Williams Street Repertory's 2019 - 2020 Reading Series Season Announced

Williams Street Repertory, McHenry County's only professional theatre company, is excited to announce the 2019 - 2020 season of its newly rebranded Reading Series at Raue Center For The Arts. As a proud member of the Actors' Equity Association, WSRep rebranded its Reading Series following changes in the guidelines for new play developmental workshops set down by the association.

"One of the main objectives of the series has always been audience development," says actor, director and WSRep Ensemble Member, Michele Vazquez, who will be at the helm of the newly rebranded series as program manager and will also direct the first reading of the season. "We want to share with our patrons a more immediate and intimate look at how actors, directors, and playwrights approach work on the page so we can foster an appreciation for new work," she continues. "New work requires courage. Courage to make it. Courage to share it. And courage to take a chance on seeing it and hearing it. We want to create a safe space for playwrights to hear their work so they can reach the next stage of their process."

WSRep's Reading Series, formerly LAB Series, is dedicated to showcasing new scripts and fostering new talent while also sharing the artist's perspective of the play-on-the-page with the audience. The goal of the series is to offer the local community a free public forum which brings audiences and theatre artists together to share and discuss a wide range of exciting work. Each reading is followed by a talkback and discussion.

WSRep kicks off the 2019 - 2020 Reading Series season with Reina Hardy's play for all ages, "Annie Jump and the Library of Heaven" on May 13, 2019. Annie Jump is a 13-year-old science genius whose alien-obsessed father is the laughingstock of Strawberry, Kansas. One night, a meteor falls, and Annie meets Althea, an intergalactic supercomputer that manifests itself in the form of a mean girl with really great hair.

The season continues with George Sapio's "Viking Suicides" on July 8, 2019. A Viking-themed teenage group suicide attempt sparks a series of events leading to the formation of a women's refuge society with dubious goals. Society observes and reacts, not always intelligently, and a well-meaning yet eminently clueless father must find a way to get back to his now-famous daughter by whatever means possible.

WSRep's Reading Series then presents "Love in Bahia" by Alan Kilpatrick on September 9, 2019. Fleeing her past as a nurse's aide at a nursing home in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Sissy Thorton visits her ex-lover, Darla, who's living in a trailer park in West Texas with her ex-husband Earl. Sissy hopes to rekindle their former romance as well as find refuge from her troubled past. But things get nasty when the topic turns to stolen jewelry and some elderly patients who died under mysterious circumstances at the retirement home where both Sissy and Darla were employed.

Sheila Cowley's "The Burlesque Astronomy Play" on November 11, 2019. Andi is an astronomer trying to find a way off this planet when she meets Cal, an artist thoroughly enjoying Earth. As they tangle with connections and clashes between art and science, Andi starts investigating her femininity the only way she knows how - through the scientific process.

The season continues with "Bullets, Nickels, Dimes, And Life" by Jeremy Kehoe on January 13, 2020. Five homeless people find themselves "doing time" - serving their bullet, nickel, dime and life sentences not behind bars but out in the bright sunlight - while attempting to survive their new reality and maintain their individual and collective humanity in the midst of their open-air prison.

WSRep rounds out its 2019 - 2020 Reading Series season with "Want Baby Badly" on March 16, 2020. In this play by Stacey Lane, a pregnant college student must decide which of three siblings will adopt their dead brother's baby.

WSRep's Reading Series is held select Mondays at 7 p.m. at Raue Center. All readings are free and open to the public! Come for the reading and stay for a discussion afterward. The new play reading of today may become the mainstage production of tomorrow! For more information, please visit wsrep.org.

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