By: James Manley
New York has a way of turning arrivals into footnotes. Everyone comes here with a promise; not everyone gets to stay long enough to be changed by it.
In The Bookstore, Michael Walek’s quietly resonant new play now running at 59E59 Theaters, Quentin Chisholm plays Spencer, a newcomer to the city whose curiosity hasn’t yet been blunted by survival instincts. It’s a performance built on openness, and it may be the play’s most radical gesture.
Chisholm originated the role during the show’s world premiere at New Jersey Repertory Company, where The Bookstore was praised as “sweet and touching” (NJ Arts) and later described by Out in Jersey as “a love letter to all those indie bookstores that are still struggling to survive in an era of big chain stores and online shopping.” Now, as the production transfers to New York, Chisholm brings Spencer with him, older, steadier, and newly at home in the city that once felt overwhelming.
“Spencer has a very pure excitement and passion for the world around him,” Chisholm said. “Most pointedly, NYC.”
That excitement isn’t performative. Spencer isn’t chasing a dream montage or announcing his intentions. He’s watching. Asking questions. Taking recommendations seriously. He enters the titular bookstore not as a customer with a mission, but as someone hoping the space might tell him who he could become.
That posture mirrors Chisholm’s own experience when he first stepped into the role. The NJ Rep production coincided with his first year living in New York, and the overlap was formative. Spencer’s oscillation between exhilaration and disorientation wasn’t something Chisholm had to imagine; it was something he was actively living.
“I deeply understood the way his experience moves between excitement and bewilderment,” Chisholm said. “Those two feelings coexist when you’re new here, and when you’re figuring out what your adult life might look like.”
Returning to The Bookstore for its New York run, Chisholm says his relationship to Spencer has shifted. The innocence is still there, but what stands out now is growth, an emerging self-assuredness shaped not by ambition, but by relationship. Spencer matures through proximity: to books, to work, and most significantly, to Carey, the bookstore’s owner, played by Janet Zarish.
There’s a small, almost throwaway moment midway through the play when Carey hands Spencer a book and introduces him to certain authors. It’s brief, unsentimental, and essential. “That’s where Spencer really clicks for me,” Chisholm said. “It’s where he starts discovering himself as a fully-fledged adult.”
That discovery is quiet, which is why it works. Under William Carden’s direction, the bookstore functions as a real place of labor: boxes get unpacked, shelves get stocked, and wine gets poured. The authenticity grounds Spencer’s arc. He’s not transformed by a speech or a revelation, but by consistency, by being seen, trusted, and taught.
BroadwayWorld praised the production as “a splendid theatrical piece with sincere, humorous, and poignant moments,” singling out the ensemble’s ability to deliver Walek’s “genuine dialogue.” Chisholm’s performance embodies that genuineness. His Spencer listens more than he speaks, and when he does speak, it lands because it feels earned.
That listening quality is what makes Spencer and Chisholm so watchable. In a city where speed and certainty are rewarded, Spencer’s defining trait is curiosity. At one point, Carey states outright: “Curiosity is really the only thing that matters in life.” For Chisholm, the line feels especially pointed right now.
“In 2026, curiosity feels like it’s at an all-time low,” he said. “We’re encouraged to judge quickly, to have hot takes about everything. Prioritizing curiosity feels like a radical act.”
Photo Courtesy: NJ Rep / Andrea Phox
Quentin Chisholm, Janet Zarish, Arielle Goldman, and Ari Derambakhsh. Photo by Andrea Phox at NJ Rep
That radical softness is central to The Bookstore. It’s not nostalgic about New York, nor is it naive about survival. It understandsthat the economics are brutal. What it insists on, gently, persistently, is that connection still happens here, often in places we pass every day without looking up.
For Chisholm, bookstores themselves carry personal resonance. His mother is an author who teaches literary seminars at an independent bookstore in California, where he grew up, and family trips to Kepler’s left a lasting imprint. Even now, wandering into a bookstore in New York can feel like stepping briefly back home.
That sense of sanctuary seeps into his performance. Spencer doesn’t treat the bookstore as a backdrop; he treats it as a possibility. And in doing so, Chisholm gives the audience permission to do the same.
“I hope people leave wanting to hug the people around them just a little tighter,” he said. “This play places love at its center, not grand love, but everyday connection.”
In New York, that may be the boldest thing an actor can offer: presence, patience, and the belief that curiosity is still worth leading with.
NJ Rep Presents The Bookstore at 59E59
Written by Michael Walek; Directed by William Carden
With Quentin Chisholm, Ari Derambakhsh, Arielle Goldman, and Janet Zarish
Through February 15, 2026
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit 59E59.
For more information about NJ Rep and its upcoming season, visit NJRep.org
