By Sharon Geltner
There are 64,000 plays registered on a national clearinghouse for budding playwrights. The vast majority will never be staged.
Yet, since 2024, Jeff Perlman, former mayor of Delray Beach, has seen three plays produced.
“The odds of being produced are very low. I was told this by several veteran playwrights,” Perlman said. “Many people [who write multiple scripts] never have a play produced. I’m lucky. And I’ve found a late-life outlet.”
The playwright attributes his success to his reporting days. “I think I’m a decent storyteller with an ear for dialogue based on my years as a journalist.”
This kind of exposure, in such a cutthroat industry, is very rare. Longtime blogger Perlman only started writing scripts last year. He was inspired by the Theatre Lab at Florida Atlantic University, he said.
Locals can view Perlman’s latest accomplishment Oct. 11, when The Café on Main debuts in two performances at the Arts Garage. The main character is loosely based on Fran Marincola, founder of Caffè Luna Rosa, the oceanfront restaurant in Delray Beach. It takes place in a hybrid of Perlman’s hometown of Stony Brook, New York, and Delray Beach.
Perlman’s plot: “The action takes place in a cozy café. A world-wise proprietor watches life unfold at a prime table. Inspired by the song ‘Moon River,’ the play speaks to the mysteries of love and life, the unpredictable currents that take us to new and often unexpected places.”
Already, The Café on Main is connecting with audiences.
“The 20-minute version of Jeff’s play at Delray Beach Playhouse was received so well, he did a Q&A after the show and the audience was so engaged,” said Marianne Regan, founder of the six-year-old Playwrights Festival of New Plays and president of the board at the Playhouse.
“That’s because the play has a lot of relatable characters. And we all fell in love with them and want to spend more time with these people,” she explained.
Perlman said he submitted the short version of The Café on Main to the Delray Beach Playhouse last year, and the “experience changed my life and inspired me to write more.”
“I enjoyed the teamwork and collaboration with such amazing talent and became friendly with the cast and the great director Marianne Regan,” he added.
Arts Garage was a natural progression for a 75 to 90-minute version of The Café on Main, Perlman noted.
Michelle Diaz was recently promoted to be artistic director of theater at Arts Garage, and is tasked with bringing more production to the Delray arts venue. (She will continue running the children’s summer camp and teaching adult acting classes, according to the Arts Garage website.)
“We expect around 300 attendees with many community members coming out to support Jeff and Arts Garage,” Diaz said through a spokesman. “Jeff Perlman is a bright light in our community, and we wanted to honor him by sharing a beautiful story of finding love.”
Diaz reads about 20 new plays a year and presents three or four. She said: “Local submissions like ‘The Café on Main’ are especially welcome as they provide opportunities to support playwrights and actors in the community.”
Delray Beach actor Shelly Pittleman plays the lead, that Marincola character.
“I’m pretty excited to be part of this because it’s my understanding that that Arts Garage wants to get into serious theater in a big way,” Pittleman said. “Jeff is a great writer and terrific guy; I don’t want to mess this up.”
Pittleman was last seen in Delray Beach Playhouse’s Grumpy Old Men: The Musical, in 2024, and has performed in numerous productions there and at the Lake Worth Playhouse. He notes proudly that he will turn 80 three weeks after The Café on Main and has already lined up his next role: the Cowardly Lion in a production of The Wizard of Oz.
All but one of the actors who performed in the 20-minute version of The Café on Main will return for the full production. The exception is Diane Tyminski, who will be playing the lead (directed by her husband Jim) in Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Show, at the Delray Beach Playhouse.
Besides Pittleman, the Café on Main actors are: Raven Adams (Boynton Beach), Nancy Ferraro (North Palm Beach), Sergio Fuenzalida (Jupiter) and Peter Salzer (Delray Beach.)
Perlman’s oeuvre includes comedy and tragedy. His play Press Conference was performed twice near Columbus, Ohio, last August and via Zoom by a Massachusetts group. He is expanding it into a full-length play.
“This play is about a mayor trying to deal with and understand the aftermath of a shooting in which a young man is shot and killed by a rookie police officer outside a school dance. It’s very loosely based on my experiences as mayor in the aftermath of the Jerrod Miller tragedy,” Perlman said. Miller, who was 16, was fatally shot by a rookie Delray Beach Police officer in 2005 outside a dance.
“I entered the short play in a Brave Stories competition and it was one of four plays chosen among over 500 entries by Boxland Media, a theater company in Ohio,” he said.
“It’s a short play, about 20 minutes. I’m working on a full-length version that explores the story further. This is the 20th anniversary of the shooting and I wanted to explore how the tragedy affects the community and the people involved.
“Jerrod was my daughter’s age in 2005. I think about him all the time. Ever since it happened, I have had recurring dreams about a young man I never knew in life,” he said. “I saw him only once — in a casket, at his funeral. As the years go by, I think about him even more now.”
Perlman is prepared to self-produce this play if necessary, he said.
“I think theater is one of the few things we do these days that bring us together,” Perlman said. “The live communal experience is very powerful and, I think, important. Theater allows us to think about subjects together, to express ideas and emotions and hopefully talk afterwards.”
On a lighter note, Perlman’s third produced play, Love After Love, appeared in the New Plays Festival at the Delray Beach Playhouse this year.
“I was inspired when walking my dog at Lake Ida Park and seeing a bench overlooking the water,” he said. “This play is about a couple moving forward together, after the man lost his wife. The spirit of his late wife is providing divine coaching to help him move on.”
Regan said she is enjoying seeing Perlman’s success. “I hope Jeff is having fun because he has talent,” she said. “Anytime our playwrights go on to bigger and better things, I’m a happy mama.”
Matt Stabile, producing artistic director at FAU Theatre Lab, who was Perlman’s first inspiration to become a playwright, is also delighted at his success. His theater produces new plays exclusively, ranging from staged readings to full productions.
“Part of our job is to pull back the curtain so the audience can see how plays get made. I tell them, ‘If you want to be a playwright, write plays!’ You have to take that initial leap, which is what Jeff has done,” Stabile said.
Stabile added, “We don’t just sell tickets, we inspire people to try to do their own plays.”
If you go
What: The Café on Main
When: Saturday, Oct. 11, at 2 pm and 8 pm.
Where: Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave., Delray Beach.
Tickets: $35, available at artsgarage.org
Sharon Geltner is the author of Charity Bashed, available on Amazon and in area libraries and bookstores.