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 (if available). Check back often for new additions to the lineup and make sure to follow us for updates and reminders.
    • Apr 29th

      Blood and Milk

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

      Playwright: John Lee

      Director: Rob Brownstein

      Featuring: Christina Carlisi, Bart Tangredi, Coronado Romero, Allison Blaize, Merrick McCartha, Wayne T. Carr, and J Downing.

       

      An ambitious District Attorney wants to execute someone to polish her resume as she announces her run for political office. Her chosen target is Willie Peters, a vicious, lifelong offender. The only hitch is, it seems Willie did not commit the murder for which he is being conveniently tried. Willie is assigned a Public Defender named, almost laughably, James Madison. Willie is about to drag everyone down the bloody rabbit hole of the American justice system as they swallow its bitterest pill, the Death Penalty.


      A play based on Willie Bosket, Jr. (born December 9, 1962) an American convicted murderer, whose numerous crimes committed while he was still a minor led to a change in New York state law, so that juveniles as young as 13 could be tried as an adult for murder and would face the same penalties. Known as the Bosket Law.

    • May 13th

      SICK KID

       

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

      Playwright: Ryan Patrick Welsh

      Director: Paul Millet

      Cast: Brent Foshee, Janet Chamberlain, Krishna Smitha, Christine Joelle, Brian Ibsen

      Wainwright Jackson and his wife Janelle have a happy marriage, two children, and a modest three bedroom house. They work hard, want for little, and ask for nothing. Like most American families, they’re doing just fine. Until their youngest child is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and the Jackson family finds out how difficult it can be to navigate through a broken healthcare system and exactly how thin the veneer of a modern middle-class life really is.

    • Jun 3rd

      Daughters of Love and War: A Quartet of Women Facing Nightmares of History

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

      Playwright: Angela J. Davis

      Director: Taylor Nichols

      Featuring: Cherish Monique Duke, Blake Young-Fountain, and Elisa Noemi.

       

      Teenage Russian princesses, a French Revolution assassin, a World War I courtesan-spy, and a modern female African president make up this quartet of award-winning one-act plays inspired by women who faced nightmares of history. Part of the 365 Women a Year International Playwriting Project, and recipient of multiple honors including British Theatre Challenge – Final Short List, Georgia Arts & Letters Prize Top 6, Frostburg Arts Center New Play Award – 2nd Place Winner, and Hidden River Arts Top-Ten Short Plays.

  • Playwrights Festival | July 28th-Aug 4th

    The Road Theatre’s annual Summer Playwrights Festival has been held every summer since its inception in 2010. This year marks our 10th anniversary and SPF10 will take place from July 28-August 4, 2019. SPF mounts 30-40 staged readings of new plays in 8 exciting days. The festival is now the largest staged reading festival in the nation with playwrights from around the country and around the world participating. Each reading is followed by a talk-back with the playwrights, directors and casts and a reception featuring food, drink and live music in our gallery space and cantina. Readings are held in both our Historic Lankershim Arts Center Theater and Gallery and in our 77-seat theater in the NoHo Senior Arts Colony. Although we receive hundreds of submissions for our festival, new and established playwrights are encouraged to submit.

    Past playwrights have included D.L. Coburn, Lisa Loomer, Sharr White, Marisa Wegrzyn, Craig Wright, Wendy Macleod, Lucy Thurber, Mo Gaffney, Keith Huff, Brett Neveu, Scooter Pietsch, Craig Pospisil, Julie Marie Myatt. Guest artists have included Bryan Cranston, Laurie Metcalf, Kathy Baker, Jennifer Tilly, Perry King, Rondi Reed, Tom Irwin, Nancy Travis, Gregory Harrison, Gale Harold, Robert Pine, Michael O’Neill, Harold Gould, and many, many others.

    Click here for SPF10 submission info.

  • 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.