Pandemic Play Reading Series

By Jordi Galceran Translation by Anne García-Romero and Mark St. Germain Four candidates for a corporate job explore the lengths they will go to in order to be the one left standing. Cast: Frank–Tom BigongiariRick–Jeff SiudaMelanie–Donnell AdlerCarl–James Lockhart

by Arthur Miller Tonight, we are reading Arthur Miller’s landmark play, a scathing commentary on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The Crucible is an allegory of McCarthy’s pursuit of Communists in the 1950s, and also reflects on fanaticism in our own time. Cast: John Proctor –James Lockhart Abigail Williams– Misty Lynn Macey Mary Warren– Karen Dieruf ...

DARK BLUE MONDAZE, the independent theatrical production organization provides a platform for elevating and amplifying marginalized voices and underserved members of the community, whether people of color, the LBGTQ+ community, veterans, and individuals with disabilities. DARK BLUE MONDAZE has provided more performing opportunities for BIPOC Actors, Writers, Poets & Musicians in Western New York than ...

By Will Arbery On a late summer night in 2017 in Wyoming, four young conservatives come back to celebrate their mentor Gina, who is now the president of the college they attended. As the night wears on, their discussions on their pasts, theology and modern politics lead to a chaotic catharsis on where they see the ...

by Thornton Wilder “The Long Christmas Dinner–nine decades long–showcases the lives of several generations of the Bayard family, and some of their Christmas dinners. Wilder breaks the boundaries of time as we measure it, and invites us to partake of ‘one long, happy Christmas dinner’-past, present and future. As generations appear, have children, wither and depart, ...

by Whitley Body For Tiffany, the perfect life consists of the perfect education, the perfect friends, the perfect career, and the perfect love. But what happens when the lights fade out, the music dies, and the curtain closes? Real life…which is never perfect. Cast: Tiffany–Jaimi Miller Bianca–Misty Macey Devon–Kaleab Wiggins Dr. Jenny Hare–Elizabeth Hunter Stan–Douglas Curry Margaret–Kesha Sharee

by William Heyen Featuring:Madeline Wall from Minneapolis, MN &Alexander Pennise from New York City Directed by Donald Brian Bartalohummingbird theatre co. The collection of 41 Plays-On-A-Page convey slices of sometimes fantastical life. Sometimes biting social commentary, sometimes whimsical asides. These short dramas and comedies leave the audience guessing about their own lives and the world around them. William Heyen, ...

by Lauren Gunderson In the annals of astronomy, Henrietta Leavitt is a pioneer. She worked with a group of women “computers” inside the Harvard Observatory at the turn of the 20th century. Along the way of making significant discoveries involving the stars along with her fellow workers, Henrietta must also come to terms with love, society ...

by José Rivera Marisol Perez is having a rough time. Despite her high-paying job as a copy editor, she still lives in the tough neighborhood she grew up in. She also survives being assaulted with a golf club, and her guardian angel is leaving her to go to war against God. And New York is about ...

by Michel Tremblay Germaine Lauzon wins 1 million trading stamps and hosts a party of her sisters and neighbors to paste the stamps into books. The women, who live in Montreal, show their true colors as they confront this monumental task. Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay’s play from 1968 was revolutionary in its depiction of characters who speak ...

by Eugene O’Neill Widely considered one of the best plays of the 20th century, this semi-autobiographical play explores the trials and tribulations of the Tyrone family. With Alana Ghent, Bob McDonald, Doug Durlacher, Michele Cuomo and Stephen Stout.

by Eugene O’Neill Widely considered one of the best plays of the 20th century, this semi-autobiographical play explores the trials and tribulations of the Tyrone family. With Alana Ghent, Bob McDonald, Doug Durlacher, Michele Cuomo and Stephen Stout.

by Heidi Schreck Before becoming a successful actor and writer, Heidi Schreck traveled the country as a young girl debating the Constitution. Now she explores the document and the impact it has made on her life, and the lives of women more than 230 years after its creation. The Pandemic Play Reading Series presents a reading of ...

by Neil Simon “Leon Tolchinsky is ecstatic. He’s landed a terrific teaching job in an idyllic Russian hamlet. When he arrives he finds people sweeping dust from the stoops back into their houses and people milking upside down to get more cream. The town has been cursed with Chronic Stupidity for 200 years and Leon’s job ...

