Play Reading

Monday, September 9th - 7pm

Raft of the Medusa is a full-length drama by Joe Pintauro. A young woman joins an HIV positive support group for the first time and learns that what ties them together also tears them apart. Raft of the Medusa is a taut, deeply powerful drama that presents a microcosm of those affected by AIDS in the earlier days of the crisis through the device of a diverse therapy group clashing, confronting, and comforting each other as they work through their emotions about their devastating diagnosis.Raft of the Medusa takes place 10 years into the AIDS epidemic, centering on a weekly support group session of people living with AIDS, where the members discover the disease they share can divide as effectively as it conquers. The members of the group are a diverse lot, including homosexuals, heterosexuals and bisexuals, conservatives and liberals, black, white and Hispanic, rich and poor. Some of them are philosophical, some are angry, and some resigned. As the evening's discussion progresses they discover that one members may not be really infected and is actually there to expose them and what happens when the group finds out will not only shock but make you see the fear that gripped the world during these early days of the disease.

Directed by Ben Alexander

A Q&A will follow the reading

Monday, October 7th - 7pm

You Know I Can't Hear You
When The Water's Running

 THE SHOCK OF RECOGNITION breaks in on a difference of opinion between…an earnest young dramatist and…his strongly opinionated producer, who is apalled by the opening moment of the play. A wife is having breakfast in bed and she says something to her husband, who is in the bathroom. So he comes out, jaybird naked, and yells to her. 'You know I can't hear you when the water's running.' The producer doesn't think this confrontation is quite nice or necessary. The author insists that the scene is quite important—and, after all, it lasts only an instant. So a quarrel over taste develops, and a job-hunting actor…becomes involved. He eagerly begins to strip, demonstrating how he would handle the role. Also involved is…the producer's secretary…THE FOOTSTEPS OF DOVES shows us a couple who, wed twenty-five years, come to a store to pick out a new bed or beds. Should they buy twin beds or a double? They don't get much sales effort from the bored salesman who obviously wishes he was somewhere else - comes along a young, attractive, aloof young lady…who wants a big bed because she is all alone. I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS maintains the light humor of the first two, but at base it is serious and touching as it shows [grandparents] discussing the sex education of their almost-adult grandchildren, a girl and boy. [The grandfather] is quite moving when he learns in a letter that his grandson is cutting adrift from the parental harbor. For a windup there is I'M HERBERT about two old, old people sitting on a porch in a pair of rocking chairs and talking. Just talking—and of course they don't know how funny they are. Each has had one or more previous marriages and perhaps a few flings, but they are hazy as to details. In fact, they don't always know which one the other one is.

By Robert Anderson

Directed by Michele Coppolino

A Q&A may follow the reading

Monday, November 4th - 7pm

EXTREMITIES

Marjorie is home alone when Raul enters through her unlocked door and attempts to attack and rape her. The tables turn when Marjorie is able to subdue Raul and keep him tied up in her fireplace. When Terry and Patricia, Marjorie's roommates, come home, they are shocked and begin discussing how to handle the situation: call the police or take matters into their own hands?

By William Mastrosimone

Directed by Michael Tota

A Q&A may follow the reading