Staged Play Reading by The Theater Project: "Back Channel"

Members of The Theater Project will present a staged reading of Back Channel, a new play by Joseph Vitale. It is October 1962 and the world is on the brink of nuclear war. The Soviet Union has placed nuclear missiles in Cuba and President John F. Kennedy has demanded that they be removed. With humanity facing Armageddon, two men meet for lunch in a Washington, D.C. restaurant. One is a television reporter, John Scali. The other is a Soviet embassy official, Alexander Feklisov, who, in reality, is a KGB spy. Each man, it turns out, is being used as a “back channel” by his respective government in an attempt to resolve the crisis. Out of the glare of the media and in opposition to the intransigent, “official” positions of their governments, Scali and Feklisov try to work out a deal. But is each man who he says he is? With the fate of the world at stake and the clock ticking, can they learn to trust one another? And, most important, will they have enough time? Joseph Vitale, a semi-finalist at the 2012 Eugene O’Neill Theater/National Playwrights Conference, is the author of a number of plays, including Murrow, which was performed at The Theater Project in Maplewood. The Fourth State of Matter was performed in August and September 2011 at the Theater for the New City in New York. His one-act plays have been produced at the Hudson Guild, Barrow Group, and Manhattan Repertory theaters in New York and at The Theater Project. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, as well as the Theater Project Playwrights Workshop. The Theater Project is an acclaimed, New Jersey-based professional theater group and the winner of two New Jersey Tony Awards. Following the reading, the play will be discussed by the audience, the director, the actors, and Mr. Vitale. Admission is free and all are welcome. The program is sponsored by the Friends of the Cranford Public Library.