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2023 Read and Rant
January 16, 2023 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm MST
Athena Project’s Read & Rant program seeks to combine the sharing of theatrical work with the wider public and the new play development aspects of our former Plays In Progress Series while also fostering collaboration between playwrights and dramaturgs. Think book club for plays! Learn what makes a good script, discuss how it affects us, and explore the ways it links to the larger world. This monthly free offering to the community aims to raise awareness of the under-representation of women’s stories on stage.
Each month, we read two new and unproduced scripts selected from a nationwide call for submissions and typically meet every third Monday online via Zoom to discuss the works. Join us to converse with invited playwrights who bring an in-depth knowledge of the works and theatrical writing at large. Guided by a dramaturg, we also invite you to share your constructive comments, thoughts, and affirmations in order to aid in the development process of the pieces.
This month we will be featuring two playwrights selected from our Read & Rant lottery: Carolyn Gage and Maria D. Smith.
Carolyn Gage’s In McClintock’s Corn:
The entire play is set in a cornfield. The play is about gender-non-conforming geneticist Barbara McClintock and her companion/partner Harriet Creighton, and McClintock’s revolutionary quest to understand diversity in nature and to reframe “deviance” as an expression of natural variance.
This is a play about the physical land that women and minorities are and are not allowed to occupy, and the theories that justify displacement. It’s also about the metaphysics of “place,” the bodies we occupy, the cellular realities, and our relationship to nature—the final arbiter of whose land it will ultimately be.
Maria D. Smith’s (m)Other or the Play about Rest:
In this dark satire, Angie from Action News is experiencing one of the most hectic days of her life, but it’s fine. Really. After throwing up on air, Angie still has a jam-packed day that she must fulfill. From attending her friend’s intervention to getting an abortion to attending her granddad’s funeral, and even going on a date, Angie is determined to do it all even though her body and common logic are begging her not to. Angie essentially falls into the ultimate Black woman dilemma: trying to prioritize herself while also showing up for everyone else at the same time. After a disassociation puts her face to face with her deceased grandfather and recently aborted fetus, Angie finally understands that she doesn’t have to do it all. All she has to do is rest.
After you register for a session, you will receive information on how to access our featured scripts. We want everyone to participate who would like to learn more about these talented playwrights and their plays.
