From Page to Stage...
Our Play Reading Series features original works by new playwrights as well as optional talk back sessions immediately following. The series will hold readings twice per year. Plays are selected by a reading committee and cast with both local and out-of-town actors.
The readings are open to the public for a voluntary cash donation of any amount. This will be used to cover printing and advertising costs. There is no signed seating...we are aiming for a laid back and casual evening at the theatre listening to new works and offering feedback. Our bar and concession area will be open during the evening.
Please join us for a relaxing night at the theatre supporting new playwrights!
2023 Selections
Waiting for Fair
by F.J. Hartland
March 22nd at 7:00 pm
“Waiting for Fair” is absolutely delightful and hilariously clever. As the play builds it goes from witty to laugh-out-loud, tears-down-the-cheek funny.
As it skids along on the cusp of farce, two couples and a single man and woman trade rapid-fire dialogue and staccato phrases that clearly define their relationships and similar viewpoints while ostensibly focusing on whether the single friends, whom one of the others set up, will or won’t have sex, and then what happens to the pair and among the group after they do.
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At first it seems that clever is all the play will be. But soon we realize that those early scenes are effective set-ups for everything that comes later as the characters, in differing pairings and settings, get fleshed-out, and the humor develops into huge laughs that had my wife alarmed."
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~Barry Weinberg CT Play Reading Committee
Women of a Certain Age
by Steve Duprey
May 24th at 7:00 pm
When four college friends, now in their sixties, discover that one of them has been “gifted” with an abandoned baby, they try to figure out what’s next; for the mother, for the baby, and for the four of them. Utilizing the often ignored “older woman” demographic, the play examines the themes of lasting friendships, older female empowerment and the current adoption system. It is a character-driven comedy with some bawdy language and an interesting twist at the end.
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"I really enjoyed reading this. I feel that it has a
strong story line that is defined and driven by very good dialogue. I enjoyed the uniqueness of
the dilemma the characters find themselves in and how it exposes the depth of the friendship
shared between the four main characters."
~Steve Cairns, CT Play Reading Committee
How to Submit
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Our play reading series is open to playwrights all over the world; however, we do give special focus to Maryland playwrights. If you would like to submit your play for consideration, please email it in PDF form to kim@cumberlandtheatre.com
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Thanks to this year's
Play Reading Committee
Steve Cairns
Heather Wallen
Barry Weinberg
Interested in being on our 2024 play reading committee?
Email kim@cumberlandtheatre.com and be a part of theatre!
Poolside
by Chad Marriott
September 20th at 7:00 pm
The play follows a man and woman's relationship in snapshots over several major
milestones at a fellow classmate’s ‘pool party.’
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"Unique setting....could benefit from being read aloud...potentially interesting play."
~Heather Wallen, CT Play Reading Committee