CRANFORD — The Theater Project will present a script-in-hand performance of “Deserves a Quiet Night, by Jonathan Samarro, on Saturday, April 20, at 2 p.m. The presentation will be followed by a lively discussion with the playwright, director, actors and audience.
“Deserves a Quiet Night” is one part of a series of one-act plays exploring how the suppression and abuse of LGBTQ+ youth impact the full fabric of American family life. In this piece, it is the fall of 1977. When a traveling carnival comes to the town of Blue Hills, a restlessly dreamy high school freshman is awakened to the part of her identity that she’s managed to keep tucked in the shadows. With an overwhelming sense of what’s at stake, she struggles with whether or not to pursue her wild crush on the carny girl at the goldfish stand. On this last night of the carnival, will she embrace the bravery of living her truth or will she settle back into the complacency of her small-minded town?
Samarro writes plays that live in the comedic yet painful intersection of longing and paralysis. In 2016, his play, “Grandma Serafina’s Famous Tiramisu,” was presented at the Thespis Festival in Manhattan and was published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc. His plays, “The Sound from the Edge of the Brook” and “The Darkness Between Dreams,” winner of annual One House 10-Minute Play Festival, Best Eclectic Play 2021, have been given Zoom and live productions. A monologue from “The Darkness Between Dreams” has been included in Smith & Kraus’s Best Men’s Stage Monologues 2021.
More recently, his one act “Alas and Alack in Alaska” was performed at the Rogue Theatre Festival in Manhattan, and his monologue, “The Sentinel of Volume H,” was awarded the audience favorite and the Bronze Ear award at the Hear Me Out Festival. A proud member of the Dramatists Guild, Samarro received his master’s degree in playwriting at Columbia University and is the founder of Write Where You Are, a Zoom-based playwriting workshop group.
The performance of “Deserves a Quiet Night” will take place at the Cranford Community Center, 224 Walnut Ave.; admission is free, thanks in part to the sponsorship of the Friends of the Cranford Library and a Union County LAP Grant. The event is part of a monthly series of new play readings presented by The Theater Project at the Center in the fall, winter and spring.
The Theater Project, a professional theater company, contributes to a more thoughtful, inspired and creative community by connecting audiences to new work, rising artists and thought-provoking conversations about the issues of our times. More information is available at TheTheaterProject.org or by calling 908-809-8865.