The McCarter Theatre center in Princeton, New Jersey, presented its last Pride Night of the current season on May 12. For every play presented, the McCarter schedules a Thursday night pre-play party for the LGBT community. Tonight’s play was “All the Days,” by Sharyn Rothstein, presented in the beautiful Berlind Theatre. But first, let’s talk about the party.

As is the case with every Pride Night, doors open at 6 pm. There is an open bar where several beers, soft drinks, and a variety of wines are served by two handsome bartenders. In this case, Brandon was the bartender, but one of the bartenders was a woman named Annemarie. Both Brandon and Annemarie are interns: he in producing and she in development. Both were extremely friendly and cute as buttons. The food was elegantly prepared and served. The menu included grilled chicken Caesar salad, pasta primavera, and fabulous desserts: lemon Bavarians, sea salt caramel brownies, and pecan triangles. Delicious.

In addition to the food and refreshments, there were door prizes. With a hundred in attendance your odds of winning are pretty good with five prizes. Our GLBT friends have won restaurant gift certificates, gift certificates to Princeton shops, and theater tickets to McCarter events. What else might there be, you may ask? Well, it’s a great opportunity to meet, greet, and reacquaint yourself with friends you’ve made over the last Pride Nights. For example, there is a gay couple who always dress for the occasion in matching glitter and be gay fabulousness. All too soon the party is over. But, wait! There’s the play which began at 7:30.

“All the Days.” According to Director Emily Mann’s note in the program, is a world-premiere play set on Long Island and Philadelphia which has at its heart a mother-daughter relationship which is bitter, biting, moving, and extremely funny. The actors are tops in their field, as may be expected. All have considerable theatrical and television work to their credit. Even the kid, Jared Blaser, is played by Matthew Kuenne, who counts stage experience in “A Christmas Carol” (with several roles for each production), a John Guare play, and Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” The talented, outstanding adults in the play are: Caroline Aaron; Leslie Ayvazian; Justin Hagan; Stephanie Janssen; Ron Orbach; and Raphael Nash Thompson. Although it was a heterosexual drama/comedy, the lesbians and gays in the audience enjoyed the play, since mothers, fathers, siblings, love, and loss are common slings and arrows all flesh is heir to.

Don’t feel too badly that this was the last Pride Night of the current season, because there are Pride Nights already scheduled for their next season. The first Pride Night of the 2016-2017 season is Nilo Cruz’s “Bathing in Moonlight,” also directed by Emily Mann, on Thursday, September 22. For more information, and a full schedule, visit their website: http://www.mccarter.org/SocialEvents/SocialDefaultfull.aspx?page_id=49