The Patrons

An Irons in the Fire Project

October 20, 2024
Theatre Row, Studio Theatre - 410 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036

By Nick Gandiello
Directed by Aaron Rossini

Synopsis

It's the Fall of 1963, and Head Librarian Mrs. Quarter is training Rhonda to serve the community amid budget cuts and a staff shortage.  Unbeknownst to Quarter, Rhonda allows teenage patron Adam to check out a controversial book, which is soon voted for removal from the shelves by the county.  As local tempers flare against the library, the staff must choose how far they will go to protect their ideals and each other.  The Patrons explores the power of public spaces and what happens when we can't agree on what is allowed within them.

Playwright

NICK GANDIELLO [he/him] has worked around the country as a playwright and teaching artist. His plays include The Blameless (The Old Globe), The Wedge Horse (Fault Line Theatre), Oceanside (Merrimack Repertory Theatre), and Cicada (Roe Green Award Winner). He was the 2015 Page 73 Playwriting Fellow, is an alum of the Lark Rita Goldberg Playwriting Workshop and the Ars Nova Play Group, the recipient of an MTC/Sloan Commission, and was awarded Marin Theatre Company's David Calicchio Emerging American Playwriting Award for Sunrise Highway. Gandiello was the Literary Manager at Young Playwrights Inc., taught playwriting at Marymount Manhattan College, was the head of the Dramatic Writing Division at Broadway For All, and is currently the Education and Play Festival Manager at Premiere Stages. MFA, New School for Drama.

Director

AARON ROSSINI [he/him] is Producing Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Fault Line Theatre. He has a B.F.A. from Miami University of Ohio and an M.F.A. from the Brown University/Trinity Rep Graduate Program. Aaron produces, directs, teaches, and acts.  Fault Line Theatre: Hindsight, Round Table, The Oregon Trail, The Wedge Horse, At the Table, Breathing Time, The Faire, From White Plains, From the Same Cloth, Frogs, Doctor Faustus, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “(plays) In Previews.”, and “Irons in the Fire”.

Poster Sketch by Sean Devare