By Keith Hamilton Cobb An experienced Black actor, Keith, attends an audition for a new production of “Othello.” He learns the young director of the show is white, who has his own ideas on how the Venetian Moor should be presented. What follows is a personal journey that shows – according to the published script – ...

by Pearl Cleage In Pearl Cleage’s 1983 one-act play, estranged mother and daughter, Alice and Jenny Anderson, confront their pasts when they both unwittingly return to live in the same family home. Cast: Alice–Kesha ShareeJenny–Artemis Scott

by Jean-Paul Sartre Sartre’s existential masterpiece imagines three people in hell, damned to be in the same room for eternity. Cast: Joseph Garcin–R. Emmett Michie Estelle Rigault–Shawnda Urie Inèz Serrano–Alana Ghent Lora Nava–Valet

by Lillian Hellman This New York Drama Critics Circle Award-winning play premiered on Broadway in April 1941, eight months before the U.S. entry into World War II. Hoping to find peace, Kurt Mueller, a German citizen and anti-fascist, his American wife, Sara, and their children arrive at Sara’s childhood home in Washington, D.C. Even in this environment ...

by John Patrick Shanley. The Pandemic Play Reading Series presents a reading of this 2004 Pulitzer and Tony award-winning play. The play, which takes place at a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964, presents the complexity in determining the guilt or innocence of a priest. Cast:Sister Aloysius Beauvier–Amy CanfieldFather Brendan Flynn–James LockhartSister James–Katie KeatingMrs. Muller–Kesha ...

The Pandemic Play Reading Series is streaming this event via Zoom, thanks to producer Gary Dewitt Marshall of Dark Blue Mondaze. “It’s a night of pure holiday entertainment. A soulful season’s greeting. Recording artists and Broadway stars Terron Brooks and Kamilah Marshall reunite at the Garry Marshall Theatre for a breathtaking 60-minute holiday extravaganza: “Holidaze Harmony.” This ...

Presented by the hummingbird theatre co. in association with the Pandemic Play Reading Series An evening of videos and discussion Part One: Does That Change Your Assumptions About Me? by Vanessa Vancour – 13 minutes “We are really good at forming judgements of other people and jump to conclusions based on how they look, sound, by their last names ...

After the events of Millennium Approaches, relationships are lost and found amongst the characters of Tony Kushner’s epic drama. Prior Walter fights to stay alive while dealing with the angelic messenger in front of him; Roy Cohn deals with his impending death and the ex-drag queen nurse Belize; attorney Joe Pitt and Prior’s ex Louis Ironson ...

by Tony Kushner Subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” Tony Kushner’s epic drama takes place in New York City in the 1980s. Prior Walter tells his lover he has AIDS, and loses him in the process. Attorney Joe Pitt is groomed by legendary attorney Roy Cohn for a job in Washington, even as Cohn himself ...

by Joe Kolasa Debuting in 2017 during the Orlando Fringe Festival and back in 2020 as a virtual reading for the Pandemic Play Reading Series, Joe Kolasa’s one-act “Umbilicus” centers on an individual plagued with self-doubt who seeks answers from a befuddled therapist. However, only more questions seem to arise from the session; chief among them, ...

Our speaker will be Shane Wiegand, teacher and board member of City Roots Community Land Trust. For the past eight years, Shane has compiling stunning research on the City of Rochester and surrounding towns. His talk examines how federal policies like redlining, racially restrictive covenants, and urban renewal segregated Rochester, built wealth for its white citizens and disenfranchised people ...

This event will include readings of scary stories starting at 7:30, including Hallowe’en………………………………………………………………………………. Joel Benton Amy Canfield The Three Witches (Macbeth)…………………………………….. William Shakespeare Lory Love Restivo The Raven ………………………………………………………………………… Edgar Allan Poe James Lockhart One need not be a Chamber-to be Haunted…………………… Emily Dickinson Katie Kreutter The Highwayman……………………………………………………………………… Alfred Noyes Tracy Atkins Ulterino, James Lockhart, Stephanie Marshall Little Orphant Annie……………………………………………… James Whitcomb Riley Sandra Lowe-Dusel The Tell-Tale Heart ...

