The Garbologists
by Lindsay Joelle
Directed by Roy Steinberg
September 13th – October 22nd
Tuesday – Saturday at 7 PM
Sunday at 3 pm
“A Must See! Joelle’s finely crafted play is laced with wit and wisdom.”
– BroadwayWorld.com
This unconventional buddy comedy follows first-time sanitation worker Marlowe and lifer Danny in the cab of a nineteen-ton garbage truck in New York City. Marlowe is a black, Ivy League-educated newbie learning the ropes from Danny, a white blue-collar mansplainer. Tasked with picking up what the world has discarded, they learn there’s more that binds them than just picking up the trash.
Special Show Dates:
- Wednesday, September 13: Preview Night with discounted tickets
- Thursday, September 14: Opening Night with Post-Show Party
- Friday, September 29: Best Value Night – All tickets available at the best value price of $35
- Sunday, October 8: Pay-What-You-Wish Rush tickets – All available tickets on the day of the performance can be purchased at the box office for whatever price you wish to pay. Starts one hour before curtain, cash only.
Age Guide: 16+
Running Time: 2 hours, including an intermission
Advisory: This play contains adult language and mature content themes.
“Lindsay Joelle’s script is delightfully intimate, surprising, and profound, filled with sometimes unexpected laughter and even tears. Titled for the archeological study of trash, the play mines the territories of external perception and the human heart.” – onStage Pittsburgh (2022)
If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of being a show sponsor, contact Marketing@Capemaystage.org.
Many thanks to our producers:
- Janice & Joseph Anania
- Lee & Jill Bellarmino
- Joan & Jack Dempsey
- Victor Keen & Jeanne Ruddy
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of becoming a member of our exclusive Producer’s Circle, click here.
Identity is at the core of so much in our culture in this summer of 2023. Trans people talk of their true gender identity and people with disabilities and people from marginalized ethnic or religious or sexual orientation communities talk of expressing their identity in the most public of ways. June is the month of Pride Day and Juneteenth. It is also when Cape May Stage mounts “Shirley Valentine”.
When Willy Russell wrote his hilarious “Shirley Valentine” in 1988 he could not have known how relevant it would be thirty-five years later. Shirley Bradshaw searches for her identity that has been lost when her role as wife and mother erased that true identity and it is only the chance encounter of a stranger that makes her re-discover the woman she was before society forced her to give up her maiden name.
The theme of this season is the importance of other people in one’s lives. Shirley’s friend, Jane, invites her to come along on a holiday to Greece and neither could predict how important that casual invitation would be.
Just as Shirley steps out of her comfort zone, we invite you to consider if there is anything that would make you more authentic after experiencing this production. Dr. Bruce Yankner at Harvard Medical School notes that older brains are better at making rational decisions and are better able to screen out negativity.
Perhaps we should all listen to Shirley as she aspires for her husband to “feel the sun on his skin an’ to be in water that’s as deep as forever, an’ to have his wet head kissed. He needs to stare out to sea. And to understand”.
We have the sea here in Cape May and I hear it is deep as forever…
Roy Steinberg, Producing Artistic DirectorCasting information coming soon!
Lindsay Joelle (playwright) is a writer of plays, musicals, television shows, books, and emails.
The granddaughter of a survivor in Poland’s Underground Resistance and the daughter of a first-generation Israeli-born American, Joelle is drawn to stories of misfits, rebels, and the unassimilated. Her plays spotlight voices not usually heard in the American theater: Chasidic Jews addicted to rock and roll. Sanitation workers who find treasure in the trash. Her writing explores the rituals, routines, jargon, and humor of communities across America.
Plays include TRAYF (Geffen Playhouse, Theater J, Penguin Rep, New Rep), The Messengers (Audible Theater), A Small History of Amal, Age 7 (Forward Flux/Pratidhwani), and The Garbologists (Philadelphia Theatre Company, City Theatre, Northlight Theatre). She has received an Audible Theater Emerging Playwright commission, E.S.T./Sloan Foundation Science & Technology commission, Vital Theatre musical commission, Irving Zarkower Award, Anne Freedman grant, and the Goldberg MFA Playwriting Prize. Alumna of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, Nashville Repertory Theatre’s Ingram New Works Lab, New Georges Jam, and National New Play Network Playwright-in-Residence at Curious Theatre. Joelle received her BA from Columbia University and MFA from Hunter.
More crew information coming soon!
Press photos coming soon!
Digital program coming soon!
Coming Soon
View our full 2023 season schedule to see what other memorable events we have lined up for you this year at Cape May Stage!