Staged Play Readings 2011
Buried Child
by Sam Shepherd
directed by MJ Renzie
Three-act play, winner of Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 1979. Sam Shepard takes a macabre look at one American Midwestern family with a very dark secret. When Vince brings his girlfriend, Shelly, home to meet his family, she is at first charmed by the "normal" looking farm house which she compares to a "Norman Rockwell cover or something"--that's before she actually meets his crazy family--his ranting, alcoholic grandparents (Dodge and Halie) and their two sons: Tilden, a hulking semi-idiot, and Bradley, who has lost one leg to a chain saw. Strangely, no one seems to remember Vince at first, and they treat him as an intruder. Eventually, however, they seem to accept him as a part of their violently dysfunctional family.
Only Kidding!
by Jim Geoghan
directed by Chuck Kaffka
In this Off Broadway hit, an over the hill comic who is desperate for a shot on a late night TV show has invited a hip young writer to his cottage in the Catskills to help him update his act. They might as well be talking in tongues about what is funny! The second act moves to a seedy club where the mafia connected owner wants aspiring comics to sign a contract giving him a commission on their future earnings. Then the play goes to comedy heaven: backstage at that late night TV show. The older comedian awaits his last chance at the big time and one of the comics from Act 2 is getting his first shot.
Heartbreak House
by George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Warren Sampson
The stage is set for a summer evening gathering at the Bohemian estate of Captain Shotover -- an eccentric inventor and retired sailor. He lives with his daughter, the fiery and bewitching Hesione, and her husband, the rakish and charming Hector Hushabye. As the guests arrive, romantic tension fills the air. Ariadne Utterword, Captain Shotover’s beautiful and flirtatious younger daughter, arrives home after an absence of 23 years, with her lovesick brother-in-law Randall in tow. Even Hector struggles to escape Ariadne’s charms. Ellie Dunn -- a pragmatic, but poor young woman -- is engaged to Boss Mangan, the older, wealthy business tycoon. Hesione is determined to save her friend from a loveless marriage. Over the course of the evening, the party argues and flirts; people are hypnotized; a break-in is bungled; engagements are begun and canceled; and an air raid threatens to halt all their fun. Heartbreak House is one of George Bernard Shaw’s most beloved classics of the theatre. A delightful send-up of Edwardian society, Heartbreak House’s madcap cast of characters amuse, challenge, enchant, and ultimately delight all who spend their evening at the Shotover household.
The Trial of the Catonsville Nine by Daniel Berrigan
Directed by Tina Zagone
The trial of the Catonsville Nine, the nine Catholic activists who in 1968 went to the draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, took 378 draft files and burned them to protest the Vietnam War.
The Laramie Project - 10 years later
Directed by Deb & Chuck Cairns
On October 6, 1998, gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard left the Fireside Bar with Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. The following day he was discovered on a prairie at the edge of town, tied to a fence, brutally beaten, and close to death. Six days later Matthew Shepard died at Poudre Valley Hospital in Ft. Collins, Colorado. On November 14th, 1998, ten members of Tectonic Theatre Project traveled to Laramie, Wyoming, and conducted interviews with the people of the town. Over the next year, the company returned to Laramie six times and conducted over 200 interviews. These texts became the basis for the play The Laramie Project. Ten years later on September 12th, 2008, five members of Tectonic returned to Laramie to try to understand the long-term effect of the murder. They found a town wrestling with its legacy and its place in history. In addition to revisiting the folks whose words riveted us in the original play, this time around, the company also spoke with the two murderers, McKinney and Henderson, as well as Matthew’s mother, Judy Shepard. THE LARAMIE PROJECT: TEN YEARS LATER is a bold new work, which asks the question, “How does society write its own history?"