for sale) by Ana Benaroya, Kiva Ford, Matt Caputo, Norm Kirby and Thomas John Carlson; refreshments; and live music by Michaal Tarlazzi and Gabe Perry (2 to 8 pm).

And break out your best “creative black tie” for the Attic Ensemble’s 40th Anniversary Gala, with cocktails, a buffet dinner, a silent auction and other surprises. Tickets are $100, and you can also purchase a $150 ticket, which includes a discounted subscription to the 2011-2012 season (6 pm).

This year’s gala is especially significant, as the Attic Ensemble celebrates its 40th year in existence. The group, which started in an attic in Bayonne (hence the name), has come to be a leader in Jersey City’s independent theater scene.

At the “Creative Black Tie” gala, the Attic Ensemble will honor retired JCPD detective/community activist/actor Calvin Hart; Robert P. Iezzi of Craft Signs, which donates signage to the ensemble; longtime supporter Robert M. Mason, Jr. of Provident Bank; St. John’s Lutheran Church’s Annemarie Oest, who donates cakes for intermissions in Attic’s productions; and Attic supporters/advisors/actors Nathan and Nancy Sambul. The honorees were all chosen “because of the outstanding leadership they display within our community,” the group notes.

Sunday’s gala features a cocktail hour, a buffet dinner, a silent auction and other surprises. Tickets are $100, and you can also purchase a $150 ticket, which includes a discounted subscription to the 2011-2012 season. Tickets can be purchased online via Brown Paper Tickets.

THE DETAILS

40th Anniversary Gala Fundraiser for The Attic Ensemble; Sunday, September 25 at 6 pm; at the HCCC Culinary Arts Institute/Conference Center, 161 Newkirk Street. For more information, call 201-413-9200.

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TODAY

Legendary folkie Tom Paxton gets the Brennan Coffee House’s fall lineup into gear with a performance tonight (7:30 pm), while The Alex Meixner Band plays a free show at Zeppelin Hall (9 pm) and the Don Carter Jazz Trio provides some tunes to the diners and drinkers at Casa Dante (7:30 pm).

The fall theater season also gets rolling tonight, as the Attic Ensemble opens a two-week run of the new comedy Fully Committed (8 pm tonight and Saturday; 3 pm Sunday).

Last, but not least, the weekend features several ongoing street festivals: The St. Paul of the Cross Heritage Festival in the Heights and the St. Joseph’s Parish Festival in the Hilltop neighborhood.

SATURDAY

The festival scene keeps rolling on Saturday, with two big additions. The first-ever All About Downtown festival is happening — you guessed it — Downtown, with plenty of food trucks, bands and vendors lined up (noon to 7 pm). And in the Heights, the Riverview Neighborhood Association hosts its 25th annual Park Fest and Flea Market, which features plenty of bargain shopping opportunities, as well as live music, food and children’s activities (10 am to 5 pm).

Also during the daytime hours: Project Greenville’s group exhibition, The Roommates Show (1 to 5 pm), and an open house meet & greet at Super Impact Fitness, a new facility on Montgomery Street near the Beacon (10 am to 6 pm).

In the evening, there are plenty of opportunities to be entertained, whether you’re looking for live music, comedy or radio theater.

Brownbird Rudy Relic, Mark Leonard, Mike Arsenault and Ariel Lask play at the Barracks (7 pm), while In Musth performs at Lucky 7′s (9 pm).

On the comedy front, Art House Productions and The Laugh Tour present another evening of live standup featuring Mike Lawrence, Rich Kiamco and other great comics (8 pm); and the Loew’s hosts a comedy night featuring Roz G, Jay, Amirah and Terry Hodges (8 pm).

And over at Another Man’s Treasure, the local group Abaton Radio Theater is having a release party for its first-ever CD of radio dramas, Provocative Dramas by Arch Oboler (7 pm); for more on Abaton, check out our preview here.

SUNDAY

The blockbuster exhibition Our Own Directions: Works From The Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel Collection officially opens today at the Mana Contemporary Art Center (1 pm). It’s all about the ladies at Art House, which hosts Ladies That Rock, a show featuring live music, spoken word and art from some very talented local females (3 pm). Elsewhere, the Loew’s hosts the New Jersey premiere of the Egyptian film 365 Days of Happiness, with screenings at 3:30 and 7:30 pm; and there’s a free screening of the documentary Paper Clips at St. Peter’s College (4 pm).

“Dare I quote Exodus and answer ‘I am that I am’?” she replied. “That’d be pretty ballsy.”

Bortz is ballsy, especially in the creative challenges that she sets for herself. As the founder of the Abaton Book Company, a 14-year-old publishing house and record label she runs out of her Lincoln Park area home with her husband, Bortz is always jumping off with new projects. At the moment, she is directing and producing scripted audio dramas, in the manner of classic radio serials from the 1930s, through an imprint dubbed Abaton Radio Theater.

“With recorded plays, you can listen, reflect, then go back and correct the errors. That privilege doesn’t exist in live theater, outside of rehearsals, so the director has to keep a tighter rein,” she says. “I like to give my cast freedom to discover their characters, and it’s much easier to do so knowing it can’t be detrimental to the outcome of the play.”

