By: James Manley
By the time most playwrights reach the stage of a career that includes award‑winning dramas, off‑Broadway musicals, television writing, and books on the American theater, they might be tempted to revisit familiar territory. Jeffrey Sweet has chosen instead to begin somewhere entirely new, with characters that weren’t originally his.
That leap of faith has resulted in A Change of Position, a world premiere at New Jersey Repertory Company opening this summer, inspired by characters created by the late Pennsylvania playwright Michael Kosarowich. It is a collaboration that never truly existed in life, yet one that speaks to the uniquely communal nature of the theater.
For Sweet, the story began not with a plot, but with a contradiction.
“What first drew me in,” he explains, “was the conflict between Emma’s profession and her role as a mother. Those two identities constantly challenge each other.”
Emma, a sex worker living in a Pennsylvania trailer park, is doing everything she can to provide for her teenage daughter. When one of her regular clients presents an unexpected proposition, both women are forced to confront choices that could permanently alter the direction of their lives.
The premise could easily drift into melodrama. Instead, Sweet approaches it with the same mixture of humor, empathy, and clear‑eyed humanity that has defined much of his work.
“Humor is a coping mechanism,” he says simply. “I grew up in a Jewish family where laughter was often how people survived difficult situations.”
It’s a philosophy that has shaped a career spanning more than five decades. A founding member of the playwrights ensemble at Chicago’s Tony Award‑winning Victory Gardens Theater, Sweet has seen thirteen of his plays premiere there before traveling across the country and overseas. His works, including The Value of Names, Flyovers, Court‑Martial at Fort Devens, and Kunstler, have consistently examined ordinary people wrestling with extraordinary moral dilemmas.
He’s also chronicled another Chicago institution. His book Something Wonderful Right Away is an oral history of The Second City, documenting the comedy company whose alumni went on to reshape American entertainment.
That blend of comedy and compassion appears throughout A Change of Position, even as the play explores economic hardship, family instability, and life‑altering decisions.
The setting itself reflects another reality Sweet has watched unfold across America.
He became interested in the increasing number of trailer parks purchased by corporations, renovated, and subsequently priced beyond the reach of longtime residents.
“A friend lived through it,” Sweet recalls. “It creates another layer of instability for people who already don’t have many options.”
Rather than writing about social issues directly, however, Sweet insists he follows people first.
“I don’t think much about messages,” he says. “If you write honestly, your values will naturally find their way into the play.”
Ironically, it wasn’t until an early public reading that he fully understood one of the play’s central themes.
“I realized it’s largely about second chances,” he says. “That hadn’t occurred to me while I was writing it.”
That discovery feels especially fitting given the play’s own unusual journey.
Kosarowich, an information technology professional who turned to playwriting after retirement, became an active member of Pennsylvania’s Playwrights Alliance and found creative community in online workshops during the pandemic, including workshops led by Sweet himself. Before he could continue developing his work, Kosarowich died unexpectedly in 2022.
His characters, however, remained.
Sweet credits Kosarowich for creating the original foundation while acknowledging that every adaptation ultimately becomes its own work.
“At a certain point,” he says, “you have to make the characters your own.”
It’s a sentiment that honors both writers without attempting to imitate one another. Instead, A Change of Position becomes something rare: a new play that carries two creative voices across time.
The project also reflects changing realities within American nonprofit theater.
One of Sweet’s biggest challenges, he admits, wasn’t emotional. It was practical.
“The biggest challenge was telling the story with four actors,” he says.
Decades ago, resident playwrights at institutions like Victory Gardens could routinely write plays with casts of ten or more. Today’s producing conditions are very different.
“In this post‑pandemic world,” he says, “nonprofit theaters are struggling. I’m trying to tell stories with fewer actors.”
That economic reality has quietly reshaped American playwriting. Writers increasingly build stories that remain artistically ambitious while recognizing the financial constraints facing regional theaters.
That mission is central to the work at New Jersey Repertory Company.
Since its founding in 1997, NJ Rep has built its identity around incubating new American plays, producing more than 125 world premieres and earning national recognition from the American Theatre Wing for its commitment to expanding the theatrical repertoire.
For Sweet, the partnership came together with remarkable simplicity.
Shortly after completing the script, NJ Rep offered a reading. The reading led directly to a full production.
“I didn’t have to do the usual marketing,” he says with a laugh. “I hope they’ll like my next play.”
As audiences prepare to encounter A Change of Position, Sweet remains refreshingly uninterested in telling them what to think.
He isn’t hoping they’ll leave debating politics or decoding symbolism.
Instead, his ambitions are surprisingly modest, and perhaps more difficult to achieve than any grand statement.
“I mostly want it to entertain people,” he says. “Maybe move them.”
In an era when theater often feels pressured to explain itself before the curtain even rises, Sweet continues to place his faith in something older and, perhaps, more enduring: compelling characters, impossible choices, unexpected kindness, and the belief that every life, even one unfolding in a forgotten trailer park, contains a story worth telling.
A Change of Position
By Jeffrey Sweet; Directed by James Glossman
Based on characters created by Michael Kosarowich
Starring Ephraim Birney, Èilis Cahill, Todd Cerveris and Sandy Clancy
July 30 – August 23, 2026
Performance Schedule: Thursdays at 7:00 PM; Fridays & Saturdays at 2 PM and 7 PM; Sundays at 2 PM
New Jersey Repertory Company is located at 179 Broadway in Long Branch, New Jersey.
Tickets are available at www.njrep.org or by calling 732-229-3166.
