Conversation: M'town Playwright, Esq.

In between cases and through long courtroom waits, Middletown lawyer Stan Werse has been scribbling ideas, stories and dialogue. 

"I do it to pass the time," he said, "but honestly it's also a lot of fun."  Werse, whose law office sits just over Coopers Bridge in Middletown, still loves his law practice, "yeah, I do ... I really enjoy practicing law," he said, but the scribbles he's made over the years have now resulted in some impressive credentials. 

In 2004 his screenplay 1954 was a semifinalist at the 2004 Austin Film Festival and 2010 his, Buick Becomes Electra was the winner of the New Jersey Playwrights Contest and was produced at William Patterson University.

"I enjoyed writing screenplays, but the problem is producing them," he said. "So you spend all of this time writing something that ends up like a cake you bake just to stick it in a cabinet to go stale."

Werse turned his attention, full-time to plays, but didn't turn away entirely from film, his newest stage scribing, Noir, is an homage to the genre of dark and moody films of the 50's and 60's.  Noir has been selected to be presented at the famed FringeNYC (Festival) in New York this week. 

FringeNYC is billed as the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues.

Noir is directed by Marc Geller and will be presented at the Connelly Theater in Greenwich Village on Aug. 17 at 5:15 p.m., Aug. 19 at 2 p.m., Aug. 21 at 1 p.m., Aug. 22 at 9:30 p.m., and concluding on Aug. 25 at 8:45 p.m..  

For more information about FringeNYC visit its the Web site at: http://www.fringenyc.org/index.php.

Patch Producer Steve Rogers sat down for a conversation with the "attorney who writes plays," check out the video The Conversation: Stan Werse. Be sure to click on the arrow in the middle of the box marked "VIDEO." Enjoy!

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