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.
    • Feb. 10th

      A History of Stone

      Join us for a reading of Gay Walch’s A History of Stone on February 10th, 2020 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: Ivy Khan, Kris Frost, Rob Brownstein, 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?”

    • February 17th

      Fulfillment Center

      Join us for a reading of Abe Koogler’s Fulfillment Center* on January 20th, 2020 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: Abe Koogler

      Director: Dennis Cornell

      Producer: Ray Paolantonio

      Featuring: Patrick Reiger, Dolann Marie Adams, Roland Ruiz, Carlyle King

      In the New Mexico desert, a down-on-her-luck folk singer takes a job at a giant online retailer’s shipping center. Her young manager struggles to connect with his girlfriend newly relocated from New York. And a drifter living at a local campground dangerously links them all. A raw, surprising, and funny play about four lonely lives coming together in the search for fulfillment.

      *Fulfillment Center is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York

    • Mar. 2nd

      Wolves at the Door

      Join us for a reading of Ali MacLean’s Wolves at the Door on March 2nd, 2020 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: Ali MacLean

      Director: TBA.

      Featuring: TBA.

      Grace and Gavin lost their young daughter in a mass shooting: wrong place, wrong time. The shooter, Marc, returns to work to kill his co-worker in an ‘incel’ styled revenge plot. Flipping back and forth in time – Marc gears up to exact his plan while Grace and Gavin’s relationship crumbles. The couple is desperate to heal and move on…but people outside won’t let them.

       

    • Mar. 9th

      The Fertile River

      Join us for a reading of Vincent Terrell Durham’s The Fertile River on March 9th, 2020 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: Vincent Terrell Durham

      Director: Justin Lord

      Featuring: TBA.

      The North Carolina Eugenics Board targets the household of a “colored” family.

    • Mar. 23rd

      The Whirligig

      Join us for a reading of Hamish Linklater’s The Whirligig* on March 23rd, 2020 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: Hamish Linklater

      Director: Kari Hayter

      Featuring: TBA.

      “The Whirligig is a sparkle-dark, rollicking, rural romance about death, time, mistaken identity, chance, sex, chancy sex and mostly, mostly love.”

      *The Whirligig is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York

    • Mar. 30th

      Fresno

      Join us for a reading of Augusto Amador’s Fresno on March 30th, 2020 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: Augusto Amador

      Director: Sara Guerrero

      Featuring: Maricella Ibarra, Juan Villa, Carlos Lacamara, Leandro Cano

      Haunted by his childhood UFO abduction; a long-estranged son, Ernie, returns home to his dying repressive father, The Old Vato, and dangerous half-brother Paco, to learn the truth about the mysterious disappearance of his beloved half-brother Angel.

  • 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 11th anniversary and SPF11 will take place from July 26-August 2, 2020. 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 SPF11 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.