John Dennis David Keane

What is the name of your play?
A Love Supreme and Wang Dang Doodle Salad

Tell us what your play is about in 3 sentences or less:
The first play is about the impact of violence and how it affects those left in its wake, and the second is a comedy that revolves around a misunderstanding between a son and his mother. Sometimes all we see isn’t all there is to be seen.

What was the inspiration behind your piece?
The three friends I lost to gun violence in high school and a news clip from two years ago, and the second play came from a writing prompt two years ago in a Theatherworks class.

When did you start writing plays?
I started writing plays five years ago in Theatherworks.

What is one thing about you that surprises other people?
That I went back to college 27 years after I first started. (Still going)

What is the one thing you learned in TheaterWorks! you’ll never forget?
I learned that the writing is in the editing.

Anything else you’d like to share with our audiences?
Finding Working Theater and its Theatherworks program has been one of best things that’s ever happened to me.

Pete Mergel

What is the name of your play?
Grown and Flown

Tell us what your play is about in 3 sentences or less:
A married couple begin a new chapter in their lives as empty nesters.

What was the inspiration behind your piece?
It is presently something that my wife and I are experiencing.

When did you start writing plays?
2015

What is the one thing you learned in TheaterWorks! you’ll never forget?
The amazing talented people that I have met and had the pleasure of working with.

Daniela Poveromo

What is the name of your play?
Social therapy

Tell us what your play is about in 3 sentences or less:
A man named Noe visits a therapist for the first time and wants to get to know his therapist and assistant before starting therapy. The therapist, Dr. Victor Hernandez, and his assistant, Gloria, share a little about their backgrounds before Noe opens up about feeling overwhelmed and stressed as an exchange student from Mexico. They eventually agree to focus on Noe’s mental and emotional health, but they want to make him feel comfortable before they begin.

What was the inspiration behind your piece?
My immigration experience

When did you start writing plays?
October 2021

What is one thing about you that surprises other people?
My obsession with Seinfeld

What is the one thing you learned in TheaterWorks! you’ll never forget?
Overcoming my fear of vulnerability and put my writing out there

Nelson Salcedo

What is the name of your play?
Dumped.

Tell us what your play is about in 3 sentences or less:
Friendship, Love/Loss, Absurdity.

What was the inspiration behind your piece?
Life

When did you start writing plays?
In the TheaterWorks! Program.

What is the one thing you learned in TheaterWorks! you’ll never forget?
It’s always worthwhile to exercise your creative muscles.

Joe Roland ( 32BJ Program Director) Joe Roland is a playwright and an actor. He has appeared in film & television, on Broadway & Off-Broadway. His play On the Line was produced at the Cherry Lane Theater by Mike Nichols, and Boyett Ostar productions and later won the Cleveland Critics Circle award for best production. For the past 10 years he has been teaching playwriting to union members through the TheaterWorks! program in collaboration with the 32BJ Training Fund and Working Theater. After moving to the Berkshires, Joe has worked with high school students through Barrington Stage Company’s Playwright Mentoring Project, something he hopes to do again in the future.

The 32BJ Training Fund is a joint labor-management partnership that offers training to eligible participants at no cost. The fund is supported by contributions negotiated between 32BJ SEIU and participating employers. Our mission is to train every participant to grow to the next level. We want to continually raise the standards of our industry by providing 32BJ members with the tools they need to meet the challenges of a changing industry. At the 32BJ Training Fund everything we do supports that one goal of making it possible for our members to get the education, training, and skills they need to grow in the quickly changing property services industry. Linda G. Nelson, Director. https://training2.32bjfunds.org/