Ognibene’s play in NYC festival
SPARTA. Allison Ognibene, lead faculty of theater at Sussex County Community College, wrote the play called ‘Mile 59’ based on a true story.
Sparta /
| 07 Jun 2025 | 09:50
The cast of ‘Mile 59’ in rehearsal. From left are Phil Cocilovo, Fenrir Lewin, Stephen Burke, Benjamin Smith, Leo Watson and Gavin Bermingham. (Photo provided)
Allison Ognibene
An original play by Sparta resident Allison Ognibene will be featured in the New York Theater Festival’s 2025 Spring/Summer Festival this month at the Hudson Guild Theater, 441 W. 26th St., New York.
Performances are at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, June 17; 4 p.m. Friday, June 20 and 9 p.m. Saturday, June 21.
General seating is $26. To purchase tickets, go online to innovationtickets.com/product/mile-59/
Two performances of “Mile 59” will be at SCCC, 1 College Hill Road, Newton. They are at 7 p.m. July 18-19.
Ognibene, lead faculty of theater at Sussex County Community College (SCCC), wrote the play called “Mile 59” based on a true story.
It is about 57 Irish migrants who boarded the John Stamp ship from Durry to the Philadelphia in 1832. The migrants worked on a construction dig of the new Philadelphia/Concord railroad on Mile 59. Within six weeks of their arrival, all of them died reportedly of cholera.
The play also is based on the Duffy’s Cut Project and the historians, scientists and archaeologists who worked for years to uncover the prejudice and persecution that the migrants faced.
“I learned about Duffy’s Cut from a PBS special in 2014, and the story always haunted me,” Ognibene said. “When COVID-19 hit, I contacted lead historian Dr. William Watson, and in 2021, I interviewed him and visited the site of Mile 59, which is where the name of my play came from.
“There are connections from 1832 to our present time that I make in the play from cholera outbreak of 1832 to 2020’s COVID-19 and from Irish migrant surge in the 1800s to our current migrant plight at the southern border of the United States and on how communities responded to these crises. There is a depth of conflict that arises in ‘Mile 59’ that is palpable to what is happening today.”
SCCC students and alumni and local residents will be performing in “Mile 59,” with Ognibene directing. They include Fenrir Lewin of Branchville, Chris Flatt of Hamburg, Michael Foster of Hardyston, Phil Cocilovo of Montague, Gavin Bermingham of Newton, Sparta residents Sky Sobieski and Lillian Farrell, Nicolas Galloza of Stanhope, Leo Watson of Stillwater, and Vernon residents Danielle DiBattista and Lydia Rivera.