THE GARBOLOGISTS
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photo credit: Wide Eyed Studios
Honoring our essential workers, The Garbologists is a hopeful story about finding common ground in uncommon times.
Danny’s a white, blue-collar, New York City mansplainer. Marlowe’s the Black, female, ivy-educated newbie who just joined his garbage route. Thrown together in a putrid 19-ton truck and forced to pick up what the world has discarded, two essential workers from different worlds discover there's more that binds them than taking out the trash. TIME & PLACE New York City. Present day. Winter. CHARACTERS MARLOWE: Female (she/her). Late 30s to mid 40s. Black. First week at DSNY. Confident and competent, both physically and mentally. Keen sense of wit and irony. Vivid inner life; even when silent, her face speaks volumes. Practiced in making you to think she's got it all together, but she's guarding a secret she doesn't wear on her sleeve. DANNY: Male (he/him). Mid to late 40s. White. Nine years at DSNY. Mansplaining, dad jokes, and run-of-the-mill machismo thinly mask a profound desire to love and be loved. With less wear-and-tear, he might be attractive—ruggedly handsome, even—but you'd swallow hot coals before saying that to his face. |
PRESS
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"Lindsay Joelle's script is delightfully intimate, surprising, and profound, filled with sometimes unexpected laughter and even tears. Titled for the archeological study of trash, the play mines the territories of external perception and the human heart."
--onStage Pittsburgh "Joelle is a talented writer and there is certainly a need for a script clearly designed to show that we're all not as different as we think. 'The Garbologists,' which has had just a couple of previous productions and likely would make a good TV pilot, also is courageous enough to probe the intersection of race and class, which is hard enough to do that many young playwrights avoid the challenge... To put that another way, I liked the writing and the aims of the piece very much."
--Chicago Tribune "Exiting playgoers were saying, 'I never knew about any of this stuff.' And that glimpse of an unknown world (one we see every day) is part of the charm...In learning our way through this delightful dramedy, we all become students of garbage. We become Garbologists. -- The Philadelphia Inquirer
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"'The Garbologists' delves into the world of trash—and it's very deep... Taking place in the confined space of a truck, two characters—the white, blue-collar mansplainer Danny and a Black, Ivy League-educated newbie Marlowe—are partnered up for a route, and what happens during their intimate performance includes a lot of laughs, some deep conversations, and ultimately the quest for common ground even with their vastly different backgrounds."
--Metro Philadelphia
--Metro Philadelphia
"...An examination of in-between moments. What’s the chatter as you navigate traffic in Brooklyn? ...What if your workplace geography puts you in a situation where you are stuck with a colleague — a colleague you barely know, a colleague who is completely different from you?
What’s the conversation? What lessons are learned? And what happens to the trash?"
--The Philadelphia Inquirer
What’s the conversation? What lessons are learned? And what happens to the trash?"
--The Philadelphia Inquirer
PRODUCTION HISTORY |
SELECTED ACCOLADES |
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Looking for The Garbologists dramaturgy? The page you want is here. |
