(UNION, NJ) -- American Theater Group (ATG), in partnership with the Union Arts Center, will present a three-day Spotlight play reading event featuring works by New Jersey playwrights at the DMK Black Box Theater at the Union Arts Center from July 6-8, 2026 with performances at 7:00pm each night.
Created to highlight exciting new work by NJ playwrights, the series will feature the following: The Judge and His Daughter by Ruth Apolonia Zamoyta on Mon. July 6th, Barklee by Tom Cavanaugh on Tues. July 7th and Mariana by Joseph Gallo on Wed. July 8th: Tickets are priced at $10 for one Reading and $25 for a three-day pass and are available for purchase online.
“I am thrilled to launch this exciting new playwriting series, as my first official ATG initiative,” noted incoming ATG Producing Artistic Director Charlotte Cohn. “I am familiar with each of these talented writers through my work with the Actors Studio PDW (Playwrights-Directors Workshop) and TRU (Theater Resources Unlimited) and I’m excited to provide a platform for their relevant and timely new works.”
The Judge and His Daughter by Ruth Apolonia Zamoyta: A fictional conservative Supreme Court justice whisks away his environmental-radicalist 16-year-old daughter to a camp in the Adirondacks when she is suspended for destroying her school’s air conditioning system with a sledgehammer. As they will be living in the wilderness alone for three months, they submit to the family psychologist’s rules designed to help them get along: He can’t talk about God or banish her to her room. She can’t blame him for everything and has to relinquish her phone. The plan works; the two are starting to enjoy each other’s company, fishing, hunting, searching for an elusive moose, and discussing the Supreme Court docket. But, when the judge reveals his ulterior motive for bringing his daughter to the camp, he is faced with the hardest decision of his life: ideology or family? The cast will feature Karl Kenzler (Broadway: Oedipus) and Shelby Rebecca Wong (Broadway: The King and I).
A published poet and prose-writer, Ruth Apolonia Zamoyta turned to writing for the stage in 2017. Her first play, The Caregivers, won her a fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and The Widow was semi-finalist at the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center. Her play The Incels was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize while The Caregivers and The Fencers were semifinalists in the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Her short comedy Eleanor Roosevelt’s Pudding was included in a Telly Award-winning play festival at Urban Stages in NYC. Zamoyta has been a long-time resident of New Jersey and has had residencies at NJ Play Lab and Art House Productions, and productions and/or readings at Hudson Theatre Works, Luna Stage Company, Dreamcatcher Rep (now Vivid Stage), Mile Square Theatre, and Jersey City Theatre Center.
Barklee by Tom Cavanaugh: What happens when a dog is recruited to be a Service Protection Dog to a 16-year-old boy, and that dog doesn't feel like he belongs in that job? Barklee is a dog that talks to the audience as he experiences his first day on the job and learns about the job and the boy. Barklee and the boy go to school and become popular. The school rules the dog is not allowed, so the boy's mom gets a lawyer and takes the school district to the NJ State Supreme Court. This dramedy is based on a true story that's taking place in New Jersey. The cast will include Lou Martini, Jr. (TV, The Sopranos), Glenn Taranto (TV, The New Addams Family), Gabriel Amoroso (Broadway: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), Christine Nagy (Radio Host: 106.7 Lite-FM), Margaret Leone (film: Fabulous Seven Forever) and Sarah Osman (TV: FBI: Most Wanted).
Playwright Tom Cavanaugh holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Actors Studio Drama School at New School University and was awarded “Best Screenplay” at the 2026 Garden State Film Festival in NJ and “Best Drama Screenplay” at the 2024 Fade In Awards in Hollywood, CA for his screenplay Bedbuggers. He is a member of the Playwright Directors Workshop (PDW) at The Actors Studio, The Actors Gym, Naked Angels and New Ambassadors in New York City and a Co-Founder of the Brook Writers Group at the Brook Arts Center in Bound Brook, NJ.
Mariana by Joseph Gallo: Haunted by the spirit of her recently dead husband, Mariana wants desperately to stay in the house they shared for more than 35 years. But after taking a job in a factory, she soon finds herself in a fight for her life. A tale of human resilience, Mariana combines elements of naturalism, choral work, fantasy, and story theatre to ask one of life’s hardest questions..., How is a widow supposed to survive in this world? The cast will include: Andrea Gallo (TV: Elsbeth), Scott Klavan (Broadway: Irena’s Vow) Samantha Simone (TV: FBI: Most Wanted), Joe Mancuso (ATG’s Our Town) and Nick Falzone (TV: Conan).
Hoboken-based Joseph Gallo is a noted playwright, actor, educator, and storyteller, whose full-length plays include: My Italy Story (Off-Broadway, 47th Street Theatre); Two-Man Kidnapping Rule (New Ohio Theatre); Warning: Adult Content (Theatre 54); and Staten Island (Circle Rep Lab); He is the former playwright-in-residence at Mile Square Theatre where his credits included writing and performing in Yuppies Invade My House at Dinnertime, The Playbill Gallery (a love story), AJ's Book, and Long Gone Daddy. A frequent participant at The Moth in New York City, he has toured with The Moth Mainstage Ensemble, has been featured on The Moth Radio Hour and Podcast, and is a four-time StorySLAM winner. A current member of the Actors Studio Playwrights and Directors Workshop, he is a New Jersey Council of the Arts Playwriting Fellow, and a recipient of the NJ Council of the Humanities Incubation Grant for New Work. He is the founder and Head of the Theatre Arts Program at Hudson County Community College and is a recipient of the Kennedy Center Prize for Innovative Teaching in Theatre, and the AACC National Faculty Innovation Award. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University.
The state-of-the-art Union Arts Center is located at 1980 Morris Avenue in Union, with its primary entrance on Morris Avenue. The Arts Center includes the DMK Black Box Theater, the Union Art Gallery curated by Les Malamut, Union TV and podcast studios, classrooms, and The Center Café.
American Theater Group (ATG), founded in 2012, produces new and classic works primarily by American playwrights with an emphasis on the development of new works and the reimagining of undeservedly neglected older ones. It also provides quality arts-in-education initiatives, including its New Works/New Voices playwriting program for high school students and its PlayLab program for BIPOC and queer playwrights. ATG is currently in residence at the DMK Black Box Theater at the Union Arts Center, Hamilton Stage in Rahway and the Sieminski Theater in Basking Ridge.
