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About WSRT

Walking Shadow’s mission is to provide a virtual platform for playwrights to hear their in-development works read aloud. Playwrights receive interdisciplinary feedback from our company members to develop their work. We provide feedback from a panel of professionals in fields including writing, editing, playwriting, education, acting, directing, and technical theatre. We also have experts bringing perspectives from fields such as mental health, technology, and theology. We help new and experienced playwrights refine their works through performance and constructive feedback.

Walking Shadow Readers Theatre was originally launched in 2005 as Walking Shadow Theatre Company. It was founded by alumni of South Lakes High School in Reston, VA, who reunited to produce theatre in Washington, DC. The company transformed into a virtual readers theatre in June, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the changing world of American theatre.

TOUCH THE MOON

By Arianna Rose
Featuring original music by Adam Schultz

Spring Break, 1994, on an island far from teenage Miranda’s home.  Her mysterious disappearance lays bare a mess of secrets and lies.  Her mother Becca frantically searches for Miranda and the truth of what happened that night from the only people who might know – Miranda’s best friend Emily, and Stefan, a young man who is the last person to have seen her. Through an ever-widening circle of past, present and future vignettes, a fuller picture of Miranda emerges, showing a young girl on the cusp of womanhood, healing from a broken family dynamic and exploring the boundaries of her sexuality.  Stefan’s father Dirk wearily protects his son, and a guilt-ridden Emily is haunted by the thought it may be her fault. A play about the need to know, and of motherly love and determination in the face of the unthinkable.

Arianna Rose is the recipient of the MAC Song of the Year Award, the York Theatre NEO Award, and various best play/playwright awards from Theatre Odyssey, Tree City Playhouse, Mixing It Up Productions, the Know Theatre, Studio 1 Theatre, South Baldwin Theatre and Clocktower Theatre Company. Her plays and musicals have been presented to date in twenty-three states and seven countries.  She is a four-time winner of Theatre Lab at FAU’s New Works Festival competition, a two-time winner of Theatre Three’s One- Act Play Festival, a 2020 finalist for the Edward Kleban Lyric Writing Award and one of three finalists for the 2020 Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing in the UK.

Arianna is an Adjunct Theatre Professor at Broward College. M.F.A., NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program; B.A. in Theatre from Bucknell University; BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Writing Workshop. A proud member of ASCAP, Musicians Local 802, SEIU, New Play Exchange, The South Florida Theatre League, and the Dramatists Guild of America, where she serves as a Regional Ambassador. She is the founder and moderator of the Plays on Purpose/Miami New Musicals weekly writers group.

www.AriannaRose.net

Past Readings