“Apples in Winter” and “Apple Season”

These two plays have nothing in common other than the word “apple,” but I’ve so behind in posting that they’re going up together.

The more recent is “Apple Season,” which is opening at NJ Rep this weekend.

The other is “Apples in Winter,” which has completed its run in Warren County, but keep your eyes open for its next staging.

The beginning below:

Playwright Jennifer Fawcett was pregnant with her first child while writing “Apples in Winter,” a one-woman show centered on Miriam, a mother baking her son a pie before his execution. It was understandably challenging.

“In some ways, I was tapping into my own terror about becoming a parent. There are so many emotions that go into it. What if things go wrong?” said Fawcett, whose son is now 3 years old. “As a parent, you’re constantly having to make choices and there’s still a part of me that thinks the adult in the room will tell me how to actually do this, then there’s the realization that I’m the adult in the room.”

“Apples in Winter,” which has its East coast premiere at Centenary Stage Company Nov. 8, has been in development for years but the subject matter is timely. Miriam’s son was suffering from severe drug withdrawal when he killed two people during an attempted robbery.

As New Jersey Advance Media reported in July, more than eight people die from drug overdoses each day in the state. In 2010, that figure was two people per day