Readings

  • 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.
    We are on a hiatus until mid-September.  Please check back then.
    • Oct. 14th

      Into the Gobpile

      Join us for a reading of Jennie Webb’s Into the Gobpile on October 14th, 2019 at 8 PM at The Road on Magnolia. This reading is open to the public and tickets are Pay What You Can at the door.

      Playwright: Jennie Webb

      Director: Laura Stribling

      Featuring: Kimberly Alexander, Jennifer Finch, Patricia Herd, Michelle Gillette, and Donna Simone Johnson.

      Unsettled by the LA riots, a young woman goes “home” to heal in a place she’s never lived: a small town called Perseverance, in the heart of Southern Illinois Coal Country. Into the Gobpile is a play about lost connections and shifting landscapes.

    • Oct. 21st

      A History of Stone

      Join us for a reading of Gay Walch’s A History of Stone on October 21st, 2019 at 8 PM at The Road on Magnolia. This reading is open to the public and tickets are Pay What You Can at the door.

      Playwright: Gay Walch

      Director: Susan Diol

      Featuring: Julia Manis, Kris Frost, Leon Russom, Janet Chamberlain, and Dor Gvirtsman.

      It’s Memorial weekend and 37-year old Melissa arrives at her family’s ancestral home to celebrate the holiday.  She shows up with good news only to discover a web of entrenched conflict awaiting her.  A History of Stone is a family drama which wrestles with the bargains and barters that family members make in the name of love and loyalty but which contain elements of self-sabotage.  The play asks, “Even well into adulthood is it ever possible to escape the God-like hold of a parent?”

    • Oct. 28th

      Against the Rising Sea

      Join us for a reading of Kelly Masterson’s Against the Rising Sea on October 28th, 2019 at 8 PM at The Road on Magnolia. This reading is open to the public and tickets are Pay What You Can at the door.

      Playwright: Kelly Masterson

      Director: Stephen Tobolowsky

      Featuring: Taylor Gilbert, Ann Hearn Tobolowsky, Meeghan Holaway, and Kara Hume.

      Goldie and Lina’s life together comes full circle when their paths collide with a younger version of themselves.  A new relationship stumbles, an old one is challenged and a beautiful house in Provincetown becomes the catalyst for this funny and poignant play about what it takes to build a life that is a bulwark against the rising sea.

       

    • Nov. 4th

      Road Down the Mountain

      Join us for a reading of Jack Canfora’s Road Down the Mountain on November 4th, 2019 at 8 PM at The Road on Magnolia. This reading is open to the public and tickets are Pay What You Can at the door.

      Playwright: Jack Canfora

      Director: Pavel Cerny

      Featuring: Allison Blaize, Chad Coe, Carlyle King, and Jeff LeBeau.

      Following a car accident that incapacitated her husband Adam, a legendary rockstar, Julie has spent the last two years as his caregiver on their secluded Wyoming estate, waiting to no avail for the world to lose interest and leave her and Adam alone. Finally, at the urging of her assistant Corey, Julie decides to tell their story to Tom, a journalist with whom she shares a past. Love triangles, secrets, and complex relationships fill this psychological drama by an important new voice in the American theatre.

    • Nov. 11th

      India Pale Ale

      Join us for a reading of Jaclyn Backhaus’ India Pale Ale on November 11th, 2019 at 8 PM at The Road on Magnolia. This reading is open to the public and tickets are Pay What You Can at the door.

      Playwright: Jaclyn Backhaus

      Director: Tracey Silver

      Featuring: Krishna Smitha, Jay Charan, Susan Diol, Vee Kumari, Aishveryaa Nidhi, Kris Frost, Ruman Kazi, and Ivy Khan.

       

    • Nov. 18th

      Bethany

      Join us for a reading of Steve Burleigh’s Bethany on November 18th, 2019 at 8 PM at The Road on Magnolia. This reading is open to the public and tickets are Pay What You Can at the door.

      Playwright: Steve Burleigh

      Director: Judith Moreland

      Featuring: Cherish Duke, Moe Irvin, Tom Badal, David Gianopoulis, David Meyers, Allison Blaize, Christian Telesmar, and Kaitlin Huwe.

      1896. Bethany, Arkansas. The Southern Cross Saloon. Forty days after the lynching of young African American, Samuel Oakes, for allegedly raping the mistress of saloon owner, “Bloody” Bill Honeycutt, African American anti-lynch activist, Ida B. Wells, arrives with her friend “Stagger” Lee Felton to investigate the lynching.

       

    • Dec. 2nd

      This Bitter Earth

      Join us for a reading of Harrison David Rivers’ This Bitter Earth on December 2nd, 2019 at 8 PM at The Road on Magnolia. This reading is open to the public and tickets are Pay What You Can at the door.

      Playwright: Harrison David River

      Director: Michael Shepperd

      Producer: Ray Paolantonio

      Featuring: Blake Young-Fountain and Anthony Sorrells.

      Jesse, an introspective black playwright, finds his choices called into question when his boyfriend, Neil, a white Black Lives Matter activist, calls him out for his political apathy. As passions and priorities collide, this couple is forced to reckon with issues of race, class and the bravery it takes to love out loud.

       

  • Summer Playwrights Festival 10 | July 28th-August 4th

    Come celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Summer Playwrights Festival at The Road Theatre, July 28th through August 4th!

    Summer Playwrights Festival 10 Schedule

  • Summer Playwrights Festival Submission Info

    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.