Our upcoming staged readings can be found here.
January 12, 2018 at 8:00pm at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 South Woodlawn Avenue.
Admission $5
Two men sit in a lifeboat, ravaged by malnutrition and hunger, haunted by dreams of home, and by each other. They joke, they tell stories, they quarrel, and they fight. And slowly, they must come to terms with the awful truths of their predicament.
Friday, December 1, 2017
Holiday Children’s Stories
Friday, April 7, 8:00pm
Secret Rivers
Snapshots of life through poetry
Written and directed by Marilyn Cavicchia
“Marilyn Cavicchia gives vivid voices to the drivers and passengers traveling a rainy stretch of freeway in eastern Ohio. She conjures distinctive verbal identities for each of her personae, and each poem’s vignette delights the imagination and the ear. A further joy is to trace the “secret rivers” of relationship among these characters: between the anti-fracking activist and the grandmother looking forward to a check for the drilling rights to her yard; between the divorced father driving a balloon van and the road-ragey driver of the Chrysler behind him; between the energy contractors new to the community and the locals in whom the rapid changes inspire both bewilderment and hope. Cavicchia’s brilliant poems precisely observe the details of life in this city—yet her Ohio freeway represents every motorway in America, where rivers of vehicles propel their occupants toward regret, nostalgia, and inevitable transformation.” — Jennifer Bullis, author of Impossible Lessons.
Cast: Anthony Brown, Ron Chafetz, Corinna Christman, Leslie Halverson, Adam Hammond, Bobbie Lyons, Scott Malpass, Chris Skyles, Amelia Snoblin, Dusty Trellis
Friday, November 4, 8 pm
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, by Bertolt Brecht
directed by Nathan Agin
Friday, October 7, 8 pm
Tonight at 8:30: Two One-Act Plays, by Noel Coward
directed by Christopher Skyles. Join us for the sparkling wit of Noel Coward.
Friday, Sept 2, 8pm
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
directed by Paul Baker. A critically acclaimed one-woman play about the year that began when she suddenly lost her husband, and wasn’t over before she had lost her only daughter as well. Lauren Miller presented Joan’s words, and Bill Hohnke and Corinna Christman performed live the music Bill composed to accompany the play. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Friday, August 5, 8 pm
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
directed by Oroki Rice, a new member to the Players. The cast performed readings from Toni Morrison’s first novel. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Friday, July 8, 8 pm
A Read-Along of Dark Fairy Tales
Amelia Snoblin created and directed our fourth read-along Friday reading. The performance featured several adaptations of folk stories/fairy tales from around the world, including the Romanian story, “The Bay-Tree Maiden”. The stories centered around the theme of male-female relationships and how the depictions of these relationships differ across cultures and periods. As with all our read-along readings, there was no charge for the evening’s entertainment. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S Woodlawn.
Friday, June 3, 8 pm
The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde
We whetted our appetite for the Players’ upcoming production of Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, by perf0rming Acts 2 and 3 of Wilde’s best known play as our third read-along in the Staged Reading series. Scripts and roles were handed out–first come, first served–as interested actors arrived. The rest of us played that most important role of “audience members”. A good time was had by all. The Reading was potluck, at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn, and since we were all presenters, there was no charge for this reading.
Friday, May 13, 8 pm
Spring Awakening, by Frank Wedekind and Steve Slater
Amelia Snoblin directed songs from the recent Broadway hit musical with some text from the original source play written by Frank Wedekind in 1891. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Friday, April 8, 8 pm
Not Here, by Gerri Hudson
directed by the author. Inspired by events of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Not Here is a drama about seven women hiding in a bathroom for more than 100 days. What happens trapped in a bathroom after one day may be inconceivable, but when the bathroom door is the difference between life and death, that door must remain closed. We staged portions of this play-in-progress by one of our first members. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Friday, March 4, 8 pm
Trifles, by Susan Glaspell
Overtones, by Alice Gerstenberg
directed by Georgia Geis. First performed in 1916, Trifles is an example of early feminist drama and is one of our most critically acclaimed one-acts. (It appears in many anthologies of American theater.) It is loosely based on the murder of John Hossack, which Glaspell reported on while working as a news journalist for the Des Moines Daily News. Hossack’s wife, Margaret, was convicted of his murder. The title comes from the inability of the investigators to find the clues in the domestic life of the couple—these, they say, are “mere trifles.” Overtones is considered the earliest example of a dramatization of the unconscious on stage. We meet two women in a possible love triangle, but each is played by two actresses, who embody a disparate part of the character. March is Women’s History month; we celebrated by exploring these gripping dramas. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Friday, February 5, 8 pm
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry
directed by Vanessa Ellis. This gripping drama shows the tumult when a black family moves into a white neighborhood, as well exploring the family dynamics. The story is mostly autobiographical: in 1937, Lorraine’s father purchased a house in Woodlawn, and won a supreme court case opposing racially-restrictive neighborhood covenants. The play’s title is inspired by a line from a Langston Hughes poem: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” Vanessa Ellis redacted this classic play, fittingly performed during Black History month. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Friday, January 8, 2016, 8 pm
The Crucible, by Arthur Miller
directed by Anthony Brown. We staged portions of Miller’s famous dramatization of the Salem Witch Trials. At Augustana Lutheran Church.
