spring 2017 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.

Note: The reading originally scheduled for March 20 has been moved to April 17.


March 27, 2017

The Flora and Fauna
by Alyson Mead
Developmental Reading

The Flora and Fauna was inspired by a single line from the famous letter read in court during the Stanford rape case. What comes after a sexual assault - how might one's daily, mundane life be affected; who might one choose to hang out with; and how may intimacy play a part in that, or not? How would a friendship between two women change over time?

Alyson Mead studied at Yale, the Slade School of Art, NYU 's Tisch School of the Arts and with iO West, UCB and Tectonic Theatre Project. Her award-winning plays have been staged at La MaMa, St. Mark's Church, 8BC, Pasadena Playhouse, Venus Theatre, the Other Space, the Hudson, Atwater Village Theater, Sacred Fools and the Lilllian, among others. She was recently awarded residencies and fellowships at Ragdale, Can Serrat and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, and was a finalist for the Kenneth Branagh Award for New Dramatic Writing.

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


April 3, 2017

Life & Death: Recent Short Plays
by Vonn Scott Bair
Developmental Reading

A collection of short plays dealing with the subject of life & death. Mostly death. Mostly comedies.

Vonn Scott Bair is an actor, playwright, screenwriter, and amateur cookie baker based in San Francisco, California, with 30 productions of his scripts to his credit.

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


April 17, 2017

The Making of Medea's Medea
by Chas Belov
Directed by Radhika Rao
Staged Reading

The Making of Medea's Medea documents the production of Medea's modern-day retelling of her own story of revenge. We meet Medea, Jason, and the actors that play them and their loves and children, and the people behind the scenes. And we are there when things go wrong. Very wrong. A one-act mockumentary.

Chas Belov's full-length plays Rice Kugel, Hemlock, My Visit to America, and Evil Fan 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 and monologue "My Room" have been anthologized. Chas is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Theatre Bay Area (ATLAS playwright). Visit Chas's playwriting blog.

Featuring: Miyoko Sakatani, Mark Novak, Nicole Martin, Ely Sonny Orquiza, Iris Stone, Laurie Strawn, Richard Wenzel, Wayne Wong

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


April 24, 2017

Billings
by Robert Wilder Blue
Directed by Wesley Cayabyab
Staged Reading

An aspiring New York actor returns home to Billings, Montana, for his grandmother's seventy-fifth birthday.

Robert Wilder Blue is a San Francisco writer and social worker. Billings is his second play.

Featuring: Ed Kimak, Laurie Strawn, Matthew Weinberg, Alex Mechanic, Alicia Bales,Sam Cohen, Christine Sheppard

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


May 1, 2017

Ordinary Day
by Lorraine T Midanik
Directed by Laylah Muran de Assereto
Staged Reading

Maggie and Henry's long-term marriage struggles because of the challenges of Henry's Alzheimer's disease. From his continuous middle-of-the-night calls to plumbers because the "toilet is talking" to Henry's inability to be left alone, Maggie continues to be a supportive partner despite its impact on her physical and emotional health. Maggie and Henry have made a pact to allow him to die on his own terms when Henry can no longer remember Maggie's name. That time arrives, on an ordinary day.

Lorraine Midanik's recent productions include Boy Imagined (ReproRights), Freedom of Speech (PianoFight), Sparse Pubic Hair (PCSF's Sheherezade's Last Tales Festival), Branding (SF Theater Pub); Are We There Yet? (PCSF's 24-hour Festival), Misunderstandings and Lack Thereof (Fringe of Marin); and, The Revolution (PianoFight). Clinic Interruptus (PCSF) and Ordinary Day (Central Works) had developmental readings in 2016. Lorraine is a member of PCSF, TBA (ATLAS playwright), the Dramatists Guild, The International Centre for Women Playwrights, and Stagebridge.

Featuring: Annette Oliveira, Gino Rose, Renee Rogoff, Nancy Sans, Alicia Bales, Madison Worthington

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


May 8, 2017

The Melting Pot
by Carol S Lashof
Developmental Reading

A Jewish immigrant boy falls in love with a Christian immigrant girl - only to discover that her father is the villain of his nightmares. What could be a more American love story? Only, perhaps, the story of America's love affair with the "melting pot" ideal. Can a metaphor hold a divided nation together?

Carol S. Lashof is Cofounder and Playwright-in-Residence of Those Women Productions in Berkeley, California. Her plays have been broadcast on BET and NPR and staged on five continents-from the Magic Theatre in San Francisco to Peking University in Beijing. Her publications include several scripts for teens available from YouthPLAYS, as well as work in numerous anthologies. Carol holds a PhD from Stanford University and is Professor Emerita at Saint Mary's College of California.

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


May 22, 2017

23 Renoirs, 12 Picassos, . . . one Domenica
by Myles A Garcia
Directed by Don Hardwick
Staged Reading

Discover the shocking secret behind one of the biggest scandals little known outside France, behind one of Paris' most treasured private art collections.

Myles A. Garcia is a Correspondent for Positively Filipino. where his sports articles have won the PAPC's Plaridel Prize for Best Sports Story two years in a row. He has authored two non-fiction books: "Secrets of the Olympic Ceremonies" (published 2010), and most recently, "Thirty Years Later . . . Catching Up with the Marcos-Era Crimes" (pub. 2016). Myles has also written two articles for The Journal of the International Society of Olympic Historians and was a "talking-head expert" in a documentary about the London 2012 Olympic flame, shown in the Hungarian broadcast market.

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