PROJECT COMMA MOM PRODUCTIONS PROUDLY ANNOUNCES ITS 2007 SHOW

I was delighted to get an e-mail last week from Ken Britschge, whom I remember as a pleasant young fella who worked for a while in The Times library. Today he's a research associate for Peterson's, the Princeton folks who do those nifty educational guides. He's also the co-author of a heartwarming new play, debuting tonight and tomorrow afternoon in Bordentown.

Ken's mother Lillian was the night switchboard operator at The Times for more than 25 years. She was one of those truly rare, truly sweet human beings who always had a smile and a word of interest for whoever passed her way. When she retired from The Times, dear Lillian would every once in a while send me a kind note about something I'd written, and mention how her Ken was doing. With three other sons and a daughter, she worked nights so that one parent (at night it was her husband Anthony, who worked days) would always be home with the kids.

Lillian died in 1999, and Ken is now a married man of 15 years, who, previous to his Peterson's work, taught at the former McCorristin High School. That's where he first teamed up with his current co-playwright, Constance Wilder-Wokoun, also a former McCorristin teacher, putting on spring musicals. (Wilder-Wokoun is teaching at SciCore Academy in West Windsor now.) Together they have created a play that is part homage to his mom and her mom, and part homage to all moms. Wait 'til you hear how it happened. Seems Constance found some diaries of her mother's after her death, kept up since the 1930s when she was a teenager. She and Ken had stayed good pals, and she mentioned to him the diaries and her hope of writing a biography of her mother. She also mentioned overhearing three women reminiscing about their mothers while on a train one day. Ken, who had by this time taken a screenwriting course, and Constance, who had always been active in community theater, decided to reach out for more real-life "mom" stories. They sent e-mails to 50 friends, soliciting anecdotes and memories. The final culled material included stories from respondents ages 9 to past 90.

That 90-something contributor was Sr. Grace Pierre, former McCorristin English teacher, who, Ken described, sent "eight handwritten pages in perfect nun handwriting," about her own mother's turn-of-the-20th century growing up.

There were tales of humor, love, pain; of mothers and stepmothers. Constance saw underlying themes emerging, particularly the often difficult, strong yet fragile and unique mother-daughter bond. (The only male who responded with a story, Ken says a bit disappointedly, was him.) Ken and Constance started meeting every Tuesday to work on a manuscript. Ken says he knew "nobody's going to pay good money to hear letters being read" so they created a dramatic fictional framework for the real stories.

Now all they needed were actors. The two reached out to graduates of the plays they'd so successfully staged at McCorristin, advertised in The Times, e-mailed local colleges and held auditions. A final cast of 18 emerged, which has put in six weeks of rehearsal. They found Jim Parker's Riverview Studio in Bordentown, at the very end of Farnsworth Avenue by the river, down a gravel path on the right, the perfect spot. It's the TV and recording studio Parker uses to make commercial voiceovers, and recently to do a trailer for the Trenton Film Festival. Everyone's working gratis and Parker donated his space "for the art of it," Ken says.

Tonight at 7:30 or tomorrow at 3 p.m. is your chance to celebrate with your Mom -- or in her honor -- by attending. Tickets are $10 at the door to cover basic expenses, or call (609) 298-3334. There will be a display collage with photos of the real women whose stories you'll hear in the play. What's it called? "Project Mom," naturally. Perfect for Mother's Day Weekend.

Mom stories the heart of local play