Friday, December 4, 8 pm
The Eumenides, by Aeschylus
directed by Cameron Peltz
Orestes’s mother killed his father, and, with his sister Electra and the god Apollo urging him on, he has avenged his father by killing his mother. But matricide is also a heinous crime, and now, the Erinyes, or Furies, are driving him mad with their vengeful hounding. What’s a boy to do? At Augustana Lutheran Church.
Friday, November 6, 8 pm
The Sunshine Boys, by Neil Simon
directed by Paul Baker
Al and Willie as “Lewis and Clark” were top-billed vaudevillians for over 40 years, but now they aren’t even speaking. A gig brings a grudging reunion along with a flood of memories, miseries and laughs. We staged portions of this play, with Scott Malpass and Wylie Crawford as the inimitable comic duo and Cameron Peltz as Willie’s long-suffering nephew. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Friday, October 9, 2015
The Fly-Bottle, by David Egan
directed by Paul Baker
The philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper met only once, in October 1946. Wittgenstein, Popper, and Bertrand Russell all have different versions of the story, but they can agree on two things: there was a lot of shouting, and a poker was involved. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Friday, September 4, 2015
Cloud Nine, by Caryl Churchill
This was our second read-along in the Staged Reading series–the first one was lots of fun, and so was the second. Scripts and roles were handed out–first come, first served–to the first 15 interested actors to arrive. The rest of us played that most important role of “audience member” for excerpts of the play . And since we were all presenters, there was no charge for this reading. Our read-along took place at Augustana Lutheran Church, 55oo S. Woodlawn.
Friday, August 7, 2015
Mrs. Bernarda Alba
an adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s La casa de Bernarda Alba
translated, adapted and directed by Robert Eric Shoemaker
Mrs. Bernarda Alba’s got many daughters, each with her own unique set of issues, and Bernarda is losing control. This unique retelling of Lorca’s most famous play resets La Casa in America. We saw acts one and two of play.
Our reading was staged at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Raising The Roof, by Vanessa L. Ellis & Jennifer Mubarak
directed by the authors, with Freeman Coffey
The run-down apartments that provide the setting for Raising the Roof are full of mold, water damage and lonely people. The tenants struggle with their individual problems–unemployment, mental illness, child and elder care–but are too afraid to reach out to each other for help. If only they would listen to the wisdom of a wise-beyond-his-years teenager, Nathaniel, perhaps they could find a way to be a community.
Our reading was staged at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn.
Friday, June 12, 2015
Jeff Fort and Fred Hampton: A Revolutionary Love Story,
by Steven Long
directed by the playwright
This play centers around three secret conversations that most likely happened between Jeff Fort, the legendary gang leader of the Blackstone Rangers, and Fred Hampton, a 20-year-old revolutionary who led the Chicago Black Panther Party of Illinois. The FBI feared that Jeff Fort and Fred Hampton might actually join forces. In the last years of J. Edgar Hoover’s reign, Hoover did not want to see the Black Panther Party double in size, and he was determined to stop that from happening! Part of the story centers on what made the FBI so anxious about two 20-year-old black kids from Chicago, and more importantly, what still blocks a young black man’s potential today. Our reading was staged at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn.