Presented by Dark Blue Mondaze along with The Pandemic Play Reading Series

a Mendicant Story Theatre Event 10/26/20 One-act performance piece SUTEKH by script writer Christopher T. “Amunubenheh” Brown of Blazing Concepts Productions LLC Featured actors and characters:  RAin Christi as The Speaker of the Court (Sekhmet) Carrington Reynolds as Djehuti (Thoth)  Almeta Whitis as Sutekh (SET) Director: Almeta Whitis Technical Director, lighting, set, costumes, props: Larry Moss & Kelly Cheatle co-founders of Airigami Camerapersons: ...

By Sharleigh Thomson Beth Farren’s ordinary life is turned upside down when her childhood imaginary friend pays her a visit. She is forced to face a painful past in order to leap into her future. A story of grief, love, and family, String Can Theory is a reminder that wherever you go, you take yourself with ...

This Tuesday, October 13th, 2020 @ 7:30 p.m. in association with the Pandemic Play Reading Series, the humming bird theatre co. will be presenting something a little different. It’s called: Soundtrack ’63, created by young artists, Chen Lo and Asanté Amin. It’s a musical and multimedia retrospective of the Black experience in America with highlights of the 60s and connections to the present. Soundtrack ’63 explores ...

by Eric Bogosian In 1987 Cleveland, Barry Champlain rules the airwaves as the city’s most provocative radio host, taking on everyone and everything that stands in his on-air path. Then his show gets picked up for national syndication. Cue the anything goes outrageousness even further… The Pandemic Play Reading Series presents the caustic black comedy TALK RADIO, ...

On June 26, 1996, legendary playwright August Wilson addressed the Theater Communications Group’s national conference at Princeton University. The speech Wilson gave proved to be as lasting as the plays he wrote (“Fences,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “The Piano Lesson”) – and also profound and controversial. Wilson’s speech discussed the difficulties facing African-American theater at ...

by Christopher T. “Amunubenheh” Brown and Almeta Whitis, Storyteller © 2020, based upon a poem of the same name written by Christopher T. “Amunubenheh” Brown © 1988 The Mendicant Story Theatre, along with the Pandemic Play Reading Series presents this Restorative Justice Process Piece featuring Almeta Whitis as The Mendicant. A Q & A will follow ...

The hummingbird theatre co. in association with the Pandemic Play Reading Series is happy to host a discussion entitled: “What is the Commission on Racial and Structural Equity?” (RASE) with our guest– Former Mayor William A. Johnson, Jr., one of the co-chairs of the Commission. 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐲 (𝐑𝐀𝐒𝐄) Purpose: In acknowledgment of national and ...

The hummingbird theatre co. in association with the Pandemic Play Reading Series proudly presents: FINDING A WAY FORWARD with featured guest,  Rev. Myra Brown Rev. Brown has been very active in the recent Rochester movement for racial justice. She will address: the reasons why the system of policing is based on a model of slave patrol started after the ...

by Elmer Rice This classic 1923 Expressionist play focuses on how an accountant, Mr. Zero, reacts to being replaced by an adding machine after 25 years on the job. The play is a take-down of capitalist mythology and how it both reduces people to numbers and breeds hate against “the other.” Cast: Mr. Zero: Ted Wenskus Mrs. Zero: Kathy ...

by Shawn Essler “In a high-tech world of sword and sorcery, a gifted soldier is charged with protecting a young mage from a dangerous and elusive sorceress.” END OF TIME is an original, unproduced screenplay. We will be hosting a digital table read on Wednesday, September 2nd, at 7:00 pm. The table read will air live on YouTube, ...

The hummingbird theatre co. in association with the Pandemic Play Reading Series proudly presents readings from four Civil Rights leaders. The focus question tonight is: What actions did these four leaders use to improve racial equality and equity? Producer – Amy Canfield Pandemic Director – Donald Brian Bartalo CAST NARRATOR…………………………………Donald Brian Bartalo DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING…………..…Doug Curry ROBERT KENNEDY………………………Jeff Siuda ROSA PARKS……………………………….Tina Chapman DaCosta JOHN ...

by Wallace Shawn As an execution is going on outside his hotel room, a traveler is alone within a poverty-stricken country. As he comes to terms with the conditions of his life and conscience, he begins to wonder if he is not just responsible for himself. Is he also responsible for everyone else? Originally produced by ...

by Susan Glaspell This one-act play had its first production in 1916, with the Provincetown Players, the company Glaspell founded with her husband, George Cram Cook. Glaspell got her inspiration for the play from a murder case in her home state of Iowa, in which a woman was arrested for the murder of her husband. ...

@ ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION The hummingbird theatre co. in association with the Pandemic Play Reading Series CAST FREDERICK DOUGLASS……………….David Shakes SUSAN B. ANTHONY……………………Barbara Blaisdell DOUGLASS SUPPORTERS……………Reuben Tapp & Jahaka Mindstorm ANTHONY SUPPORTERS……………..Deborah Hughes, Denise Bartalo, Alicia Davis, Martha Tidrowe,Tina Chapman, Karen Culley,  & Adryanna Elmendorf                                                               Perhaps the discord caused by the split between gender and race ...

by Elizabeth Robins Adapted by Amy Canfield and The Kingfisher Theater Originally produced by The Kingfisher Theater. Discover the journey towards a woman’s right to vote with Elizabeth Robins’ rarely performed Votes for Women! in an adaptation set in a United States future where women are again fighting for the vote they lost in 2022. We’re thrilled to be ...

The hummingbird theatre co., in partnership with the Pandemic Play Reading Series, proudly present the: James Baldwin vs. William F. Buckley Debate This historic debate took place in the Cambridge Union (Cambridge England) on February 18th, 1965. The motion before the house that night was:  Has the American dream been achieved at the Expense of the American Negro? Directed by Donald ...

by Samuel Beckett Two men, Vladimir and Estragon, come to a barren tree – and they are anticipating the arrival of Godot. As they wait, their journey becomes an existential tale of poetic and nonsensical proportions. The Pandemic Play Reading Series presents Samuel Beckett’s landmark drama “Waiting for Godot,” directed by Justin Rielly. Starring in alphabetical ...

by Justin Rielly In place of its COVID-canceled summer Highland Bowl production, the Shakespeare Program of Rochester Community Players (RCP) will present a one-night-only, streamed, benefit reading of *The Last Days of Falstaff*, written by local playwright Justin Rielly. Set after the events of *Henry IV* (Parts 1 and 2), John Falstaff is struggling with being disowned ...

by Marsha Norman Marsha Norman’s Pultizer-Prize winning play. Originally a mother/daughter play, this is changed to a mother/son play, in which a suicidal man spends one last night with his mother trying to make her understand why he has made the decision to end his life and how she is to continue after he is gone. Jessie ...

In 1970 James Baldwin and Margaret Mead met for an extraordinary seven-and-a-half-hour discussion about race and society. Mead, 68 years old, white and liberal, was the most famous anthropologist of the 20th Century. Baldwin, 46, black, living in exile in France, was one of the most prominent novelists. The two had never met before. Their ...

by Lauren Gunderson “Tweetering, pandashrews, and undying giddiness for James Madison — what else could you expect to find at a Miss America pageant? In this hilarious, raucous, all-female “power-play” inspired by Shakespeare’s Shrew, contestant Katherine has political aspirations to match her beauty pageant ambitions. All she needs to revolutionize the American government is the help ...

By Lee Blessing The story of Ty Cobb, the baseball legend who remains a controversial figure. The play splits the role of Cobb into three, with actors playing the man at different points in his life, all participating in the dying man’s assessment of his life. Oscar Charleston, a player in the Negro Leagues, appears in ...

by Larry Kramer The ground-breaking play about the people at the forefront of gay advocacy in the beginning of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Cast– Ned: James Lockhart Ben: Morey Fazzi Felix: Darlando Eanon Craig: Jackson Mosher Bruce: Jace Meyer-Crosby Emma: Lora Nava David: Larry Ploscowe Tommy: Joseph Barcia Mickey: Justin Rielly Hiram: Richard Kendrick ...

by Alan Zweibel, based on his book In 1975, Saturday Night Live debuted and changed the face of comedy on television. Gilda Radner became one of the show’s most beloved performers, while Alan Zweibel was one of the founding writers. They not only became collaborators, but their friendship would grow through the years – past their ...

