Spring 2008 Reading Series
Produced by Jan Carty Marsh and Sara Staley

April 8

For All The Babies’ Fathers
By Molly Rhodes*
Directed by Laley Lippard

For All The Babies’ Fathers follows the story of Henry, a middle-aged man who discovers his ex-girlfriend is expecting a child he doesn’t want. Henry doesn’t know how to face and accept what’s happened and who he has become. His journey to find answers brings him up against a world that also struggles to face and accept him.

Molly Rhodes’ play For All the Babies’ Fathers had its first staged reading at Magic Theatre, where Molly coordinates the literary committee and oversees the development of dramaturgy for Magic’s productions. Molly’s play Your Money Is Safe was developed in the 2006 Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Molly received the 2007 PlayGround Fellowship, to create and develop her play The Singularity of We as part of their 2008 Best of Festival.

* TBA 2008 Up and Coming Playwright

April 22

Brothers and Blood
By Stephen Halasz
Directed by Jon Wai‑keung Lowe

Nick, a young grand prix motorcycle racer, has been badly injured in an accident. Now he wants to make a comeback. Nick’s brother, a manager at Nick’s corporate sponsor, thinks Nick is a self-destructive prima donna. The corporation just thinks he’s crazy. Along with an unconventional psychologist unwittingly appointed by the corporation, Nick’s family and colleagues grapple with issues of loyalty, mortality, and how to live a meaningful life in this original play by San Francisco playwright Stephen Halasz.

Stephen Halasz is a former working cowboy, motorcycle racer, climber and pilot. He now spends his free time writing and surfing waves not over knee high. Stephen keeps the wolf from the door by laboring as general counsel at Synergenics, LLC, which finances and operates a portfolio of biotechnology companies.

April 29

The Trinity Test
By Carolina Rojas Moretti

After waking up from a suicide attempt, Paloma understands that she has been given a second chance at life. Without another thought, she embarks on a search that leads her to an undistinguished small town, where she hopes she’ll be able to right all her countless wrongs. She instead finds herself in an act so unspeakable that she is left to assume only one thing...

Carolina Rojas Moretti has been an actor in Bay Area theatre for over six years. Currently, she is the Artistic Director of The Lighthouse Troupe, a social outreach group that offers improvisation workshops locally and internationally. She holds a BA in Spanish Literature from the University of California, Irvine.

May 20

1983
By Richard Ciccarone

1983 is the journey backwards of a man who has made a complete mess of his life through a series of terrible choices, all of which lead him to live on the grounds of a Renaissance Fair well past the period of a person’s life when that can be “cool.” Peter is jettisoned back to 1983 so that he can warn his younger, more innocent self of the dangers of life. Peter the Younger realizes, much to his disappointment, that his Elder self is just not very bright and has made decisions even the dumbest among us would have avoided. Can his younger self help Peter the Elder become a better person and eventually stop living in the past?

Richard Ciccarone has written in numerous mediums ranging from copywriting for Nike, Hewlett Packard and Sony to the short-lived children’s television series “You Can Kids” which was promptly sold to a Mexican television production company and renamed “Tu Puedes.” Richard wrote and directed his first play The American Gallery which premiered in San Francisco and was then produced at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He is a frequent contributor to Theatre Bay Area Magazine and has had several humorous fiction pieces published in various magazines around the country. Richard is currently the writer and producer of Funny But Mean, a sketch comedy group that appears both in New York and San Francisco.

June 3

Main Entry
By Beth Soloway
Directed by Andy Hamner

G.M. records her life on catalog cards. She keeps the cards locked in a large wooden library catalog. Her partner Jason resents her secrecy. An afternoon visit from Jason’s aunt and her new partner, evolves into an epiphany about trust, not just for G.M., but for everyone.

Beth Soloway started writing plays out of her concern with the lack of good women’s stage roles. At San Francisco State University where she received a Masters in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing, she won the prestigious Lawrence and Lee Playwriting Award for her stage play Breathing. Her novel, The Great Deception, won Southwest Writers Contest 2004 in the History, Romance and Western novel categories.

June 17

Widow West
By Morgan Ludlow
Directed by Marilyn Langbehn

It’s 1852 and San Francisco is in the throes of Gold Fever. Billy, a naive prospector, is trying to make his fortune. In a city of 50,000 men all clobbering each other to get ahead, how does a young man on his own survive? By becoming a woman of course!

Morgan has had plays performed or read at the Eureka Theatre, the Exit Theatre, the Off Market Theatre in San Francisco, City Lights Theatre in San Jose, Gaia Performing Arts Center in Berkeley, Ross Valley Players in Marin County, The Pegasus Theatre in Monte Rio and at the Interborough Rep in New York City. He most recently served as the Producing Director for the Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco. Morgan has taught acting and playwriting for the University of Utah’s Theatre School for Youth. He is a member of Theatre Bay Area, The Play Cafe and The Dramatists Guild of America.