2016 ARCHIVE
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Featured
3 DAY READINGS
SUNDAYS@SIX
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Go Down, Moses tackles the aftermath of a racially charged incident that takes place on a liberal college campus, at a time when students were rallying for divestment from South Africa but weren’t focused on the racism around them.
The mayoral campaign in the retirement community of Mesquite, Nevada turns nasty as accusations of illegal activity surrounding a $90 travel voucher are leaked to the local press.
Suspense and paranoia surround an archaeological dig that uncovers an unknown foreign object in the Akuhma Desert. It is up to an unlikely team of a chemist, a geologist, and two cooks to reveal the secrets of the mysterious find.
A Western about family, and what that word really means.
A high school math teacher, caught in a troubled marriage and disillusioned with his life in general, finds his moral compass tested when he begins to tutor a savant-like Asian girl with a blossoming sexual curiosity — as well as ties to an ancient, mystical religion. The play explores various psychological and spiritual themes through the use of dance. (For this reading, the dance will be described through stage directions only.)
FIRST, DO NO HARM, set in the world of hospitals, explores today’s ubiquitous themes of medical ethics, medical error and racial profiling. Two mothers from different worlds but both African American: Elissa Kerry, a doctor with a terminally ill son, and Mattie Clester, whose own son dies on Elissa's operating table.
Five characters find their lives veering between comedy and tragedy as each comes to a turning point: An ex-con starts a coaching job at a tough high school; a nun who doubts her faith is presented with a terrible dilemma; a blind man gets a second chance at sight; an office worker struggles under stress; and a mental patient may just be more sane than those around her.
At the bitter end of the Vietnam War, the very last American soldiers restlessly wait for the fall of Saigon. But two of them share a dangerous secret and will do almost anything to get out of the pressure-cooker of a city before it is taken. A story of wartime passion, intrigue, and betrayal, The Green asks us to consider just how far we would go for love.
NOTE: This reading will begin one half-hour later than normal, at 6:30 PM, in the Jewel Box Theater.
ROBERT MOSES, New York's master builder of the 20th century was both adored and despised during his lifetime. More than any other individual, Moses left an enormous legacy shaping our city.
THE MAN WHO MADE NEW YORK takes us into Robert Moses' life, a man whose obsession and thirst for power matched the destiny of New York City itself.
NOTE: This reading will begin one half hour later than normal, at 6:30 PM, in the Jewel Box Theater.
When a pizza junkie falls for a raw food vegan, she defies her habitual "chubby best friend" role in life and discovers just how far she's willing to go for love.
TAKE MY JAGGED HEART is set in North Dakota during the oil and gas boom. We follow the tangled lives of four young characters. Each came to Dakota full of desire and dreams, searching for opportunity. What they find are heartache, violence, and fragile love in a land brutalized by the boom.
An Italian immigrant family in West Virginia during a coal mining strike and the complications and conflicts within the family.
A former writer photographs in Diane Arbus’s style, seeking out and shooting marginalized and wayward people. From hospice patients, heroin addicts, nudists to war amputees, her provocative subjects propel her to success, but when she starts re-entering the realities she’s captured, she realizes she might have encroached in a world she doesn’t know how to navigate.
Kyle, the middle-aged president of a NYC-based enterprise called The Idea Factory, tracks down the married daughter of a now-deceased priest he revered as a boy. The visit starts well, but when the couple’s daughter, Mindy—a 19-year-old, talented, headstrong, aspiring actress—joins the proceedings, things start to get a little…complicated.
These various entanglements are explored along the way—as are the forces and factors that can, for whatever reason, greatly intensify the hold that certain memories have over us.
Two one act plays about Yiddish-speakers in modern-day New York City
BENCHING: A Satmar Hasid from Williamsburg, Brooklyn dreams of the secular world.
ISAAC B. SINGER SHOWS AND TELLS: 1978 Nobel-prize winner Isaac B. Singer tells us about his past and is told about it by those who were close to him.
Set in a family home on the outskirts of a large coastal city, Marlowe examines the eternal human struggle between the sublime and the banal, the consequences of that struggle and ultimately one’s inability to live in an unpoetic world without beauty or imagination.
Any Place But Here recounts the unimaginable journey of two young women and young men who left everything beyond so that they might stay one step ahead of the Holocaust and remain free. Come face to face with stories of courage, chaos and seemingly insurmountable obstacles to daily survival, and grasp the meaning of what it takes to survive to live another day.
The Man Who Was Peter Pan tells the story of J. M. Barrie and the four brothers (and their mother) who he accidentally meets in Kensington Gardens (London) one day and forms a relationship that dramatically changes his life and inspires him to write the classic play Peter Pan. The story proceeds to follow Barrie and the boys into their young manhood as he desperately seeks to hold on to them. An early version of the play was produced by the Workshop and subsequently became the basis for the film Finding Neverland with Johnny Depp and Kate Winslett – and two musicals.
Spring is here and it is time to shed those unwanted pounds. Join the guru of gratification and unlock your true self. Through stimulating exercises interspersed with an eclectic mix of personal tales, playwright Timothy Scott Harris will inspire you to grab hold of your self-worth and pull your way back to great health.
