Developmental play readings are free, with tickets required. For sold-out events, a stand-by line will open 90 minutes before the start time. All tickets not picked up by 15 minutes before each event will be released to the stand-by line. (Note: All readings take place in the Round House Theatre event room.)
Jennifer, Who is Leaving
Written and directed by Morgan Gould
APR 28 & 30, 2022
Nan is working the night shift, fielding periodic calls from her retired husband with questions about reheating dinner and where his car keys are. Jennifer is trying to tune out Joey, her elderly patient who is relishing getting on her last nerve. And Lili is stressing out about her upcoming SATs. Set in a Dunkin Donuts on the side of a Massachusetts highway,
Jennifer, Who is Leaving is a profoundly relatable exploration of the expectations placed on women; the physical, mental, and emotional labor of being a caregiver; and what happens when we reach our breaking point.
RESERVE TICKETS
On the Far End
By Mary Kathryn Nagle
Directed by Laurie Woolery
APR 29 & MAY 1, 2022
Muscogee leader Ella Jean Hill traces her family’s history from the Trail of Tears to her grandfather’s allotment in central Oklahoma. In an astonishing one-woman play, she shares her story—the Native boarding school she fled on foot, her marriage to a young Bengali scholar, and the advocacy that became her life’s work. With
On the Far End, a reference to the landmark 2020 Supreme Court opinion in
McGirt v. Oklahoma that upheld the sovereignty of the Muscogee territories, one of America’s leading playwrights (
Sovereignty;
Manahatta) weaves a deeply personal account of one family—her own mother-in-law’s—and a legacy of broken promises between nations.
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Adia and Clora Snatch Joy
Written and directed by Mfoniso Udofia
Music by Nehemiah Luckett and Mfoniso Udofia
MAY 5 & 7, 2022
Mfoniso Udofia’s sprawling “Ufot Cycle,” a multi-generational, nine-play meditation on American immigration through the story of one Nigerian family, concludes in a warm, lively musical tale of love, fellowship, and destiny. Adiaha Ufot, eldest daughter of Abasiama Ufot, travels to South Carolina in search of a man who knew her mother in her final years. Instead, she finds Clora, a house that looks strangely familiar, and a chorus of spirit ancestors who bring the story to life. Together, the two women reconcile their individual pasts and imagine new ways forward.
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Madre de Dios
By Marvin González De León
Directed by Ricky Ramón
MAY 6 & 8, 2022
Following years of estrangement, Moisés returns to his mother’s home in the Nevada desert for his sister’s wake, reuniting with his twin brother Noé and his devout mother Marisol. Against a post-environmental-apocalyptic landscape where mysterious supernatural forces loom, old grudges are revisited and long-held secrets are revealed in a new play—part family drama, part biblical myth—by Mexican-American playwright Marvin González De León.
RESERVE TICKETS
The National Capital New Play Festival Developmental Reading Series is sponsored by Clare Evans, with additional support from The RPM Fund.