Playwright Jack McGrath
(CRANFORD, NJ) -- The Theater Project's 2026 New Play Readings series will present a staged reading of Jack McGrath's House Rules on Saturday, May 16, 2026 at Cranford Community Center's 110-seat theater. The play tells the story of Bobby Ray – a man who has walked across America to return "home" to try and avert a family tragedy. The problem is that the family he returns to refuses to recognize him, and his homecoming has come 10 years too late.
Loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey, the play presents an absurdist and corrupt interpretation of the values in that story. Instead of loyalty, faithfulness and the importance of family, the “house” Bobby Ray returns to is full of dark secrets that no one in the family wants to remember, let alone confront.
Living in a trailer park in Central Florida, Ma and Willy are too absorbed in their own escapist worlds to recognize or care about anyone or anything else. Despite their refusing to recognize him, Bobby Ray is intent on reconstructing the night the tragedy took place, 10 years earlier, in hopes of changing the outcome, absolving his guilt and re-establishing the house rules.
“I’ve just moved to New Jersey from Florida, where I was involved in writing and producing new plays for many years with quite a few theaters,” said McGrath. “I was thrilled to find The Theater Project and immediately joined the playwriting workshop. Even though I had been working on House Rules for a while, it was really refreshing to get such insightful feedback from the group.”
The Cranford Community Center is located at 220 Walnut Avenue in Cranford, New Jersey. Admission is free, with no registration required. The event begins at 2:00pm. Following the reading, the audience will be able to engage in conversation with the playwright, cast, and director. Large-print programs and scripts will be available with advance request.
McGrath is the author of twenty-eight full-length plays, which have seen twenty-three full productions. He has twice won the Florida Playwrights Competition, in 2007 for Lazarus Treatment and in 2005 for Love / Now. In 2004 an early version of House Rules won both the Orlando Shakespeare Company PlayFest and a playwriting competition in St. Augustine. A full production was staged at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre. In addition, McGrath has written thirteen short plays, with many productions by Playwrights’ Round Table in Orlando.
Commenting on the New Play Readings series, Mark Spina, artistic director of The Theater Project, said “The discussions after the readings are always lively, frank, and respectful Audiences gain insight into what’s involved in creating and producing a play. At the same time, playwrights find out immediately how their new work is received.”
The Friends of the Cranford Library will host the series, which is made possible in part through a Union County Local Arts Grant.
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.
