Tickets are $20 and and can be purchased here.

Join us on Sunday, February 19 at 4pm for a reading of, “Yuppies Invade My House at Dinnertime.” This hybrid/documentary play was written by Mile Square Theatre‘s playwright-in-residence Joseph Gallo. It is set in the 1980s and chronicles Hoboken’s gentrification when fires, many of them arson, led to dozens of unsolved arson-related murders and displacement of thousands of tenants. Nearly every word in the text is taken verbatim from more than 40 interviews of community residents who lived through that time, newspaper clippings, letters-to-the-editor that appeared in the Hoboken Reporter (taken from the similarly titled book), and other primary source documents. This event features a talkback with Dylan Gottlieb, PhD, Historian of American Cities and Capitalism. 

This event complements our Main Gallery exhibit, “The Fires: Hoboken 1978-1982″ and was supported by the NJ Council for the Humanities.

The world premiere of “Yuppies Invade My House at Dinnertime” will run at Mile Square Theatre from March 31 – April 8. Joseph Gallo’s former plays for MST were also drawn from Hoboken history – “My Italy Story” explored his family’s immigration to Hoboken (“…a compelling page turner.” – New York Times), while “Long Gone Daddy” dealt with the alienation, adventures and anxieties of being a stay-at-home Dad in Hoboken (“Captivating!” – 07030 Magazine).

JOSEPH GALLO is the playwright-in-residence at Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken where his credits include: wrote and directed the dance/theatre piece “The Magic Hour,” and directed the performance film, which was named Best Feature at the NYC Indie Theatre Film Festival; wrote, directed, and performed in the podcast play “The Playbill Gallery (a love story)”; wrote and performed the solo plays “AJ’s Book” and “Long Gone Daddy” (“…strong, moving, assured…an unsparing, honest, funny story…beautifully captured.” – Broadway World); and worked as dramaturg and producer on the dance/theatre piece “Much Ado About Cucumbers & Cigars,” and additionally directed the performance film. As a solo writer/performer he also appeared in the original production of “My Italy Story” at Penguin Rep, which later had its debut Off-Broadway at the 47th Street Theatre in New York with Danny Mastrogiorgio (“…a compelling page turner.” – New York Times). The play later received a critically acclaimed revival at MST starring Emmy Award winner Tom Pelphrey. Full-length plays include: “Two-Man Kidnapping Rule” (New Ohio Theatre); “Warning: Adult Content” (Theatre 54); “Staten Island” (Circle Rep Lab); and “New York City 523”, which was developed in workshop at the Writers Theatre of New Jersey and is excerpted in Smith & Kraus’s Best Men’s Monologues of 2019. He also co-created and wrote the text for the dance/theatre piece “80% of Love” for company Rindfleisch, which debuted in New York at the Obie award-winning Ice Factory Festival at the Ohio Theatre, and subsequently transferred to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (“…this dance soap opera/symbolist dream play boasts a virtuosity seldom seen.” – nytheatre.com). He is a current member of the Actors Studio Playwrights and Directors Workshop, a New Jersey Council of the Arts Playwriting Fellow, and a recipient of the NJ Council of the Humanities Incubation Grant for New Work. A frequent participant at The Moth in New York City, he is a two-time StorySLAM champion, and has been featured on The Moth Radio Hour. Training: MFA in Playwriting, Ohio University.