Abaton Radio Theater this week released its first CD, Provocative Dramas by Arch Oboler, which feature new recordings of radio dramas written by Oboler in the 1930s. There’s a release party for the recording this Saturday at Downtown vintage store Another Man’s Treasure.

“Arch Oboler was to radio what Rod Serling was to TV,” an announcement touting the release reads. “Though he’s no longer a household name, due to lack of radio reruns, Oboler was a master of his medium, an innovative writer/director/producer who favored spine tingling, socially conscious science fiction and horror stories, and politically charged, left leaning dramas.”

The CD contains new recordings of Catwife and Baby, two plays first aired in the late 30s. Catwife tells a chilling story of a once loving marriage gone horribly awry, while Baby is a psychological drama portraying a young wife’s struggle to come to terms with the possibility of motherhood and the certainty of World War.

Bortz says she discovered Oboler more than a decade ago, and immediately knew she wanted to produce some of his work. While the thrift-store book she picked up for a dime made clear that Oboler was a big deal in the 30s and 40s, she found it upsetting that he had seemingly vanished from the cultural milieu.

“I’d never heard of Arch Oboler, nor had anyone in my immediate circle, other than my mom,” Bortz says. “It saddened me that someone important to so many different aspects of entertainment could be forgotten so quickly and so thoroughly. It also surprised me because much of Oboler’s content has maintained its relevance.”

Bortz got interested in radio theater early in her life, despite being born “long after” the mediums’ heyday.

“During my childhood I was fascinated with an audio drama series called CBS Radio Mystery Theater, which ran from 1974 to 1982. Following each program, my folks would regale my sister and me with stories about the radio programs of their youth,” she says. “I envied them the lack of television, because radio seemed much more interactive. After all, the listener is forced to provide their own picture, something I’d grown accustomed to [doing] as an avid reader.”

The magic of a radio drama is how a simple audio cue from the speaker’s mouth to the listener’s brain can supply an array of visual images. The hum of a theremin keys the onset of psychosis in a protagonist, while the sound of a creaking door can signal a welcome guest or a possible intruder, all depending on the context. In other words, sound alone is not enough; it must be engineered, constructed and directed. While radio theater has fewer elements to work with than a visual medium like film or even staged theater, Bortz says it all comes down to a great story and talented performers.

“It’s amazing how little it takes for most people to suspend their disbelief. Such is the magic of theater, whatever type it may be,” she says. “If the story is good and the performers are talented, the audience will follow the action. With the addition of the right music and sound effects, the story becomes more than just believable: for its duration, reality is transcended.”

Listening to Abaton’s new CD, one is struck by the depth and range of sound. It’s downright juicy – jelly donut juicy. With no visual accompaniment, the performances create two psychological portraits of disintegration and madness. The sound engineering tasks fell to Bortz’s husband, Mark Dagley, while the original music was composed by musician Marianne Nowottny.

“I know it wasn’t easy, especially for Mark, who had to come up with electronic substitutes for what were probably simple Foley tricks,” Bortz says. “We did include some Foley though, with the footsteps in Baby — I wore shoes on my hands to get the right resonance — and the opening and shutting of doors in both plays.”

Analog also won out over digital when it came to animal sounds.

“I’d intended to use electronic cat sounds in Catwife, but it was impossible to get them to correspond with the dialogue, so I ended up doing the meowing, shrieking and hissing myself,” Bortz says. “It’s not completely realistic, but I knew I was on target when the tough little alley cat we took in scurried upstairs after hearing me hiss into the microphone.”

While the Queen Anne Victorian Jersey City home Bortz and Dagley have shared since 2001 once did double-duty as an art gallery (the Abaton Garage), that era is gone, with the gallery closing down in 2008. Bortz says they are open to resurrecting it, but they could only do it with “adequate help.”

“It was very difficult to keep both the gallery and the company afloat and still find time and energy for our own creativity,” she says. “Mark’s painting output lowered significantly and I put half a dozen projects on the back burner.”

Now, she says, Dagley is “painting like a fiend” and she’s completed three back-burner projects in just three years. Giving the range of artistic endeavors she’s tackled over the years, her response when asked ‘what’s next’ is appropriately robust.

“I’d like to write my own audio drama some day. I’ve got two musicals in progress and one of them might be Abaton Radio Theater fodder. I’ve already decided to release one as a graphic novel with an attached soundtrack, but I’m hoping the other can be made into an Abaton production,” she says. “Right now I’m having trouble curbing the visual aspects of my playwriting. If it gets too tricky, I’ll surrender and find a more suitable outlet for that piece. Haven’t figured it out yet, but I’m bound to come up with something.”

THE DETAILS

Provocative Dramas by Arch Oboler CD Release Party; Saturday, September 17 from 7 to 9 pm; at Another Man’s Treasure, 353 Grove Street. Cocktails and canapes will be served and a scene from Catwife will be performed by Jordan Kaplan and Amy Fulgham with musical accompaniment by Marianne Nowottny.