The New Jersey Theatre Alliance's Stages Online ZOOM Play

With the Covid-19 lockdown occurring just a month before the Easter and Passover holidays, playwright Marc Palmieri was inspired to write a play specifically for an online platform: in a live conference call, the techno-challenged members of a small church struggle to mount their annual Passion Play on Zoom (Act 1) and then follow up their success - or lack of it - with a presentation of a medieval mystery play (Act 2).

Waiting for the Host, possibly the first-ever full ensemble play written for livestreaming, will be presented by The Theater Project at 7:00 PM, Thursday, August 6 as part of The New Jersey Theatre Alliance's Stages Online. The cast of the Thursday, August 6 performance is Scott Cagney, Harry Patrick Christian, Noreen Farley, Deb Maclean, Matt McCarthy, Elisabeth Ness, and Thomas Vorsteg. It is directed by Theater Project artistic director Mark Spina. Written by Marc Palmieri and premiered out of Penn State Centre Stage, TDF Stages wrote of it: "Possibly the first full-length written work for our new surreality."

Palmieri's plays include the New York Times' "Critic's Pick" Levittown (2009 Theatre at Saint Clements, NYC), The Groundling, Carl the Second and Poor Fellas, among others. All are published by Dramatists Play Service. Marc's play for middle schoolers, S(cool) Days is being released by Brooklyn Publishers this spring. His screenplays include Miramax Films' Telling You starring Peter Facinelli and Jennifer Love Hewitt (1999). Marc lives in New York City and is currently a full-time core faculty member at Mercy College's School of Liberal Arts in Dobbs Ferry teaching in the Communications Department. He is originally from New Jersey (Cranford and Maplewood).

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.

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. www.njtheatrealliance.org Patrons can register to attend Waiting for the Host at TheTheaterProject.org.

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