Readings

  • The Word at the Road Reading

    The Word at the Road

    As part of our mission to foster the development of new plays, The Road hosts readings on Mondays at 8pm that are open to the public and tickets are pay what you can. Readings are followed by a talkback with the playwright. Check back often for new additions to the lineup and make sure to follow us for updates and reminders.
    • Dec 17th

      Lifeline

      The reading will be held at 8pm at The Road on Magnolia.

      Playwright: Frank Tangredi

      Director: Matthew Singletary

      Featuring: Bart Tangredi, Krishna Smitha, Leandro Cano, Julia Sanford, Brian Graves, and Kay Capasso.

      Pete is unemployed, divorced and childless – a middle-aged man with a vast store of untapped fatherly wisdom. He rents his basement to Ken, a troubled young man who seems to need the exact kind of wisdom Pete can provide. Lifeline is the story of this unlikely father-son relationship. Pete soon discovers that he may have bitten off more than he can chew. Are there some lives that can’t be saved?

    • Jan 21st

      Sexual Healing

      The reading will be held at 8pm at The Road on Magnolia.

      Playwright: Peter Lefcourt.

      Director: Terri Hanauer

      Featuring: TBA.

      A very dark comedy in which four alleged perpetrators of sexual abuse do their court-appointed time at the Happy Valley Sexual Wellness Center, a rehab facility in the Arizona desert, where they do battle with their demons and with one another.

    • Jan 28th

      Eureka Day

      The reading will be held at 8pm at The Road on Magnolia.

      Playwright: Jonathan Spector

      Director: Darin Anthony

      Featuring: Tisha Terrasini Banker

       

      At forward-thinking Eureka Day School, all decisions are made by consensus and everyone’s opinion is valued. But when a crisis puts their children in danger, it turns out that Eureka Day parents have different definitions of safety. The debate over vaccinations hits home in this comedy of liberal manners, as the school community confronts the central question of our era: how do you find consensus when you can’t agree on the facts?

    • Feb 4th

      Tale of the White Rabbit

      The reading will be held at 8pm at The Road on Magnolia.

      Playwright: Jim Geoghan

      Director: Matthew Singletary

      Featuring: Brian Graves, Chet Grissom, Stephen Tyler Howell, Allan Wasserman, Lizzy Kimball, and Christine Joelle.

       

      There are predators, there are victims, and there are those who bare witness.

    • Feb 18th

      From White Plains

      The reading will be held at 8pm at The Road on Magnolia.

      Playwright: Michael Perlman

      Director: Ryan McRee

      Featuring: Jesse Einstein, Christian Prentice, Blake Young-Fountain, Ray Paolantonio.

       

      In an emotional Academy Awards acceptance speech, Dennis Sullivan publicly denounces Ethan Rice, the high school bully Dennis believes pushed his best friend to suicide and who, 15 years later, inspired the screenplay that garnered the Oscar. As the speech goes viral, Ethan must confront what he did as a teenager and Dennis finds himself in the position of crusader. They are both forced to grapple with difficult questions: how do our present selves account for actions that we or others have taken in the past? In the court of public opinion, who has the power to forgive?

    • Mar 18th

      Williston

      The reading will be held at 8pm at The Road on Magnolia.

      Playwright: Adam Seidel

      Director: Ann Hearn Tobolowsky

      Featuring: TBA.

       

      The year is 2013 and the domestic energy boom is in full swing. Larry and Barb, two veteran reps with a small oil company, travel to Williston, North Dakota to secure drilling rights on the last untouched parcel of oil-rich land when the arrival of a newbie shakes things up. It’s not business as usual in this boomtown. Williston is a play about generational conflict, the quest for legacy, the social and environmental impacts of industry on small communities, and asks: how far would you go to close the deal?

    • Mar 25th

      For Nina

      The reading will be held at 8pm at The Road on Magnolia.

      Playwright: Robert Emmet Lunney

      Director: Kenneth Meseroll

      Featuring: Stephanie Erb, Leon Russom, Paris Perrault, Taylor Nichols, Geoffrey Wade, Kara Hume, and Amy Tolsky.

       

      Nina Dalton, a movie star too old for Hollywood, has returned to the stage in a new play by her much older, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist husband, Brian Bartov.  Brian is waging a dual battle against early-stage Alzheimer’s Disease and the temptation to rewrite Nina’s part for a young starlet in the play’s film version. Their bold-faced world is unsettled and challenged by the return of Gar Jackson, Nina’s first love, who re-appears after a twenty year absence. He comes with a commitment to Art over Commerce, and a play of staggering beauty and epic proportions, written especially for Nina.

    • Apr 8th

      The Book of Leonidas

      The reading will be held at 8pm at The Road on Magnolia.

      Playwright: Augusto Amador

      Director: Michael Mulkey

      Featuring: TBA

       

      Lenny is a hustler selling loosies on the same street corner in Queens that his father, Leonidas, used to rule over as legendary crime lord in the ’70’s.  From his loosie profits he supports and lives with his repressive mother who derides him for not living up to Leonidas’ criminal legacy. Lenny finds an escape while working on his graphic novels until he stumbles into love with a pretty white girl, Lindsay.  As their relationship deepens, the pressure of who he wants to be and who he was meant to be, careen into a final conclusion.

  • playwrights-festival-banner

    Playwrights Festival | July 29th-Aug 5th

    The Road’s annual Summer Playwrights Festival is the largest of its kind in the country, featuring 30+ play readings and serving more than 1,000 audience members over just 8 days. Road company members and guest artists interact in lively discussion with audiences following each reading, with live music, food and drinks.

    True to our commitment to develop and promote new voices on the American stage, The Road Theatre Company has gone on to fully produce 20 plays originally showcased during the Summer Playwrights Festival on our main stages.

    The 9th annual Summer Playwrights Festival (SPF9) ran from Sunday July 29 at 8pm through Sunday August 5th. Tickets are only available at the door, and are a suggested donation of $15.

    Learn More

  • Photo Credit: Alex Portenko

    Common Ground

    Started in 2018, Common Ground is a new performance series that showcases the talent of our diverse company as they perform original short stories on themes central to our mission. Common Ground is free to the public.