NJ Theater Alliance's Stages Online / Theater Project Presents DRAGONS IN THE CREASE on Zoom

Dragons in the Crease, a play which premiered last year at New York Theater Festival's Summerfest 2019, will be presented by The Theater Project at 7:30 PM, Tuesday, June 30, online via Zoom, as part of The New Jersey Theatre Alliance's Stages Online. 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 of the June 30 performance is 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.

The 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.

THE THEATER PROJECT is an incubator for rising talent and a showcase for NJ artists, providing 200 opportunities each year on-stage and off to writers, directors, designers and actors though its many programs: a three-production mainstage series, a monthly staged reading of a work in progress that offers audiences an opportunity to dialogue with the author; a summer musical theater program for children; a monthly playwrights' script development workshop; an annual competition for New Jersey high school playwrights, and two annual festivals of one-act plays showcasing area authors. The company has recently relocated to Union Township, NJ.

DRAGONS ... is part of Stages Online, a partnership with New Jersey Theatre Alliance to bring theatre content into homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stages Online is made possible by generous funding from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, Bank of America, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, OceanFirst Foundation; the George A. Ohl, Jr. Trust; New Jersey Historical Commission; and Fund for the New Jersey Blind.

Patrons can register to attend DRAGONS IN THE CREASE at TheTheaterProject.org. Suggested donation: $10