TOMATO CAN'T GROW IN THE BRONX Opens at Chain Theater Next Month

"A Tomato Can't Grow Can't Grow in the Bronx", a multi-award-winning poignant drama by playwright/novelist Gary Morgenstein, opens at Chain Theater (312 W. 36th Street, 4th Floor) on Friday, December 2nd for a limited 10-performance engagement thru December 17th. Bernice Garfield-Szita directs. Featured in the cast are Jackie Kusher*(Joyland), Andrea Bell Wolff* (2022 Perry Award Winner, Best Actress),Mike Roche* (Night Over Taos at INTAR, Estelle Parsons director), Holly O'Brien* (Two by Two, Martin Charnin director), Marina Rebecca Chan (Asian American Girl/developed at Pan Asian Rep) and Spencer Neumann (Les Miserables). *(Members of Actors Equity).

Set in a working-class neighborhood of the Bronx during the racial and political unrest of the 1960s, the multi-generational play portrays the dysfunctional family dynamics between a married couple, Sammy (Mike Roche) and Eleanor Abrams (Holly O'Brien), and Eleanor's overbearing parents, Harry (Jackie Kusher) and Gladys Simms (Andrea Bell Wolff), who live in the apartment next door. When the couple's rebellious teenage son Elliot (Spencer Neumann) gets mugged, it triggers Sammy's desire to defy his powerful father-in-law and move to Long Island to claim his share of the American Dream. Harry has other ideas.

Director Bernice Garfield-Szita says: "Although the play's world takes place during 1968, a particularly tumultuous year, these richly identifiable and flawed characters confront many of the same social issues that we face today, struggling to communicate, connect and love each other. Their hopes and fears and dreams belong to any family, and to any age."

Playwright Gary Morgenstein's "A Tomato Can't Grow Can't Grow in the Bronx" was performed to sold out houses in April at the Center Playhouse in Freehold, winning three 2022Perry Awards from the New Jersey Association of Community Theaters (NJACT) including Best Original Play and Best Actress. Gary's plays include Broadway World award winning play "A Black and White Cookie" and "Free Palestine". His seven novels feature a critically acclaimed dystopian political trilogy culminating with "A Dugout to Peace" to be published by BHC Press.

Bernice Garfield-Szita is Artistic Director of Center Players with 50 years' experience in theater. She is most proud of her 2018 NJACT Lifetime Achievement Award.

A Tomato Can't Grow Can't Grow in the Bronx opens at Chain Theater (312 W. 36th Street, 4th) on Friday, December 2nd at 7:30PM and runs thru Saturday, December 17th. The performance schedule is as follows: Fri 12/2, Sat 12/3, Thu 12/8, Fri 12/9, Sat 12/10, Fri 12/16 and Sat 12/17 at 7:30PM with matinees on Sun 12/4, Sun 12/11 and Wed 12/14 at 2PM. Tickets are $25.

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