Photo Flash: ON THE LINE At Canal Park Playhouse

Three life-long friends take on their union, the factory they work for and the strike that is ripping apart their small town. Called "brutally funny" by Newsday when it first premiered in New York, ON THE LINE is a heart-felt, timely and topical comedy about the bonds of friendship being pulled apart by labor, management and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The cast features Matt Citron (Les Freres Corbusier's Hell House), Jacob Knoll (title role in Gorilla Rep's Hamlet) and Jedadiah Schultz (Bhutan at the Cherry Lane).

The design team includes Liz Groth (set and costumes) and Lisa Soverino (lights).

Joe Roland (playwright) is the playwright in residence at Canal Park Playhouse. Joe Roland has been creating theater in New York City for over 20 years. He is a graduate of the New Actors Workshop where he studied with George Morrison, Mike Nichols and Paul Sills. On the Line, his play about the struggles of three working class friends, has been read at Lincoln Center and received a workshop from The Public Theater. The play was produced Off-Broadway by Mike Nichols, Boyett Ostar Productions and Jill Furman at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York. On the Line was published by Dramatist Play Service in 2007. As a founding member of the Water Theater Company (Shira Piven, Artistic Director) he has either written for or acted in each of the company's productions, including Still/Waiting for Lefty, The Death of Ivan Illyich, Elizabeth Gilbert's Pilgrims, Passengers, and his own play The Mexican. As an actor, he has worked in television and film, including Charlie Wilsons War, and on Broadway in The Country Girl. He is currently completing work on a new play Lester and Doyle LLP.

Michael Tisdale (director). Since graduating from The Juilliard School drama division in 1996, Michael has been active in the creation of theatre & film in New York, L.A., and throughout the country. His stage plays have been developed and/or produced at or by Atlantic Theater Company, Rising Phoenix Repertory, New York University, hotINK, Hartford Stage, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, Theatre Row, HERE Arts Center, American Theatre Company (Chicago), and Cleveland Public Theatre. His short films have been screened at such notable Festivals as Cleveland International, Beloit, G.I.Film Fest, Heartland, and Sundance.

Photos by: Jim Baldassare