2022-2023 SEASON OF READINGS
Walking Shadow Readers Theatre presents livestreamed readings on the last Friday of every month at 8:00pm EST (Unless otherwise noted) throughout our season. Tickets are required to attend a livestreamed reading, and ticket holders receive one week of exclusive access to that month’s reading before it is presented to the public. Ticket purchases are by donation through Eventbrite, though complimentary tickets are available for those who are unable to donate.
Individual and Season Ticket holders, the night of a reading, you will be able to access the Livestream from the homepage.
DECEMBER 16, 2022
Proceed to Highlighted Route
by Erica Mann
Annabelle Powell has always dreaded Christmas with her parents. Luckily, this year, she has the perfect buffer — her good-natured fiancé, Jack. But her defenses are no match for what she finds when she arrives at her family home: the unveiling of a conversational A.I. of her brother, Milo, who was killed in an accident six months earlier. PROCEED TO HIGHLIGHTED ROUTE is an absurd tragedy that explores grief in the modern age.
Content Warning: Adult Language
Erica Mann is a Queens-based playwright and screenwriter. Her work has been seen and developed with Pipeline Theatre Company, Gingold Theatricals, Round the Bend Theatre Mobile Company (Hudson, NY), Artists Repertory Theatre’s Mercury Lab (Portland, OR) and Acadiana Repertory Theater (Lafayette, LA). Her plays have received numerous honors, including semi-finalist for Juilliard’s Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellowship and special consideration for The Relentless Award.
Find more from Erica on New Play Exchange
JANUARY 27, 2023
Truth Be Told
by William Cameron
Kathleen Abedon is the mother of Julian Abedon who, one year earlier, allegedly carried out a mass shooting at a food warehouse that claimed the lives of 14 people, including Kathleen’s husband and Julian’s stepfather, Harlan Kenney. The shooting spree ended with Julian’s apparent suicide. When true-crime writer Jo Hunter comes to town to interview Kathleen for a book on the shooting, Kathleen seeks to convince the skeptical journalist that her son was framed for the shooting. At a time in our history when the truth is under daily attack, Truth Be Told explores the nature of objective truth and the ways in which we manipulate and distort it to serve our own ends.
Content Warning: Adult Language, Gun Violence, Abuse, Suicide
William Cameron is a playwright, director, actor, and educator. His plays have been performed around the country, including off-off Broadway at the Harold Clurman Theatre, the Source Theatre in Washington, DC, the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, and numerous community and academic theatres. Bill is the author of Violet Sharp, winner of the Julie Harris Playwriting Prize. A drama of the Lindbergh kidnapping, Violet Sharp received its world premiere at Theatre 40 in Los Angeles and has been published by Samuel French. Bill’s drama Truth Be Told won the Stanley Drama Award and the W. Keith Hedrick Playwriting Contest and was featured in the 2021 Dayton Playhouse FutureFest and the 2020 Ashland New Plays Festival. His most recent play, Every Livin’ Soul, was named best play at the 2022 Dayton Playhouse FutureFest. Professor emeritus of Theatre and Communication Arts at Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, Bill wrote plays tailored specifically to his students, including Intersect, a drama about racial tensions at a small college, and Cease to Exist, a chronicle of the Manson murders. In his thirty-one-year tenure at W&J, Bill founded the College’s first academic theatre program and directed over 40 student productions. As an actor, he has appeared in numerous films, including Hoffa, Lorenzo’s Oil, and the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead.
Bill lives in Washington, Pennsylvania with his wife, artist and actress Susan Martinelli.
FEBRUARY 24, 2023
Is This All This Is
by Dave Osmundsen
Jamie, a non-binary Autistic lesbian, shows up at their aunt Theresa’s apartment one night after a contentious fight with their mother Barb. Over the next few days, these three, along with Theresa’s Autistic boyfriend Tyson, confront where they’ve been, where they are, and where they’re going.
Content Warning: Adult Language
Dave Osmundsen (He/Him/His) is an Autistic playwright and dramaturg whose work has been seen and developed at KCACTF Region 8, the Kennedy Center/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop, Purple Crayon Players, B Street Theatre, the William Inge Theatre Festival, the Midwest Dramatists Conference, Phoenix Theatre Company, Clamour Theatre Company, Premiere Stages, the Valdez Theatre Conference, and more. He was one of two recipients of the Blank Theatre and Ucross Foundation’s inaugural Future of Playwriting Prize. His play Light Switch received its world premiere with Spectrum Theatre Ensemble in April 2022. Light Switch was also the 2021 Distinguished Achievement recipient of the Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, an Honorable Mention finalist for BAPF 2021, longlisted for the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award, a finalist for the 2020 Carlo Annoni Playwriting Prize, and a semi-finalist for the 2020 National Playwrights Conference. His one-act, A Firework Unexploded, was a semi-finalist for the NYC Audio Theatre Writing Contest and was produced by Pint-Sized in London. His plays have been published by The Dionysian, Canyon Voices, Exposition Review and Broadway Play Publishing. MFA: Arizona State University.
Instagram @osmundsend
MARCH 31, 2023
Spittles
by Maximillian Gill
Tracy has one dream: Make it big playing country music. She is all set for an important audition at Spittles, her local country and western bar in southern Maine. Unfortunately, the venue has been remade into a heavy metal bar overnight. Now Tracy has a potential disaster on her hands as her brand of acoustic string music will not go over well with an audience expecting head-banging metal. The venue’s manager Lloyd, her musical partner Marv, and her former partner Bella are little help with making the show go smoothly. Tracy must look beyond her own ego to mend the situation and bring everyone together for a show that will (hopefully) not be a total catastrophe.
