The Garbologists
by Lindsay Joelle
Directed by Roy Steinberg
September 13th – October 22nd
Wednesday – 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.
Starring Michael Basile and Serena Ebony Miller. See “Cast Bios” below for more info.
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: Approximately 90 minutes
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)
This show is brought to you in part by our sponsors:
Thank you to the following Producers Circle members for their support of the show “The Garbologists”:
- Lee & Jill Bellarmino
- WJ “Brad” Bradhering
- Denise & Vince DeGiaimo
- Irene Darocha & Michael Picariello
- Joan & Jack Dempsey
- Eunice & David King
- Kit Marlowe & BJ Wagner-Marlowe
- Leslie & Myles Martel
- Stephen & Janet Miller
- David & Catherine Nevins
- George & Theresa Schu
- Steven & Sue Teitelman
- Marvin & Lee Zektzer
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of becoming a member of our exclusive Producer’s Circle, click here.
“Essential workers” is a newly coined phrase created during the Covid epidemic and “The Garbologists” gives a name and humanity to those faceless workers who are certainly essential and so under-appreciated.
The dynamics of any workplace can be fraught with competition, power struggles, and expectations. When we add gender issues and race and social standing, those dynamics are exacerbated many times over. In this play, all those issues are explored with an added secret involving a child that makes this environment even more potentially toxic and yet comic and poignant.
The real surprise is how strangers can be thrust into this setting and emerge with a profound friendship. It is a tale for our times.
The theatre provides a microcosm for a workplace where friendships are quickly made and often forgotten. “I love ya, baby, but the show closed” is a joke among theatre folks since we reveal more personal information during rehearsals in creating the work and so there is an instant form of intimacy.
Once the show is closed, we are off to another group of people and exploring new relationships. On occasion, genuine friendships survive the performance schedules and life-long friendships are created. I have found this more often at Cape May Stage than elsewhere and have attended marriages of several actors who met or cemented relationships in this special place.
Comedy is based on undermining expectations. When Danny quotes Shakespeare and Zadie Smith in his Staten Island accent and we learn that Marlowe is a graduate of Columbia, we must reorient ourselves.
So, peek into the lives of these two sanitation workers for the City of New York and prepare to have expectations undermined, understandings deepened, and appreciations made more profound. That is our mission at Cape May Stage – and if we can accomplish all that while making you laugh, we will have made a friend for our theatre!
Roy Steinberg, Producing Artistic Director
Michael Basile (Danny)
Michael is thrilled to be back in his artistic home away from home. Thanks to Roy, Serena, and all those who made this another wonderful experience here in beautiful Cape May. Cape May Stage: The Woolgatherer, Mistakes Were Made, Barefoot in the Park, Chapter Two, Happy. Off-Broadway: The Most Dangerous Man in America (Castillo Theatre), All Dolled Up (Acorn Theatre). Other Regional includes: Rounding Third (Act 2 Playhouse), Laughter on the 23rd Floor (Schoolhouse Theatre), The Odd Couple (Kimmel Center), Italian-American Reconciliation (Depot Theatre). Film includes: The Dark Tower, Where God Left His Shoes, Dog’s Life. Upcoming: Relay. TV: “The Endgame”, “The Good Fight”, “Law and Order”, “Law and Order: SVU”, “Golden Boy”, “Luke Cage”, “The Defenders”, “Blue Bloods”, “Unforgettable”, and recurring on all five seasons of NBC’s
New Amsterdam.” Training: William Esper Studio (William Esper). Michael has had the best “day job” for a New York actor the past 19 years, working as a Firefighter for the FDNY in Engine 242 in Brooklyn. Michael has recently joined the faculty of the esteemed Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre in NYC. For the love of my life, my wife, Michele.
Serena Ebony Miller (Marlowe)
Serena Ebony Miller is so excited to make her first appearance at Cape May Stage. Select appearances: Arden: But Not Without You, Priestess of Twerk, Romeo and Juliet, The Commedia Company, Twelfth Night, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. She is also an accomplished musician and composer, having contributed to works with The Public Theater, SoHo Shakespeare Company, The New Ohio, Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, The New School; as well as several other regional, Off-Broadway productions, and independent works. Favorite venues include The Apollo Theater, The Cutting Room, Joe’s Pub, The Bitter End & Town Hall. Serena is a faculty member at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater and a proud member of AEA. Shout out to her family, cast and crew, and especially to those who surround her. Love.
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!
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!