Driving Miss Daisy is a play by American playwright Alfred Uhry, about the relationship of an elderly white Southern Jewish woman, Daisy Werthan, and her African-American chauffeur, Hoke Coleburn, from 1948 to 1973. The reading is a reprisal of the hummingbird theater company’s production, directed by Donald B. Bartalo, which performed in April, 2019 at Muccc. Cast Daisy ...

by Anton Chekhov The famous actress, Arkadina, comes to her brother’s estate in the country for the summer, bringing her lover, the novelist Trigorin, with her. Her son Constantin, who lives on the estate, is an aspiring playwright who tries to impress his self-serving mother with his “new” ideas of the theatre. His love for his ...

by Sam Shepard Curse of the Starving Class is a play in three acts by Sam Shepard that tells the story of a dysfunctional family living in a farmhouse they are planning to sell in the hopes of moving on to bigger and better things. (This play has adult themes and language and may not ...

by David Ives Tonight’s reading is of seven comedy one-acts that are part of Ives’ group of short plays. The plays and their casts are: Sure Thing  Betty: Kiyomi Oliver Bill: Kiefer Santiago Schenk Words, Words, Words Milton: M.J. Savastano Swift: Beth Kattleman Kafka: Katie Keating Universal Language Dawn: Gretchen Woodworth Don: Dave Woodworth Young Man: Erin Kearns Variations on the Death of Trotsky Trotsky: Ted ...

Premiere Reading by JUSTIN RIELLY Saturday, May 2 at 7:00pm (will include a brief intermission) The play follows Caroline “Carey” Walker, a young theater director whose latest show, an outdoor production of a new version of Faust, is falling apart. It’s been raining, the sets and costumes are not ready, and the actors are still calling for ...

THE PLAY:Somewhere in Philadelphia, Elliot has returned from Iraq and is struggling to find his place in the world. Somewhere in a chat room, recovering addicts keep each other alive, hour by hour, day by day. The boundaries of family and community are stretched across continents and cyberspace as birth families splinter and online families ...

by Lanford Wilson Wilson’s 1973 comedy, set in the lobby of a seedy Baltimore hotel. Cast: Mrs. Bellotti— Maria SanguedolceThe Girl—Gretchen Ginn WoodworthPaul Granger III— Kiefer Santiago SchenkApril Green— Katie KeatingJackie— Debbie TompkinsJamie— M.J. SavastanoMr. Katz— Ken CanfieldBill Lewis— Richard KendrickMillie— Cristy LandisMr. Morse— Adele FicoMrs. Oxenham— Lisa Dennison MichalekSuzy– Erin Pfund The Hot L Baltimore is ...

The Bald Soprano is an absurdist play by Romanian-French playwright Eugène Ionesco, first performed in French in 1950. The play centers on the Smiths, a couple from London, and another couple, the Martins, who come over for a visit. Cast: Mrs. Smith–Leah Camilleri Mr. Smith–James Lockhart Mr. Martin–Jackson Mosher Mrs. Martin–Michele Cuomo Mary, the Maid–Maria Sanguedolce The Fire Chief–Doug Durlacher

April 8th at 7 pm EST -Featuring: Judith Ivey Michael Whistler Joe Kolasa – James, a sophisticated writer in his prime, has come to a sleepy Cleveland mall, ostensibly to see a movie. But the reality is he’s facing down Parkinson’s and has few places to go on his wheel-walker. Malls, with their accessible stores, bathrooms and multiplexes are ...

By Moliere Friday, April 3 at 7:00pm EST Mme. Pernelle–Amy Taipale Canfield Orgon–Justin Rielly (acts 1-3) M.J. Savastano (acts 4-5) Elmire–Kimberly Day Damis–Larry Ploscowe Mariane–Jessica Giordano Valere–Katie Keating Cleante–Donnell Adler Tartuffe–Judith A. Molner Dorine–Briar-Rose Murphy M. Loyal–Lisa Dennison Michalek Police Officer–Jace Meyer-Crosby You are about to enter a Zoom meeting. You are attending as an audience ...