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spring 2015 Reading Series This page contains events that are part of the later-development developmental and staged reading series, programs for plays that are closer to theater-ready, having progressed beyond scene nights.
All readings are free to PCSF members. Bicycling to Afghanistan Looking to find respite with her old friend after an aborted attempt at an acting career in Los Angeles, Nicole convinces Marcel to travel to Afghanistan, with disastrous results. Their friendship is tested when they are kidnapped and held for questioning and probable torture. Karl Schackne has written for The Playwrights' Center of San Francisco's Plays in a Daze Festival. His short play, Chocolate, was produced as part of Seoul Players' 2014 10-Minute Play Festival, and the 2014 Daegu Play Festival, where it won first place. His short play, Opening Address, was produced in 2014 as part of Wily West Productions' Superheroes. 7:30 p.m. Playing with Death A collection of short plays about mortality, ranging from the comic to the somber to the surreal. Bridgette Dutta Portman's plays have been read and produced throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, across the country and overseas. She particularly enjoys writing plays involving classical structure and themes, heightened language, and verse. She is a board member of PCSF and a member of the City Light Source playwrights' group and the Pear Avenue Theatre Playwrights' Guild. 7:30 p.m. Pasiphae A retelling of the story of the Minotaur - a man/beast born to a human queen -- from his mother's point of view. Sex, religion, the struggle between male and female passions, and an international intrigue swirl together in a tragedy which asks what love looks like when the name of the game is power? It also touches on how human passion asserts itself in relation to the power of immortal gods, and changes the course of history? Charley Lerrigo started writing plays (and one musical) 15 years ago to set Biblical narratives in new and frequently funny ways. His passion for dramatic demythology continues this year with Pasiphae -- a retelling of the Greek myth of the Minotaur from the perspective of the beast's mother, which he is happily trembling to see as his first developmental reading with PCSF. Charley's short and full-length plays have had performances or readings in a variety of Bay Area venues, including PCSF's 24 hour Play Fests, the SF and Marin Fringe Festivals, Virago Theatre, Dramatist Guild readings, Live Oak Theater, Pacific School of Religion (UC/Berkeley), and a Marin county senior citizen center. He has studied playwriting with many leading Bay Area teachers and playwrights, and at the Berkeley Rep School of Theater. He's also studied directing and acting at Berkeley Rep and has produced and/or directed plays with PCSF, Play Cafe (East Bay) and the SF and Marin Fringe Festivals. Charley is a Board Member of PCSF, on Play Cafe's steering committee, and a member of the Dramatist Guild. He had a previous professional life as a bi-coastal journalist and pastor. Charley lives in Oakland with his wife, Pat Bruce-Lerrigo. His next scheduled play will be a full performance of his (new and improved) play Fluffy, a Gorilla in September's SF Fringe Festival. 7:30 p.m. An Ear for Voices Ouida Jones is used to hearing voices; she's an actress who makes a living at voice-over work. But when she hears voice overs inside and outside the studio, she's at her wit's end to save her career and her sanity while pursuing the role of her dreams. Alina Trowbridge studied creative writing at San Francisco State University, dramatic structure with Will Dunne, and the 10-minute play with Erin Blackwell. Her 10-page plays have been presented in Berkeley, Boston, New York, New Hampshire, San Francisco and Seattle. A Moment of Your Undivided Attention was published in Smith & Kraus's Best 10-Minute Plays of 2005. In 2013, her sketch Double-Edged Sword� appeared in "Lawfully Wedded,"� an evening of short plays about gay marriage. Shelton Theater (downstairs) American Hearts What happened to Tom? A cross-dressing son and brother goes missing, and the search for him takes Armstrong family on an emotional roller coaster across the cultural and economic battle lines of Reagan's America. A mysterious envelope arrives on a snowy Christmas, and it sends father-son conflict and sibling rivalries to bitter, tragic levels... and a surprise ending. Steven Hill is a San Francisco-based writer whose work has been published extensively in leading magazines and newspapers in the United States, the UK, Europe and elsewhere. He is the author of five books on politics and political economy, and has been interviewed by many leading media outlets. His poetry and fiction have been published by various journals and publications, and one of his short plays performed Off-Off Broadway. For more details, see Steven Hill's website. 7:30 p.m. Seven Days of Suicide Nathan Morten is lonely, depressed, and just received a fatal diagnosis. His solution? Put a suicide pill in a seven-day pill dispenser, and take his meds each day until the deed is done. Meeting two strangers — Ray, a sunny realtor, and Roselia, a prickly hospice nurse's assistant — complicate his seemingly simple plan. Rita Long has taken to writing plays after a series of mental electrical storms. She has written three full-length plays, including If Not Home, Tacoma; Whore meets Tranny; and Seven Days of Suicide. She's wrestling and losing badly against a fourth, The Wrong Kind of Rain. 7:30 p.m. Evil Fan Dolores del Valle believes she's being haunted by the ghost of her stalker Beauregard who she killed in self-defense after her last concert. Francesca, an actor posing as Dolores's caretaker, and Dr. White, Beauregard's widow posing as a court psychiatrist, believe they have been retained by Beauregard's twin brother Conrad to bring Dolores to sanity and justice. Alas, the truth is so much worse, and the only one who knows the whole story is dead. Chas Belov's full-length plays Rice Kugel, Hemlock, and My Visit to America have had staged readings at PCSF. His short plays have been produced in SF, Boston, Houston, Ohio, North Carolina, and New York City. His short This is Not a Play will be published in Smith & Kraus's Best 10-Minute Plays of 2015 and monologue My Room in Applause Books' Best Contemporary Monologues for Kids Ages 7–15, both edited by Lawrence Harbison. Chas is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Theatre Bay Area. Visit his playwriting blog. 7:30 p.m. Kaleidoscope Kaleidoscope is a collection of about three-dozen short vignettes that loosely follow the lives and desires of six characters: a new college student, her mother and father, a homeless man, a Sociology professor, and a cheerleader who dreams of being an actress. Rod McFadden began writing plays in 2009. In addition to successful productions at small theatres around the country, Rod's plays have been well-received by Bay Area audiences of Broadway West, The Playwrights Center of SF, Wily West Productions, The Eugene O'Neill Foundation, Fringe of Marin, the Masquers, and PlayGround SF. He has received awards in national playwriting competitions for his plays, Love Birds, Counting on Love, and Getting the Message, and was chosen for the People's Choice award at the 2012 inspiraTO Festival in Toronto. Hope's Last Chance, Rod's second full-length play, premiered in SF as part of Wily West's 2013 season. Rod serves on the Board of Directors for the Playwrights Center of SF, as well as teaches in the masters program at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. 7:30 p.m.
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