Playwrights Lynn Marie Macy, Rosemary Parrillo, Joseph Vitale

(CRANFORD, NJ) -- Theater enthusiasts will have the opportunity to see staged readings of three new plays and share their reactions with the playwrights during the third of The Theater Project's "New Play Readings" on Saturday, November 16, 2024, at the Cranford Community Center. Admission is free, with no registration required. The event begins at 2:00pm.

“A reading by actors is an early, essential step in a play’s production,” said Mark Spina, The Theater Project’s artistic director. “A staged reading gives audiences some insight into how a play makes the long journey from the written word to the curtain call. In addition, by sharing their reactions with the playwright and cast, audiences serve as contributors to a play’s development.”

The November 16 staged readings will comprise the following works: Ruby in the Rough by Lynn Marie Macy, The Nature of the Stars by Rosemary Parrillo, and You’re Getting Sleepy by Joseph Vitale.

Ruby in the Rough by Lynn Marie Macy. December 31, 1929, is a New Year’s Eve three showgirls will never forget. As they prepare for a splendid night on the town, a shocking event will threaten their friendships and haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Macy is the author of five previous plays produced by The Theater Project. She translated Friederich von Schiller’s Intrigue and Love for Jean Cocteau Repertory in New York and Georges Sand’s Gabriel for New Perspectives Theatre Company, also in New York. As an actor, she has appeared in plays by Bertolt Brecht, William Shakespeare, and Lanford Wilson.

The Nature of the Stars by Rosemary Parrillo. The proprietor of a bookstore specializing in poetry is priced out of the neighborhood and must close her doors. As a handyman fumbles his way through a final maintenance task, a young customer arrives, offering the store owner an unforeseen opportunity to make peace with her misfortune and help the despondent teen discover the redemptive power of poetry.

Parrillo is a playwright and journalist. Her work has been performed at festivals and in community theaters across the United States and in Canada. The Nature of the Stars was a 2024 finalist for the Tennessee Williams One-Act Contest. Her post-9/11 play, The New Normal Trilogy, was a semifinalist in the 2017 Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference.

You’re Getting Sleepy by Joseph Vitale. A knavish night-club hypnotist, The Amazing Mallecho has a gig performing in a Cancun resort with this long-time (and long-suffering) assistant, Victoria. Mallecho hypnotizes two couples he’s brought on stage, but when he himself falls under the spell of a spiked drink, more is revealed about the characters than meets the eye.

Vitale, a finalist for 2020 – 2021 Joanne Woodward/Paul Newman Drama Award and a semi-finalist for the 2012 Eugene O’Neill Theater/National Playwrights Conference, is the author of a score of full-length and one-act plays that have been staged throughout the country. The Theater Project produced The Interpreter, his drama about the Nuremberg trials, in August 2024.

Cranford Community Center is located at 220 Walnut Avenue. The Theater Project is presenting the “New Play Readings” series in cooperation with the Friends of the Cranford Public Library.

Founded in 1994 and based in Union, The Theater Project introduces New Jersey audiences to new plays and supports rising playwrights and theater artists. It develops new audiences for theater by service to the community, providing programs for children, and using theater as a forum to address current issues.