There are four Wednesdays in November 2026, and the Madison Community Arts Center gives each one to its own kind of open floor. On the 4th it's a writing workshop and a literary open mic. The 11th is for musicians and the 18th for comedians. On the 25th, local filmmakers get the screen. All of them take place at 10 Kings Road, and every one is built around work that residents bring themselves.
The weekends look different. Visiting companies fill the same room with a hard bop quintet, an improv team, a two-performance musical and a pair of film screenings. Put the two halves together and you get a small municipal stage set up so that residents spend part of the month in the audience and part of it performing.
A room the borough rents for a dollar a year
The space dates to a deal most people in town have never heard of. The Madison Historical Society's borough history records that the Madison Arts and Culture Alliance formed in 2004 to push for the arts in Madison and needed a home. When the Rose Hall Apartments and Madison House Condominium were built, the borough negotiated a 3,000-square-foot facility with performance space, leased at $1 per year for 30 years. That's the Madison Community Arts Center.
It's a small room. Morristown Green described it in February 2025 as a 100-seat space leased by the Borough at 10 Kings Road, programmed by borough staff. The same report said the Alliance helped run the center in its early years and now serves as an advisory organization. The borough's own calendar on rosenet.org is where the programming is published.
With only 100 seats, a first-time reader at the open mic is looking out at a few rows of chairs, not an auditorium.
Four Wednesdays, four open floors
The pattern isn't a November one-off. In the borough's February 9, 2026 council minutes, the Music Open Mic is listed for every second Wednesday and the Comedy Open Mic for every third Wednesday, with a note that all are welcome to perform or attend. November fills in the rest of the month's Wednesdays.
| Date | Night | Time | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wed, Nov 4 | Arts by the People writing workshop, then The Platform literary open mic | Workshop 7:00 to 7:45 p.m., open mic 8:00 to 9:30 p.m. | Workshop is free; sign up to read |
| Wed, Nov 11 | Music Open Mic | 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. | Every second Wednesday |
| Wed, Nov 18 | Comedy Open Mic | 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. | Every third Wednesday |
| Wed, Nov 25 | Show Us Your Shorts, a short film showcase | 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. | Free, no cover, open to all |
Each night needs a little preparation. For the November 4 literary night, readers sign up in advance through Arts by the People's Platform page. If you just want to write, the 45-minute workshop beforehand gets you started.
For the November 25 film night, the borough's listing asks filmmakers to email submissions to [email protected], ideally a week before the event. That puts the soft deadline around November 18, the same night as the comedy open mic. It's the night before Thanksgiving, too, so anyone with a short film from a school project, a vacation or a phone experiment has a hometown screening the evening before the holiday.
Tuesday afternoons are for mahjong
The Wednesday schedule depends on a building that's in use all week. Each Tuesday in November, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., the borough calendar lists Mahjong Tuesdays, "Free and Open to All," on November 3, 10, 17 and 24. The February council minutes describe the Tuesday sessions as seniors playing mahjong and canasta.
After dark the same address becomes a training room. The Aikido Center of Madison holds classes for teens and adults at 10 Kings Road on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., plus Saturday mornings from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.
The center's usual pattern is mahjong in the afternoon, aikido in the evening and open mics midweek. The ticketed weekend shows land on top of that.
Weekends belong to the visiting companies
Weekends are when outside organizations take the stage, and these are the dates to book ahead. In order:
- Sunday, November 1, Jersey Jazz LIVE! The New Jersey Jazz Society brings a hard bop quintet: Ted Chubb on trumpet, Bruce Williams on alto saxophone, Oscar Perez on piano, Tom DeCarlo on bass and Carmen Intorre Jr. on drums. Before them, a Rising Stars opening act features young musicians from Newark Academy. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. and the music starts at 3:00. The borough listing doesn't give a price, and tickets are sold through the society's Ticketleap page.
- Saturday, November 7, The Flip Side. Vivid Stage's house improv team plays at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $23, or $18 for students, through Vivid Stage.
- Saturday, November 14 and Sunday, November 15, The Last Five Years. Vari Musicisti performs Jason Robert Brown's musical at 7:00 p.m. Saturday and 1:00 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $20 through the Zeffy ticketing page.
- Sunday, November 15, The Marching Band. The Film Society of Summit, founded in 2012 according to the borough listing, screens the film at 4:00 p.m.
- Sunday, November 22, How To Divorce During A War. A second Film Society of Summit screening, also at 4:00 p.m. The borough doesn't list prices for either film, and tickets go through summitfilmsociety.com.
November 15 is the month's busiest day at 10 Kings Road. The musical matinee is listed for 1:00 p.m. and the film for 4:00 p.m., both in the same room.
The show on the walls ties the two halves together
While the stage changes over, the gallery stays put. "Poems Not Yet Written," a photography exhibit by Paul Rabinowitz, runs from October 1 through December 3, 2026.
Rabinowitz is with Arts by the People, the group that hosts the November 4 workshop and open mic. His exhibition page has more on the work. So the photographs on the walls and the writing night share a sponsor. That gives the literary open mic a fitting backdrop: readers can step up to the mic in a room hung with images titled as poems that haven't been written yet.
The show runs into early December, so you'll see it at any November event, whether that's the jazz matinee, a Tuesday mahjong game or the short film night.
Planning a November at 10 Kings Road
Schedules and prices at a small venue can change, so check the borough's November calendar before you head out. The borough lists the center's address as 10 Kings Road, the same street as the Hartley Dodge Memorial at 50 Kings Road, where the council meets. The Jersey Jazz listing also notes the venue is ADA accessible.
Here's a simple way to use the month. Pick one weekend show you'd book anyway, then add one Wednesday you've never tried. The free nights are the literary workshop on November 4 and the short film showcase on November 25.
Karen Torrente has lived in this area for decades, and a calendar like this one is part of the town she knows. If you've got a short film for November 25 or a favorite seat for the November 1 jazz matinee, she'd love to hear about it. Let's Connect at Karen Torrente.