Steven Long is a new friend to the Players. He started working in professional theater as an actor at 16, and has since performed in over 100 plays in theaters that have included the Goodman Theatre, Los Angeles Theatre Center. He went to school at Webster University and Columbia College where he started teaching acting and began the Theodore Ward Prize for Playwriting, a national playwriting contest. He has written three screenplays and four plays.
Friday, May 1, 2015
The Murmurs of a Blind Soul, by Rosina Neginsky
directed by the author
We staged a theatrical reading from an epistolary novel-in-progress: a young man, whose mother who died in a plane crash, discovers her correspondence. As he uses the letters to write a novel of his own, he not only discovers who his mother really was as a woman and a person, but most importantly he finds in his own talent as a writer meaning for existence and the direction his life had lost following the death of his father and his beloved mother. Our reading was staged at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn.
Rosina is a professor in Liberal and Integrative Studies at University of Illinois, Champaign. She has published four scholarly books on art and literature and four books of poetry. This is her first novel. Rosina divides her time between her homes in Champaign and her home in Hyde Park. She assisted with our evening of one-acts by William Inge, “Bittersweet Love”, and last year directed and performed in a wonderful staged reading of poems from her book, The Juggler.
Friday, April 3, 2015
The Gin Game, by Donald L. Coburn
directed by Laura MacGregor
Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey, two elderly residents at a nursing home for senior citizens, strike up an acquaintance. Neither has any other friends, and they start to enjoy each other’s company. Weller offers to teach Fonsia how to play gin rummy, and they begin playing a series of games that Fonsia always wins…. Staged at Quaker House, 5615 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Friday, March 6, 2015
Sweet Child of Mine by Shelley DeHosse
directed by the playwright
The play alternates between 1969 and 1987. In ’69: Joanie, a sheltered teenager, has just arrived at the Woodstock Festival with Penny, her free-spirited friend. There Joanie meets Michael, a laissez-faire hippie, who introduces her to a brand new side of life. Fast forward to ’87: Joanie, now just ”Joan”, is mother to an inquisitive and hard-rock-obsessed teenage daughter Melody. Melody never knew anything about her father, but a slight clue launches her on a journey to find him. Staged at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Friday, February 6, 2015
Appeal to the Grammarians: an Evening of Asks, Pleas, and Ponders
selected & directed by Nathan Agin
Pieces from modern poets, a Roman philosopher, online satires, and more. Not the usual stuff–Paul Violi, George Bilgere, Theodore Bikel, and Donald Barthelme, Seneca the Younger. We were entertained, challenged, provoked, and possibly even changed, at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn.
Friday, January 9, 2015
The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder
directed by Paul Baker
A pair of newlyweds sits down to their first Christmas dinner in the new house, and we watched that dinner blend into spanning 90 Christmas dinners as the family grows and changes before our eyes. The evening also included a staged reading of “On the Departure of a Guest”, by Hilaire Belloc. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, December 5, 2014
Jar the Floor by Cheryl L. West
directed by Rosalind Battle
The phrase ‘Jar the Floor’ means to shake the floor in dance with high emotion, but as well it means to disturb. This boisterous drama takes us into the lives of four generations of African-American women who gather to celebrate the 90th birthday of MaDear, the matriarch of the family. Love and pains shared between the various mothers and daughters are exposed as tensions rise when the youngest member of the family arrives home with an unexpected guest. We staged Act 1 at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, November 7, 2014
Anton in Show Business, by Jane Martin
A “pick-up reading”: This madcap comedy follows three actresses across the footlights, down the rabbit hole and into a strangely familiar Wonderland that looks a lot like American theatre the resemblance is uncanny! As these women pursue their dream of performing Chekhov in Texas, they’re whisked through a maelstrom of “good ideas” that offer unique solutions to the Three Sisters’ need to have life’s deeper purpose revealed.
