“Quick Service” offers a funny take on mayhem in a fast-food restaurant 

Westport Country Playhouse will present the comedy, “Quick Service,” as part of the 2023 New Works at the Playhouse Series, on Monday, June 5, at 7 p.m. The new play is written by May Treuhaft-Ali and directed by Cristina Angeles. The audience is invited to meet the playwright and director in the lobby following the performance. New Works at the Playhouse provides a space for the incubation of plays, musicals, and other works of theater. 

Set in an empanada shop in Chicago, “Quick Service” is about four food-service employees trying to make it through the dinner rush. Their normal daily routines take a bizarre turn as something sinister rises up from the basement, ex-coworkers enact revenge, and the oven has a mind of its own. 

"May [Treuhaft-Ali] is the perfect example of a writer we should be celebrating and supporting,” said Liam Lonegan, Playhouse assistant artistic director and curator of the New Works at the Playhouse series. “Her work is making waves across the country, and we are proud to develop ‘Quick Service’ as part of our New Works in the Robards.  

“If you've ever worked in a takeout restaurant, like May or I have, you'll understand just the kind of mayhem that's possible,” Lonegan added. “That mayhem makes the perfect premise of this uniquely funny and charming play, which you're not going to want to miss." 

Through an influx of rehearsals, readings, and workshops each season, the New Works at the Playhouse Series provides an artistic home to writers and theater makers, offering the resources and support necessary to further the growth of their works. The Playhouse endeavors to support artists, particularly those from marginalized communities, who strive to break new ground and enhance the scope of the American theater. 

The cast includes Will Blum as Greg (Broadway’s “Beetlejuice,” “Torch Song,” “School of Rock,” “The Book of Mormon,” “Grease”; National Tours “R+H's Cinderella,” “Hair,” “Elf,” “Seussical”; BFA The Boston Conservatory); Amandla Jahava as Angela (first generation Kenyan-American actor, writer, director; Issa Rae’s “Rapsh!t,” Ava Duvernay’s “DMZ”; off-Broadway debut in Dave Harris’ “Exception to the Rule” MFA Yale School of Drama, BFA CalArts); Zo Tipp, as Vash (Jewish-Japanese-American nonbinary actor/singer; New York productions at Playwrights Horizons, Pan Asian Rep, Cherry Lane Theatre; TheaterWorksUSA’s national tour of “Curious George”; Apple TV’s “Dickinson”; www.zotipp.com); and Ed Ventura as Petey (Dominican-Puerto Rican actor/writer/finesser; current member of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood Collective; LAByrinth’s 2019 Intensive Ensemble, Curious Theatre Company; currently completing BFA SUNY Purchase).   

Gina Fonseca will read stage directions (Carbonell Award Nominee; Shakespeare & Company, Huntington Theatre Company; BFA Boston University; ginafonseca.com).  Stage manager is Kyra Buttonm (May Treuhaft-Ali plays “Quick Service” at MCC, “ABCD” at Barrington Stage Company, “Resistance” at Semicolon Theatre Company). 

Playwright May Treuhaft-Ali is also a director and dramaturg. Her play “ABCD” had its world premiere at Barrington Stage Company in July 2022, and her play “Escapegoat” had a workshop production at Boston Court Pasadena later that year. She is the 2022-23 Van Lier New Voices Fellow at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and a member of Ars Nova's Play Group. Her plays have been developed at Clubbed Thumb, The Playwrights Realm, The Movement Theatre Company, and MCC Theater. She is under commission at Barrington Stage Company and South Coast Repertory. She also served as associate director on the world premiere of “Shhhh” by Clare Barron at Atlantic Theater Company. Treuhaft-Ali is the literary and community engagement assistant at Playwrights Horizons, and a former server at an empanada restaurant. 

Director Cristina Angeles is an Afrolatina director, writer, and theater maker who develops new plays, musicals, and socially conscious adaptations of classics that place women of color at the forefront. She has been awarded the 2020-21 Drama League Directing Fellowship, the 2019-20 Roundabout Directing Fellowship, and has associate directed on and off-Broadway. Angeles is an associate artist at Roundabout Theatre Company and the founding artistic director of Checkmark Productions, an NYC-based company dedicated to artists of color and their stories. Recent credits include “Queen of Basel” (Theaterworks Hartford), and overseeing the national tour of Charles Fuller’s “A Soldier’s Play,” directed by Kenny Leon. 

New Works at the Playhouse curator Liam Lonegan is also the founder of Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective. He received his BFA from Syracuse University, where he was the managing director of Black Box Players while directing and assisting on numerous productions. His work has been featured at Berkshire Theatre Festival, Resident Ensemble Players (REP) at University of Delaware, Syracuse Stage, Westport Country Playhouse, and Egg & Spoon. Lonegan is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. 

For full details on the New Works at the Playhouse reading of “Quick Service,” visit https://www.westportplayhouse.org/show/quick-service/ 

Tickets are $25. Running time is approximately 100 minutes, no intermission. The play is recommended for age 18 and up. 

An upcoming playreadings in the New Works at the Playhouse Series will be on October 2, title and playwright to be announced. 

The New Works at the Playhouse Series is supported by Marietta Battaglia White, Athena and Daniel Adamson, Burry Fredrik Foundation, Laurents/Hatcher Foundation, and the White Barn program of the Lucille Lortel Foundation.  

All dates, times, titles, and artists are subject to change.  

For more information and to buy tickets, visit westportplayhouse.org, or call the box office at (203) 227-4177, toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), Instagram (@wcplayhouse), and YouTube (WestportPlayhouse).