What happens if a person is put on earth to save another life and things don’t go as planned? Such is the case with Chase Terrell, who finds himself locked away in a small cell. As his claustrophobia grows, he creates an ally in a clock. The small room can’t contain the energetic, often humorous Chase, as he unwinds his story, revealing where he is and why he’s there.
This comic drama centers around an assisted-living facility and the stories and secrets of the residents and their caregivers.
On the eve of his 90th birthday, playwright Neil Simon is determined to write his last hit. And when Neil Simon meets 20-something Mike Green, Mr Simon believes he has found the right collaborator to do just that. A comedic romp through the work and life of Neil Simon, America's funniest and most successful playwright ever.
This is a drama of the life and times of Edgar Allan Poe - from his earliest years as the son of a somewhat famous Bostonian actress to his brief rise to fame as a poet and a writer of tales of horror and loss to his tragic love affair with his 13-year old cousin to his mysterious and brutal end. All this is played out against a background of pre-Civil War 19th century America, a volatile time of ambition, struggle and self-invention.
The mayoral campaign in the friendly retirement community of Mesquite, Nevada turns nasty as accusations of illegal activity surrounding a $90 travel voucher are leaked to the local press. The accusations quickly divide the town and lead to a complete political upheaval in this dark comedy about power and politics in the USA.
Out of the blue, a guy shows up in the middle of the night at his old school chum's apartment to whisk him off for that road trip of adventure and enchantment that they planned when they were kids--so goes the insane plot of "The Road Trip," Herb's most ridiculous play yet. Herb is sure that Curtis, artistic director of Avenue C Rep, will agree to produce it once he hears it read, and the actors have shown up for the reading even though Curtis told him no. But there's an even bigger problem now: where's Herb? "Quality Time" is an ode to that staple of small theatre, the artistic director/company pain-in-the-@$$ relationship
NOTE: This reading will take place at 7PM on the Main Stage.
Endlessly circling options in life does not always ensure the smoothest landing—as the five characters in this romantic comedy come to learn…well, sort of learn. Randall, a widower in his 60’s with two grown daughters, is “dating” Trish, a 58-year-old divorcee with a son. The courtship is going well, and they decide to bring the two families together for a visit, to see if everybody gets along. And do they? Come and find out—you're in for quite a ride!
Sex. Tears. Weed. Betrayal. Can these freakin’ boomers finally get out of high school?
Before King can bed his new girlfriend, he has to pack up his parents’ old apartment and help his sister Elm cope with their mother’s death and her own crumbling life. Oh, and deal with old pals who drop by to offer condolences but end up grabbing the bong. And that new girlfriend? The past is about to hit the fan.
It’s the early 1940’s and, despite the pesky blackouts, June and Velma forge a pact – get out of Assumption, Nebraska! June longs for the excitement of New York City, and Velma just has to be part of the Harlem Renaissance. As the drum of WWII beats, will they escape the limitations of home and obligation? Or will family, the past, and duty to one’s race prevail?
In 2005, General David Petraeus asked West Point philosophy professor Colonel Ted Westhusing to deploy to Iraq and manage the training of local security forces. Within six months, Col. Westhusing perished at the end of his own Army-issued 9mm Berretta. In the vacuous moral desert of the Iraq war, what led to the suicide of this faithful Catholic, family man, and military true believer?
Think Mount Rushmore.
Now think 75 years later.
Leonard Fisher - a naive 26year-old street artist - a competitor of the Naked Cowboy - is commissioned by the Arts Council of South Beach, Florida, to create - to sculpt - Mt. Rushmore - to transform South Beach into the cultural capital it longs to be. Rather than sculpt four presidents - as the original Rushmore had - Leonard creates - sculpts - who he is passionate about. His four heads consist of the whistle blower Ed Snowden, the songbird Nicki Minaj, the iconic spaceman Ziggy Stardust and the bumbling Homer Simpson. This leads to controversy among various groups - and even one of the heads rebels. But Leonard - inspired by a growing interest from Disney - and one of the attractive members of the Arts Council - grows up and fights for what he believes in.
Laughter, assumed identities, heartbreak and Chinese food figure into Sarah Was Mine, where David is desperately trying to come to grips with his sexuality in order to be honest for the first time. True love, friendship and honesty are explored by three actors over two acts that span the 70s and 80s in pre-AIDS America
In 1991, Chester and Bea, elderly twins with a tentative grasp on reality, manage to lure Queen Elizabeth II to their home in the British countryside in a misguided attempt to have her knight their beloved younger brother, Martin. When the Queen threatens to prosecute the twins as criminals, what started off as a well-intentioned pipe dream soon turns into a full-blown kidnapping. Martin and her Majesty engage in a battle of wills as Scotland Yard and the local constable, who is also Martin's fiancée, close in.
In this suspenseful drama, two brothers come face-to-face with their dark past and precarious future while hiding a secret about their best friend’s death.
This expressionistic play tells the above story from Anne Neville's perspective, a reporter who went undercover in an insane asylum on Blackwell's Island (now called Roosevelt Island) in New York City 1887. We follow Anne as she is committed to the asylum, befriends Nellie, works with her, wonders at her, is inspired by her and ultimately struggles to do as Nellie does.
Twelve years after the close of A Christmas Carol - Timothy Cratchit - now 19 - leaves the home of his benefactor, Ebenezer Scrooge, in order to find his place in the world.