New Moon Series
Our New Moon Series supports playwrights in developing their work, and offers audiences a chance to see new plays in process.
Lunch Break
By Jack Cummings
Directed by Julia Murphy
Tickets are free; reservations are recommended.
Monday, April 29th @ 7:00pm
Lunch Break tells the story of three young men, living in New Jersey, attempting to salvage a boutique construction company after the business’s former patriarch, Bob DiSanti, dies suddenly of a heart attack. The DiSanti construction crew includes: Bob’s second son, Dom DiSanti, Bob’s protégé, Juan Alvarez, and Bob’s first son Anthony, who’s just returned to N.J. after a mysterious seven-year hiatus.
Tensions rise as Anthony and Juan fight for control of the company, forcing Dom to choose between his biological brother and his best friend. All three men stifle their own emotional needs, effecting self-destruction, all while trying to enjoy sub sandwiches, burritos, pizza, etc... on their well-deserved lunch break.
This play is a meditation on masculinity and how (particularly, blue-collar) young men use degrees of touch to process their feelings.
About the New Moon Reading Series
NEW MOON READINGS - New Moon Readings provide playwrights an opportunity to hear their work read aloud by professional actors, and to receive supportive yet constructive feedback. As a theater that prioritizes new work, we see New Moon as a pipeline to develop new theatre work, and build relationships with writers, directors, and actors. The series is also an important audience development tool: it involves our audiences in the creative process of play development and excites them about the concept of new work. Four of the plays read in New Moon Readings last year were programmed in our 2019-2020 American Voices and MainStage Season.
Luna’s NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT program is an integral part of our identity as a theatre that commissions, develops and premieres adventurous new plays, champions emerging voices, and encourages artistic adventure. It functions as an active pipeline to build relationships with writers, directors, and actors, and support work that will ultimately find its way to full production. 4 of our 7 productions in 2019-2020 were developed as part of our new play reading and workshop process. Playwrights speak highly of Luna’s commitment to incubating work, and of the care with which their projects are shepherded from early stages to the MainStage.
Our NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT program features readings of new work throughout the year and a three-day Short Play Festival in May. These opportunities allow us to nurture plays and playwrights at all stages of development.
Luna’s role in developing and producing new work reverberates long after our direct involvement in nurturing playwrights and plays.
The first World Premiere of our 2019-2020 Season, Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library, was optioned for a New York production (on hold now due to COVID) and has had international interest from a theatre in Germany.
Our February 2019 World Premiere of Christina Gorman’s Roan @ the Gates has subsequently been produced at CentralWorks (Berkeley) and American Blues Theatre (Chicago) in 2019-2020.
Razorhurst, a musical by Kate Mulley and Andy Peterson which Luna commissioned and produced in our 2017-2018 Season, had its Australian premiere at the Hayes Theatre in Sydney in 2019.
Lines in the Dust by Nikkole Salter, a play we commissioned and premiered in 2014 enjoyed numerous subsequent productions: ETA (Chicago), 2016; Cleveland Public Theatre, June 2016; The St. Louis Black Repertory, 2017; Tennessee Women’s Theatre Project, 2018; and Jersey City Theater Center (2019.)
The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez, a world premiere at Luna Stage, was the third most produced play of the 2012-13 Season in the United States.
American Moor by Keith Hamilton Cobb, a solo piece Luna helped develop and presented in 2015, American Moor received the 2015 Audelco Award and 2018 Elliott Norton Award, both for for Outstanding Solo Performance.