We read Act 1. Roles were assigned as guests arrived. It was very funny, and a great time! A do-it-yourself staged reading of a play, chosen by our producer, Laura. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Never Give Up by Anthony Brown
directed by the playwright
Antwan and Nick are longtime friends in New York City who take two very different paths. Antwan dreams of Broadway, and seems on the cusp of stardom. But Nick’s desire to keep a job and have a good life is thwarted by past mistakes, debts and drugs. Friends, enemies, rivals and a hilarious grandmother round out the story in this original work by HPCP member Anthony Brown, last seen onstage in Romeo & Juliet, at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, September 5, 2014
Collected Stories by Donald Margulies
directed and acted by Laura MacGregor & Kylie Nolla
Ruth Steiner is a teacher and respected short story writer. As her student and protégée, Lisa Morrison journeys from insecure student to successful writer. When Lisa writes a novel based on Ruth’s affair with the poet Delmore Schwartz, the women must deal with issues of trust and betrayal, creative freedom and personal loyalty. We staged selections from the play. Staged at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, August 8, at 2014
Patchpin: A Descendent of Angels, by Clark T. Weber
directed by the playwright
The story of one man’s journey to achieve wellness through the cruelties, fears and despairs of a life lived with mental illness. Staged at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, July 11, 2014
Slavs! Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness, by Tony Kushner
directed by Paul Baker
Setting his play in a darkly-fantastic version of Soviet collapse and perestroika, Kushner asks us to wonder why our greatest aspirations always go so terribly wrong. Slavs! was published at about the same time as Angels in America and shares a family resemblance with the world of those plays. Greg Evans, of Variety says, “Slavs! just might be the best out-take of a Pulitzer Prize-winning play ever written.” Staged at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, June 6, 2014
Sampling Musicals: Too Big, Too Small, or Juuust Right?
A variety show arranged and directed by Corinna Christman & Bill Hohnke
We presented selections from a variety of shows we were considering for full production. The songs came from Three Penny Opera, Little Shop of Horrors, Pippin, Company, Godspell, Swingin’ on a Star, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Man of La Mancha, and more. We gave a summary for each show along with a musical sample. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, May 2, 2014
A Woman of No Importance, by Oscar Wilde
Laura MacGregor directing
We presented selections from a play by the great Irish playwright. As in his masterwork, The Importance of Being Ernest, Wilde introduces us to the world of Victorian England, where characters try desperately to hide secrets that would tarnish their respectable personae. With his characteristic wit, he savages the ignorance and false moralism of the era. Lord Illingworth, the hero (or antihero) discovers that the young assistant he just promoted is, in fact, the illegitimate son he had with an old flame: “a woman of no importance.” Silly upperclass twits, a female rake and a virtuous American heiress add romantic complications, and lots of witty repartee. Staged at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Juggler, by Rosina Neginsky
We presented a theatrical reading of selections from Juggler, a multilingual (English-French-Russian) collection of seven cycles of poems: Amore, Birth, Yearning, Juggler, Encounters, Mermaid, Ballads, directed by the author and performed by the author, Laura MacGregor and Meara Hammond. Poems selected from each cycle and new poems were performed to guitar accompaniment by Bill Hohnke. Staged at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Cindy Sparkles, by Georgia Geis
directed by the playwright
A staged reading of this comic modern take on Cinderella: the heroine, Cindy, looks for her Fantasy Man with help from her Fairy Godmother, friendly bartenders and the occasional drag queen. Georgia is a new friend to the Players; in addition to her work as an actress and writer, she produced a monthly short play series at an art gallery in Arizona. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw
directed by Anthony Brown
A staged reading of selections from this beloved Shavian classic, the basis of the hit Broadway musical, My Fair Lady. Staged at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, January 10, 2014
All In the Timing, by David Ives
directed by Paul Baker
Four selections from this classic collection of Ives’s short plays: Sure Thing, The Philadelphia, Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread, and Long Ago and Far Away. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard
directed by Adam Hammond
We presented Act One from this play that the New York Times called, “Stoppard’s richest, most ravishing comedy – a play of wit, intellect, language, brio and emotion.” Staged at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Selected Short Works, by Rachel Baker
directed by Paul Baker
Rachel Baker is a founding member of the Players at the time of the reading a junior at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We presented four of her short pieces and a section of a longer play that Rachel was then writing. At Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue
FRIDAY STAGED READING NUMBER ONE!
Friday, October 11, 2013
Fabulation, by Lynn Nottage
directed by Mela Woods
Our first presentation was Act One of this Winner of a 2005 Obie Award, Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine is a social satire about an ambitious and haughty African-American woman, Undine Barnes Calles, whose husband suddenly disappears after embezzling all her money. Undine faces the challenge of transforming her setbacks into small victories, in a battle to reaffirm her right to be. Fabulation is a comeuppance tale with a comic twist. Staged at Augustana Lutheran Church,5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue.