Spring 2019 Reading Series

This page contains events that are part of the developmental and staged reading series, programs for plays that are closer to theater-ready, having progressed beyond scene nights.

  • Staged readings are rehearsed with a director. Suggested $10-20 donation for non-members.
  • Developmental readings are read by actors who have reviewed the script. Suggested $5-10 donation for non-members.
  • Both types of readings are produced by the Reading Series Producers: Charley Lerrigo and Rod McFadden.

All readings are free to PCSF members.


Monday, March 18, 2019

How To Stop Hating Your Life
by Patricia Milton
Developmental Reading

MJ has a plan to create the perfect life, and wrote the book on happy relationships. So why's MJ miserable?  America's Self-Help Expert, MJ Powers, has a three-step plan to create the perfect life. She's even written the book on relationship happiness. So why is her own relationship teetering on the brink? How to Stop Hating Your Life examines our very human capacity to delude, pretend, and evade yet eventually find our way to real love.

Patricia Milton's plays for Central Works Theatre include Bamboozled (2018 Outstanding Production and Ensemble, TBA Awards), Hearts of Palm, Enemies: Foreign and Domestic (2015 Outstanding World Premiere Play, TBA Awards) and Reduction in Force. Believers was produced in San Francisco and in Istanbul, Turkey; and Without Mercy premiered at Off Broadway West Theatre Company. 3Girls Theatre premiered Moments of Truth, her musical co-written with Caroline Altman. Patricia is co-author with Andrew Black of It's Murder, Mary! (New Conservatory Theatre Center), and other plays. She is resident playwright at Central Works. Patricia Milton's website

7:30 p.m.
Shelton Theater (downstairs)
533 Sutter (btw. Powell and Mason)
San Francisco
$5-10 suggested donation/your discretion/members free


monday, March 25, 2019

Earthquake Weather
by Chas Belov
Developmental Reading

San Francisco: Astronomical rents. San Andreas Fault. Elves. Shoe-making, home-wrecking elves.

Which would you rather have: love or new shoes? Can you have both? Four women – a long-term couple and two friends – face crossroads in their relationships during the San Francisco housing crisis of the late twenty-teens. A very loose adaptation of The Shoemaker and the Elves, for grownups.

Chas Belov's full-length Hemlock was a finalist in Kitchen Dog Theater's 2018 New Works Festival and semi-finalist for Playwrights Foundation's (PF) 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF). The Making of Medea's Medea was a semi-finalist in the PF 2018 BAPF. Both plays and Rice Kugel, My Visit to America, and Evil Fan have had staged readings at PCSF. His short plays and monologues have been produced across America and anthologized. Chas is a member of PCSF and the Dramatists Guild. Chas Belov's blog

7:30 p.m.
Shelton Theater (downstairs)
533 Sutter (btw. Powell and Mason)
San Francisco
$5-10 suggested donation/your discretion/members free


monday, April 1, 2019

By Blood
by Ed Brownson
Staged Reading
Directed by ShawnJ West

A straight Latina woman around 30 and a gay man around 40 discover what happens when the AIDS crisis goes from being a death sentence to being a chronic, manageable disease – for some.

Ed Brownson returned to writing for the theater in 2017 after a ten year absence. His plays have been produced in California, New York and Italy, with many developmental and staged readings along the way. His new full-length play, Misconceptions received a developmental reading from the Playwright Center of San Francisco in September 2018, and his short play Alexis Has The Room was part of the 2018 PCSF PlayOffs. He has studied playwriting at American Conservatory Theatre, Central Works Theater Company, Theater Artists' Conspiracy and at many informal venues.

7:30 p.m.
Shelton Theater (downstairs)
533 Sutter (btw. Powell and Mason)
San Francisco
$10-20 suggested donation/your discretion/members free


Monday, April 8, 2019

A Clean Well-Lighted Park Bench
by Patricia L. Morin

Staged Reading
Directed by Suzan Lorraine

Guilt ridden, sitting alone on a moonlit park bench, Saul wonders aloud, "Is tonight my night to finally die?" A park bench, under a flickering lamppost, entices its visitors to share their guilt, mainly lamenting to the moon. With threads of Waiting For Godot, Zoo Story, and I'm Not Rappaport, Octogenarian Saul shares his anguish about killing his nagging, loquacious wife. The shadow people who live in the park refuse to come into the light as Saul refuses to wander into the darkness.

Patricia L. Morin MA, LCSW, has four mystery, short-story collections published and is the President of the International Centre for Women Playwrights. She has had many short plays produced throughout the US and Canada. The Gatekeeper swept the Fringe of Marin awards, 2012, and was selected (2015) as one of the top plays in their twenty-five year history. A Clean Well-Lighted Park Bench was one of the short plays in PCSF's Sheherazade that won Best Anthology by Theatre Bay Area (2016). To read more about her work: Patricial Morin's website

7:30 p.m.
Shelton Theater (downstairs)
533 Sutter (btw. Powell and Mason)
San Francisco
$10-20 suggested donation/your discretion/members free


monday, April 15, 2019

Confusion's Masterpiece
by Rod McFadden
Staged Reading
Directed by Carol Eggers

Murder makes strange bedfellows. When PhD candidate Daniel is invited to Maxwell's house on a Sunday afternoon, he assumes that this university department head intends to offer him a position as a research assistant. But secrets soon emerge, and Daniel finds himself employed in something much more sinister – Maxwell's savage retribution for his wife's infidelity.

Rod McFadden began writing plays in 2009. Since then, his plays have been well-received by audiences of independent theatres in San Francisco and throughout the country. He has received awards in national playwriting competitions for his plays Love Birds, Getting the Message, and Counting on Love (which was also a Heideman award finalist). His work was chosen for the People's Choice award at the 2012 inspiraTO Festival in Toronto. One Monkey More or Less was chosen for publication in the Smith and Kraus' anthology, Best 10-Minute Plays of 2015. Rod serves on the Board of Directors for PCSF.

7:30 p.m.
Shelton Theater (downstairs)
533 Sutter (btw. Powell and Mason)
San Francisco
$10-20 suggested donation/your discretion/members free


Updated 3/24/2019