QUIT THE ROAD, JACK Premieres 3/5 at TheaterLab

Quit the Road, Jack, a new comedy by Jerry Polner about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), premieres this Thursday March 5 as a guest production of TheaterLab in Manhattan.

Well, when the son of a divorced and miserable couple of burnt-out ex-musicians runs away from home to join up with the immigrant worker rights movement, mom and dad are forced to travel across North America together to find their boy. Directed by Jonathan Warman, acclaimed for his work by the New York Times, Backstage, TimeOutNY, Theatermania and NYTheatre.com. Quit plays Thursday to Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 3 PM through March 22. TheaterLab is at 355-357 West 36th Street in Manhattan (between 8th-9th Avenue; Subway A,C,E to 34th Street), and $18 tickets are available ($12 student discounts for advance sales, using promotional code STU; discounts for groups of 10 or more ­ use promotional code BIG) at OvationTix at 866-811-4111, or go to https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/941428 .

Jerry Polner (³I saw a lot of terrific shows at The Planet Connections Festivity, but nothing made me laugh louder, longer, or more pleasurably than the first scene of Jerry Polner¹s Fix Number Six³­ Martin Denton, nytheatre.com), is a writer of sketches, parodies, and stage comedies, many taking skewed looks at serious issues. Recently, his How Do You Want it, a romantic comedy about the Federal Reserve System, won the Planet Connections Award for Outstanding Production of a Staged Reading, and his Fix Number Six, nominated for six Planet Connections awards, was also published by Next Stage Press and Indie Theater Now. His other short plays have been produced by the Workshop Theater Company, Brooklyn Playwrights Collective, Manhattan Theatre Source, and NY Madness; and Weatherman, a comedy about the weather bureau, was published by Samuel French. Jerry¹s comedy sketch script Fugitive Math Teachers was one of the winners of Break Media¹s Break.com Video Contest. Online, he has written for Political Subversities and McSweeney¹s.

Quit the Road, Jack, produced by Radical Gags Theatrics, is co-presented by ALIGN (Alliance For A Greater New York), Community Voices Heard. The Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition, and New York Immigration Coalition. In connection with the subject matter of the play, the co-presenting organizations will join in Fair Work, an onstage panel discussion about immigration and worker rights, immediately after the Thursday March 12 performance.

Jonathan Warman¹s New York work includes the premiere of Tennessee Williams¹ Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws, starring Mink Stole and Everett Quinton (³Outrageously entertaining, thanks to the imagination of the director³­ Backstage; ³His surehanded staging provokes both laughs and thought³ ­ Theatermania) and the new musical Me and Caesar Lee with Ernestine Jackson. The cast of Quit the Road, Jack, features Cynthia Bastidas (productions at the New Ohio theater, Denver Theater Center); RJ Batlle (The Improv, A La Vida! at the Hudson Guild) Jes Dugger, (Fancy Nancy Off-Broadway, Guest star on TV¹s Homeland, co-star of Warner Brothers¹ One Tree Hill); Rosemary Howard (featured in the recent films The Wolf Of Wall Street, Weight); Connor Johnston (Portland Center Stage, Actors Fund Theater); Jorge Marcos (Guest and Co-Star of TV¹s The Good Wife, White Collar), Jaime Puerta (El Quijote Off-Broadway, star of Spanish-language film La Isla Desnuda, many others) Jay Reum (featured on TV¹s Animal Planet and Investigation Discovery series), and Rob Skolits (The Normal Heart, Lincoln Center Theater). Set design is by Eric Marchetta, costume design is by Maddie Peterson, lighting design is by Yuriy Nayer, and choreography is by Liz Piccoli. The production is stage managed by Vanna Richardson.