'Joyce Kilmer On Stage' Delights Capacity Crowd at Mahwah Public Library

Press release:

Joyce Kilmer was alive and well and living in Mahwah again on Sunday afternoon -- in the person of reenactors.

The occasion was the presentation of “Joyce Kilmer On Stage” in the Winter Room of the Mahwah Public Library, a novel-reenactment of seven of Kilmer’s most admired poems, most of them written in Mahwah more than a century ago when he lived at the southwest corner of Airmount and Armour Roads.

A capacity crowd of about 120 people viewed the show presented by the Joyce Kilmer Society of Mahwah. The audience included a gentleman who knew and lived near Kilmer’s widow, Aline, in the Sussex County area of western New Jersey in the 1930s.

Kilmer was killed in World War I in France, the most distinguished American to die in that war.

”Appreciate your efforts, enjoyed your program,” said Kyle Jenks, a writer/director.

The audience gave the cast a round of applause as each member was introduced for a bow at the end of the show, which also included classical soloist Helen Soboleski of Mahwah singing the musical adaptation of Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees,” the poem he wrote in his Mahwah house on February 2, 1913. Ms. Soboleski was accompanied on the keyboard by Jozef Soroka.

Photo: Audience shows its appreciation to the cast of “Joyce Kilmer On Stage” with a round of applause at Mahwah Public Library