Theater Project member playwright Joseph Vitale has received a New Jersey State Council on the Arts fellowship. In recognition, TTP will rebroadcast our Zoom production of his play, Dragons in the Crease. The show premiered at New York Theater Festival’s Summerfest 2019.

​Based on a real event, the play concerns a college student with a severe stutter who has been asked by his professor not to speak in class but instead write his questions down. Because of the media coverage that ensues, the incident becomes a national news story, changing both their lives forever.
 
Dragons in the Crease was one of ten finalists in the 2020-21 Woodward / Newman Drama Competition, an exclusive honor offered by Bloomington Playwrights Project, remembering the many great dramas Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman performed together.
 
The cast includes Alex Leondedis, Dara Lewis, Jack Coggins, Terri Sturtevant, Gary Glor, Bryan Rodriguez, Andre DeSandies, Deb Maclean and Sabrina Alamo. It is directed by Theater Project artistic director Mark Spina.
 
Playwright Joseph Vitale, is a member of The Theater Project’s playwrights’ workshop and a semi-finalist for the 2012 Eugene O’Neill Theater/National Playwrights Conference. He is the author of a dozen full-length plays, including, Murrow, a one-man show about the life of Edward R. Murrow (called “a dramatic masterpiece” by the Huffington Post), which premiered at The Theater Project and was later performed Off-Off Broadway in 2016 at The Phoenix Theatre Ensemble. His one-act, The Monster Under the Bed, was voted “Best Play” at both the 2018 St. Paul (IN) Theater Festival and the 2019 One-Act Jamboree at the Rhino Theater, Pompton Lakes, NJ. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

In the beginning ...
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​The Theater Project was founded in 1994. For over twenty years, under the leadership of Mark Spina, Artistic Director, we have provided well-rounded programs on a relatively small budget to audiences who relish and seek out stimulating, new theater. 

Providing a forum to express ideas that spark the imagination, and challenge the mind is what we strive to do. Encouraging our audiences to think beyond the status quo and elevate the discourses around important contemporary issues is germane to our purpose. 

Most importantly, our audience is willing to take a chance on a title or author they have never encountered before, knowing they will be engaged, challenged and entertained.