Maximillian Gill received his master’s in creative writing in California. He is currently based in New York. His work has been staged by a number of companies and festivals including the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival in Liverpool, the Hollywood Fringe Festival in Los Angeles, the Source Festival in Washington, DC, the Collective 10 in New York City, Theatre West in Los Angeles, the New York Fringe Festival, and the New York City Children’s Theater. He is a proud member of the New Ambassadors Theatre Company in New York City. Much of his work can be read on New Play Exchange.
Instagram @maxgill15
APRIL 28, 2023
Covenant
by John Minigan
How do we become entrenched in the beliefs we hold, and what – if anything – can get us to walk away when those beliefs lead to chaos and destruction? Jordan’s mission to infiltrate and report on an apocalyptic religious community has ended in disaster. Questions from an unseen interrogator trigger and inform Jordan’s memories of her time undercover, force her to confront the series of choices she’s made, and decide whether the beliefs that guided her mission are any less dangerous than the beliefs of those in the group.
Content Warning: Adult Language, Violence
John Minigan’s play Queen of Sad Mischance named winner of the 2022 Judith Royer Award for Excellence in Playwriting from ATHE/The Kennedy Center.
Additional works by John include:
Family Planning, Open rehearsal from Back Porch Theater via FB Live, July 26, 2022
Queen of Sad Mischance (reading), ATHE Conference, July 29, 2022
Closing Doors, Greenhouse Ensemble, NYC, July 30-August 7, 2022
Covenant (reading), Literary and Discourse Society, Devon, England, August 7, 2022
A Dateless Bargain with Engrossing Death, 4th Street Theater, IN, August 19-28, 2022
Covenant (reading), The Depot, CT, Sept 18, 2022
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Greater Boston Stage Company, Oct 21-Nov 6, 2022
Danforth Street, January 6, AIRPlay (via FB Live), Fall 2022
Ongoing streaming and audio:
Mother’s Day, one of The Walking Plays, Lyric Stage Company of Boston
Closing Doors, Gather by the Ghostlight podcast, May 2022
PREVIOUSLY THIS SEASON
SEPTEMBER 30, 2022
Carl Flunt Would Protect You From Trucks
by Scott Mullen
Beth is stunned when multiple versions of herself from the future show up, trying to give her advice on what to do with her life.
Content Warning: Adult language
Scott Mullen is a playwright and occasional screenwriter, based in Burbank, California, whose short plays have been produced over 600 times around the world, including at the South Pole. He co-wrote the recent Lifetime movie LINE SISTERS, while his thrillers STALKER, THE SUMMONING, IN BROAD DAYLIGHT and BLOOD ON HER BADGE aired on TV One. An evening of his comic plays, A NIGHT OF S.M., had a two-week run in Hollywood. CARL FLUNT WOULD PROTECT YOU FROM TRUCKS is his first full-length play.
Twitter @mullen_scott
CAST & CREW
OCTOBER 28, 2022
Two Brown Porters
by Naren Weiss
A dark comedy about two average individuals who get swept up into the world of bloodshed surrounding history’s most infamously looted item – the Kohinoor diamond.
Content Warning: Adult Language, Violence
Naren Weiss is an award-winning writer whose work has been published and/or performed on four continents, including at the prestigious Metroplus Theatre Festival (India), the National Arts Festival (South Africa), the Alliance Francaise (Singapore) and numerous Short+Sweet Festivals around the world. He has published five books of plays, poems, and short stories – three of which have gone on to become Amazon bestsellers. He has taught Playwriting and Script Analysis at the undergraduate level.
CAST & CREW
NOVEMBER 18, 2022
Closing Costs on 6101 Nyanza Park Drive APT D6 Flushing, NY 11351
by Brysen Boyd
Jared and Allen attempt to say goodbye to the apartment and life they shared for a decade.
Content Warning: Adult Language, Additional*
Brysen Boyd is playwright, TV writer, and essayist originally from Tacoma, WA. He served on the writing staff for season 3 of HBO’s SUCCESSION as a Writing Fellow (a position created for him), is the inaugural Playwright-in-Residence at Reverie Theater Company and is proud member of Youngblood/Ensemble Studio Theater and Liberation Theater Company’s Residency Program. His plays include FAMILY SIDESHOW (O’neill Conference Semi-finalist, 2022 Juilliard Finalist, Winner of KC-Melting Pot National New Play Competition), CLOSING COSTS on 6101 NYANZA (Blue Ink Award Semi-finalist, Kennedy Center Short Play Semi-finalist) and others. His work has received support from Tin House, The Kennedy Center, Sewanee Writers Conference, Columbia University, Napa Valley Writers Conference, Kansas City Melting Pot, Seattle Playwrights’ Saloon and others. His nonfiction has most recently appeared in the Florida Review. Having come to playwriting and creative nonfiction in undergrad by way of his first love, TV, his goal in life is to write stories that make others feel as excited as 9-year-old him felt when watching David and Keith on SIX FEET UNDER. Writing means everything to him—second only to his miniature wiener dogs, Simon and Alvin.B.A., Boston College MFA., Columbia University
Instagram @Brysenboyd
CAST & CREW
*Additional Content Warnings
Readings listing Additional within the content warnings include one or more topics sensitive audience members may want to consider before viewing this reading. These items have not been included on this page as these warnings may spoil the story. If you would like to request additional information on content warnings, please reach out to us using the Contact Walking Shadow Readers Theatre form at the bottom of this page, or email us at walkingshadowrt@gmail.com
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