Celeste Compton

Stories from Celeste Compton

Sparks fly like Pollock's paints in "Bakersfield Mist"
Celeste Compton
Wednesday, December 7, 2011

At New Jersey Repertory's intimate 60-seat theater in Long Branch, the atmosphere is warm and friendly. You are greeted and seated by name. Everyone, from producer Gabor Barabas to the person seated beside you, smiles as though you’ve always known one another.

You begin to get the sense that you are a guest inside someone’s home; it is not until you look to the stage that you realize that you've been invited into the trailer park palace of Maude Gutman.

Amid controversy, schools cancel Sodexo contract
Celeste Compton
Monday, March 21, 2011

Following months of debate and controversy, Highland Park's Board of Education elected to cancel its current contract with Sodexo, America's leading provider of food and facility management services.

The Board of Education will begin accepting bids for a new maintenance provider in April. The contract, originally set to expire in November, will be officially terminated on June 1st amid allegations that Sodexo has committed wage theft and has opposed employee efforts to unionize.

Faith and hindsight nail a pothole in "Mercy and the Firefly"
Celeste Compton
Monday, February 21, 2011

“Mercy and the Firefly” opens with a prayer.

The set is dark and intimate; the shadows of a Cathedral windowpane and the heavy throb of the supplicant's heart all seem to exist in competition with her words. After a few moments, it becomes evident that the words of the prayer even seem to be in competition with one another.

Buck Art festival brings a dime bag of fun to February
Celeste Compton
Wednesday, February 2, 2011

If you're in the habit of turning to A.C. Moore, Michael's or Pearl for your art supplies, the Highland Park Artists' Collective is challenging you to approach your artwork a little differently.

The Buck Art Contest, going on now through February 17th, asks artists to compose a work of art made entirely of items found at Highland Park's store 'The Buck Stops Here.'

Freeholders decline rebuke of LNG pipeline
Celeste Compton
Saturday, December 18, 2010

On December 16, 2010, the Middlesex County Chosen Freeholders took reconsideration of their own criticism of the planned regional liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline.

New retail studio adds "Spark" to the Avenue
Celeste Compton
Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Shop - Learn - Create.

A year ago, when Lila Gutowski opened “The Jewelry Studio,” offering silversmithing classes in the lower level of IM Gallery, she never dreamed she would need to expand before her first anniversary.

But membership has grown steadily, and on December 5, 2010 she opened her own renovated storefront, across the street at 208 Raritan Avenue.

Service workers in H.P. schools rally for wages, safety
Celeste Compton
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
On Wednesday, October 6th, public school service workers, representatives from local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and their local supporters gathered at Highland Park's Borough Hall to mark the workers' first one-day strike against the multinational corporation, Sodexo.

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