In Defense of Wonder
Essay
Staff Meal
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Written by
Abe Koogler
Directed by Morgan Green
Get tickets! →
Outside, the world is breaking apart. But in here, lonely city dwellers gather to find comfort and connection. Abe Koogler’s Staff Meal is a funny, startling new play about a mysterious restaurant, where the food is delicious, the service is warm, and some strange power keeps the darkness at bay. You are safe here – at least until closing time.
For a description of topics and sensory experiences that audiences may find distressing in advance of attending Staff Meal, please click here to read our Content Transparency Statement. If you have any additional questions about content, age-appropriateness, or stage effects (such as strobe lights) that might have a bearing on patron comfort, please utilize our Audience Services Form or email audienceservices@phnyc.org.
Featuring
Server
Rita
Mina
Waiter
Server
Ben
Vagrant
Creative Team
Jian Jung
Scenic Designer
Kaye Voyce
Costume Designer
Masha Tsimring
Lighting Designer
Tei Blow
Sound Designer
Steve Cuiffo
Illusion Designer
Ryan Gohsman
Production Stage Manager
Staff Meal was awarded a 2024 Citation of Excellence by the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation. Staff Meal has received generous support from the Venturous Theater Fund, a fund of Tides Foundation, the Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Playwrights Horizons' season productions are generously supported by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
“A quietly surreal shapeshifter of a play with humor and a generous heart. STAFF MEAL feels like a portal: We tumble through its funny, eerie evocation of the moment that made—is still making—our present, and we come out the other side feeling, for all its ebb toward emptiness, full.”
— Sara Holdren, Vulture | Read Full Article“The acting and staging are impeccable. Book a table now. It takes an exceptional director to get her arms around Koogler’s dark whimsy and deliver it intact yet still crackling, and the prodigious Morgan Green succeeds beautifully.”
— David Cote, Observer | Read Full Article
Buy Tickets
