(UNION, NJ) -- Premiere Stages at Kean University will present the New Jersey premiere of Scab by Gino Diiorio’s from September 8-25 in Kean University’s Bauer Boucher Theatre Center. Selected as a finalist from the 2020-21 Premiere Play Festival, Scab will feature actors John Anthony Torres and Monica Wyche. John J. Wooten, producing artistic director of Premiere Stages, directs.
In Scab, Gilda, a middle-aged woman, has to train Eduardo, a young Mexican man, how to be a shop foreman when her factory plant moves to Mexico. Over the course of a week, they discover that their assumptions regarding personal expectations and cultural differences are not always correct.
Gino Diiorio’s plays have been produced at multiple theatres across the US, including New Jersey Rep, Shadowland Theatre, Playhouse in the Square, Luna Stage, Arclight Theatre, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, The Washington Stage Guild, Custom Made Theatre, Urban Stages, Seven Angels, Penguin Rep, The Garter Lane Theatre, and the Virginia Stage Company. His plays The Jag, Centennial Casting, Apostasy, and Dead Ringer, are published by Concord Theatricals. His play Sam and Dede or My Dinner with Andre the Giant was produced Off Broadway at 59 East 59 in March of 2017 and is published by Dramatists Play Service. Diiorio is a member of the Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit. He is also a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.
“Gino’s fine play could not be more topical,” stated John J. Wooten, Premiere Stages producing artistic director. “America has not been this polarized since the 1860’s and Scab provides a poignant and moving reminder that we actually have more in common than pundits would have us believe.”
Wooten has been nominated as Best Director multiple times by the Newark Star-Ledger and has staged numerous productions that have been honored by the American Theatre Critics Association. As a playwright, John’s widely published work has been produced commercially in New York, internationally and in regional theatres across America. He was awarded his second fellowship by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in 2021.
The accomplished cast includes John Anthony Torres, whose theatre credits include A Few Good Men (Bristol Riverside Theatre) and I Carry Your Heart (59E59 Theatre) and Monica Wyche, whose television credits include AppleTV’s Five Days at Memorial (released on August 12), For Life and FBI: Most Wanted. Kean Theatre Conservatory alumnus José Gonzalez-Vidal will understudy the role of Eduardo.
Scab runs September 8-September 25 in the Bauer Boucher Theatre Center (Vaughn Eames Hall, 1000 Morris Avenue) on the Kean University main campus in Union, N.J. Performances take place Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00pm, Saturdays at 3:00pm and 8:00pm, and Sundays at 3:00pm.
Tickets are $35 standard, $25 for senior citizens and Kean alumni and staff, $20 for patrons with disabilities and $15 for students. Significant discounts for groups of ten or more apply. To make reservations or to order a season brochure, please call the box office at 908-737-7469 or visit Premiere Stages at premierestagesatkean.com.
Assistive listening devices and sign-interpretation are available upon request; please call 908-737-4077 at least two weeks prior to your desired performance.
Premiere Stages is made possible in part through funding from W. John Bauer and Nancy Boucher, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Carole Shaffer-Koros and Robert Koros and ExxonMobil Foundation, The Dubose and Dorothy Heyward Foundation, The Northfield Bank Foundation, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, The Union Foundation, E.J. Grassmann Trust, The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, Investors Foundation, The Union County HEART Grant and through the generous support of individual patrons and local organizations. Discover Jersey Arts is our marketing partner. Visit JerseyArts.com for more information about other arts programming happening around the Garden State.
Premiere Stages is committed to producing topical plays and interactive programs that reflect people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds, national origins, nationalities, ancestry, religious groups, gender expression or identities, sexual orientation, political beliefs, ages, abilities and disabilities.
Created in 2004, Premiere Stages is the professional Equity theatre in residence at Kean University. Through its unique partnership with Kean, Premiere’s play development programs, educational initiatives, and professional development opportunities actively embrace the university's academic curriculum while expanding the scope, accessibility, and prestige of the professional programming on campus.
Founded in 1855, Kean University is one of the largest metropolitan institutions of higher education in the region, with a richly diverse student, faculty and staff population. Kean continues to play a key role in the training of teachers and is a hub of educational, technological and cultural enrichment serving more than 16,000 students. The University’s six undergraduate colleges offer more than 50 undergraduate degrees over a full range of academic subjects. The Nathan Weiss Graduate College offers six doctoral degree programs and more than 80 options for graduate study leading to master’s degrees, professional diplomas or certifications. With campuses in Union, Toms River, Jefferson and Manahawkin, New Jersey, and Wenzhou, China, Kean University furthers its mission by providing an affordable and accessible world-class education.
