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2025 Read and Rant
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:
Waiting for Baby by Melissa Jackson Burns
Dramaturg Facilitator: Hannah Deprey-Severance
This is an absurdist play about a couple trying to have a baby. They wait in an airport lounge as they try to book a flight for Baby.
Melissa Jackson Burns
Melissa Jackson Burns is an award-winning playwright and dramaturg, as well as a performer and director. She has written and performed plays at FronteraFest, The Vortex, Project Imagine, and the Cathedral of Junk in Austin, and at the University of Missouri. A lifelong lover of theatre, Melissa started writing plays in 2007 and has continued to write and produce her own work for nearly two decades. She holds a PhD in Theatre from the University of Missouri.
Murdering Medea by Aly Kantor
Dramaturg Facilitator: Lena Ford
“This episode of MONSTER OF THE WEEK is sponsored by the loneliness epidemic, the 40-hour work week, and the inevitable heat death of the universe!” Girlypop podcast host Lucy has arrived at a Reddit-famous haunted murder hotel to record a podcast…as a cover story for her secret, out-of-state abortion. When famous child murderer Medea shows up and asks some uncomfortable questions, she’s forced to contend with her own relationship to monstrosity in Post-Roe America.
Aly Kantor
Aly Kantor is a playwright, performer, and teaching artist from Long Island, New York. Her award-winning, internationally-produced work is pleasantly quirky, femme-focused, often queer, and full of speculation and subversion. Aly’s plays are performed across the country, and she has several short works in print through Smith & Kraus and Applause Books.
To learn more about Aly’s work, visit www.alykantor.com, or find her on NPX.
Evening hosted by Athena Project’s Literary Manager, Emily Perez, and we are joined by Read & Rant’s Resident Dramaturg, Samara Siskind.
After you register for a session, you will receive a confirmation email that includes information on how to access our featured scripts. You must click the link in this email, and it will take you to the scripts. We want everyone to participate who would like to learn more about these talented playwrights and their plays.
When you register for the event on Eventbrite, you should receive a confirmation email.
- Email subject line will say “Order Confirmation for Athena Project: Read & Rant [month, year]”. This initial email has a synopsis and the links to both scripts.
- Two days prior to the event, you should receive another email with the subject line “Reminder for Athena Project: Read & Rant [month, year].” This email also includes the synopsis and links to both scripts.
- Plan to read scripts well in advance before the Zoom meeting
Please note that the scripts don’t come as attachments, they are .pdf links. So the body of the email will contain two paragraphs with the details of that month’s scripts.
For example:
Mak Shealy’ s Victorian Psychedelic Sleepover Play
On the eve of a 16th birthday, four teens meet after their writing is rejected by the school lit mag to create a Literary Zine of their own. Seeking editorial guidance, they conjure the ghosts of writers past and find themselves possessed by the spirit, chaos and conflict of the Victorian Era radicals they have long admired.
Content Warning: bullying, blood/bodily fluids, discussion of IVF, birth, substance use, disordered eating implied
You must click the link, and it will take you to the script.
If there are any questions or concerns please contact [email protected]
