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 free and open to the public. 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.
    • Nov 5th

      Last of the Wild Buffalo

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

      Playwright: Ryan Patrick Welsh

      Director: Beth Lopes

      Featuring: Kevin McCorkle, Kate Huffman, Brent Foshee, Brian Graves, Allison Blaize, June Sanders, Stephen Tyler Howell, and Lizzy Kimball.

       

      Last of the Wild Buffalo is a play about how we identify ourselves, the masks we wear, and the people we hurt along the way. Each character is deeply flawed yet yearning for closeness. Tensions rise as everyone in the house exposes the skeletons in each other’s closets. Set over the Christmas holiday where two brothers come together and must sort through decades of resentment, jealousy, insecurity and the wrongs of younger versions of themselves.

    • Nov 12th

      Thinner Than Water

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

      Playwright: Melissa Ross

      Director: Abigail Deser

      Featuring: Avery Clyde, Amanda Fuller, Christian Prentice, Gabriela Ortega, Josh Zuckerman, Jesse Einstein, Tom Musgrave, and Carlyle King.

       

      When their father falls ill, three estranged half-siblings reunite. As the world around them crumbles, they argue with each other and with everyone around them in a desperate struggle to do the right thing and mend their rapidly deteriorating lives. Thinner Than Water is a blood-raw, wicked dramedy about fighting through the thick and thin of family.

    • Dec 3rd

      The Babylon Line

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

      Playwright: Richard Greenberg

      Director: Taylor Nichols

      Featuring: Ray Paolantonio, Susan Diol, Michelle Gillette, Julia Sanford, Amy Tolsky, Alan Wasserman, Adam Peltier, and Bart Tangredi.

       

      Levittown, 1967. It’s the first night of an adult-ed creative writing course in a classroom at the local high school. The reluctant teacher, Aaron Port, lives in Greenwich Village and reverse commutes once a week on the Long Island Rail Road’s Babylon line. His students are a mixed bag of housewives, a WWII vet and a couple of outcasts. Once they set pen to paper, cracks begin to appear in their small-town community and an entirely new world opens up for them. Greenberg’s memory play explores the power and mysteries of storytelling in a time of great social change.

    • Dec 10th

      This Day Forward

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

      Playwright: Nicky Silver

      Director: Stan Zimmerman

      Featuring: Ray Paolantonio, Chelsea Gonzalez, Jon Sprik, Lizzy Kimball, Laura Gardner, Danny Gomez, and John Gowans.

       

      Martin thinks he has just married the girl of his girl of his dreams, but when Irene makes a surprising confession in their honeymoon suite, all their well-made plans fall apart. Nearly 50 years later, Irene’s children wrestle with their past and a mother whose secrets are quickly fading along with her memory. From the inimitable playwright who gave us THE LYONS, which had it’s Los Angeles premiere at the Road in 2017, Nicky Silver’s latest play is an unforgettable tale of love and marriage and everything in between.

    • 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.

  • 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.