CRANFORD — “New Plays: Saturday Reading Series” happens at Cranford Community Center the third Saturday, monthly, at 2 p.m. Presented by The Theater Project, new plays are read, followed by a discussion with the author and audience in the fully accessible 110-seat theater. It’s free to attend and no reservations are required.
This month’s feature is “Two by Two Plus One.” It’s three short plays by members of The Theater Project’s playwrights’ workshop. The plays are “Edifice Wrecks,” by Stephanie Griffin; “Sidewalks,” by Thomas M. Copeland; and “The Cleaners,” by Joseph Vitale.
Vitale is the author of several plays that have been produced around the country. His last full-length, “The Interpreter,” was produced by The Theater Project in 2024.
“‘The Cleaners’ is about two late-night cleaning women who tidy the offices of a Wall Street Finance firm. While cleaning, one of the women finds a love note torn up. She goes through the man’s garbage and pieces it all together.
“The first woman is Joanie,” said Vitale. “The second is Juanita. She’s really upset by what Joanie’s doing; doesn’t feel it’s right going through someone’s garbage.”
While Joanie takes home several love notes and tapes them together, she finds out the history of a married executive. She knows with whom this man is having an affair.
“Both of these women are very marginal,” said Vitale. “This is a very low-paying job and they’re barely hanging on, economically.”
With the discovery of the affair, Joanie tells Juanita it could be their meal ticket, as she plans to blackmail the executive. Juanita is torn. She needs the money to get her son into a better school, but she feels it’s not right. She’s afraid to get involved.
“That’s the basic struggle,” said Vitale. “Having worked in offices my whole life, you wonder what goes on behind the scenes. The cleaners are a whole subculture. It’s a whole other world. How did these people see us? How did the ‘have nots’ view the ‘haves’?”
Vitale said he always worked in communications, not finance, but he let his imagination run wild while writing the story. “These men are on top of the world,” he said. “How do other people view their lives? What would it be like, a situation like that?”
In writing a short play, Vitale explains that you have to get people’s interest immediately. “Make it really compelling,” he said.
Vitale, a finalist for the 2020-21 Woodward/Newman Drama Award and a semi-finalist for the 2012 Eugene O’Neill Theater/National Playwrights Conference, is the author of a number of plays, including “Murrow,” which was performed Off-Off Broadway in 2016.
He said that “Murrow” is his favorite thing he’s written. It’s a one-man show about broadcaster Edward R. Murrow. “His son, Charles Casey Murrow, came to the show.”
In Vitale’s fabulous career, there are also challenges such as getting your play performed. “It’s hard,” he said. “There’s such competition out there, trying to get the brass ring.”
Vitale was always involved in communications, working in public relations and marketing, and has always written plays on the side. Now that he’s retired, he teaches public relations at Drew University. The Randolph resident said he likes to ski and is an avid golfer. He and his wife travel almost every year throughout the United States and Europe.
To learn more about Joseph Vitale, visit: https://www.josephvitale.net/.
To learn more about The Theater Project, visit: https://www.thetheaterproject.org/.
Photo Courtesy of Farlekas Photography
