"Best Play" in the 2026 Playwrights First Competition
Finalist for the 2020-2021 Woodward-Newman Drama Award
Joseph Vitale
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Joseph Vitale was the winner of the 2026 Playwrights First national competition, a finalist for the 2020-2021 Woodward-Newman Drama Award, and a semi-finalist for the 2012 Eugene O'Neill Theater/National Playwrights Conference. He is the author of a number of plays, including Murrow, which was performed Off-Off Broadway in 2016. His most recent play, The Interpreter, ran in August 2024 at The Theater Project in Summit, NJ.
Photo: Farlekas Photography
UPCOMING
What happens when a burned-out department store Santa meets a joyful elf who just won’t let him quit? Maybe a Christmas miracle. In the back-alley of a department store, a cynical mall Santa clashes with an overly optimistic new elf who still believes in the magic of Christmas. Can the elf challenge Santa’s disillusionment and nudge him back toward a sense of duty — and maybe just a flicker of belief?
Join us on Saturday, November 21 at 2 p.m. in the Reading Room of the Cranford Library in Cranford, NJ for a staged-reading of my new one-act play, A Cigarette With Santa. A talkback with me, the actors and director will follow.