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Alley Stage Reading Series
Announcing Our 2023 Series: May 26 | June 24 | July 29 | September 16
For the third season of the Alley Stage Reading Series, we received our largest submission pool yet, and were excited to read work from playwrights from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa. The Alley Stage series highlights the voices of Midwestern writers, focusing on the creative ecosystem of the Driftless Area, and provides a unique opportunity for playwrights to share their works-in-progress and receive valuable feedback with a staged reading and talkback session. We’re thankful to our readers Coleman, Heather Harris, Kurt McGinnis Brown, and Marcia Jablonski, who selected this year’s plays.
Join us at Shake Rag Alley for our third staged-reading series featuring original plays in progress on our intimate outdoor theater, Alley Stage. Besides being fun to watch, a staged reading is an important way a playwright can get important feedback from an audience (you!) and determine their next steps with the script.
At 4 pm, the actors and moderator will take the stage with their scripts. Following the performance, we’ll have a talkback session to share your feedback with the playwright.
Enjoy a post-reading cocktail reception on the Art Cafe patio where you can mix and mingle with the playwright and cast against the background of music performed by local musicians.
In the event of inclement weather, we will move to the Lind Pavilion or Sardeson Studio.
This year, we’re excited to share a play-in-progress from our series artistic director (and Mineral Point’s own!) Marcia Jablonski as part of the World Premiere Wisconsin festival presented by the Ten Chimneys Foundation. Running March through June, the state-wide theater festival celebrating plays and musicals across the state, from fully produced major productions, to readings and plays in progress, to regional and community theater. The festival’s goals include building relationships between theaters, raising awareness of theater in the state, and encouraging the production of new plays.
2023 Alley Stage Reading Series Performances
Enjoy select Saturday afternoons at Shake Rag Alley for our third staged-reading series featuring original plays in progress on our intimate outdoor theater, Alley Stage. Besides being fun to watch, a staged reading is an important way a playwright can get important feedback from an audience (you!) and determine what their next steps are with the script.
What to expect:
- 4 pm: The actors and moderator will take the stage with their scripts.
- Talkback: Stay after the play and share your feedback with the playwright.
- Reception: Mix and mingle with the playwright and cast at a post-reading cocktail reception on the Art Cafe patio.
- Rain or Shine: In the event of inclement weather, we will move to the Lind Pavilion or Sardeson Studio.
- Interested in joining a cast of one of this year’s readings, or performing music at a post-reading reception? Please complete our form by clicking here!
Marcia Jablonski
The Last Hotel
4 pm Friday, May 26
Followed by a talkback session & reception as part of the World Premiere Wisconsin festival
Synopsis: While waiting out a blizzard in a luxury hotel, an art student, her professor, and a hotel employee are trying to determine how much intervention they should act on with the street artist they are trying to keep safe from the storm.
Bio: Marcia Jablonski lives in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Her produced works include The Front Steps, Rumors of Truth, The Great Jimmy Boyle, and A New Voice in Politics. Her awards include Wisconsin Wrights New Play Project, New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest, NYC; Elizabeth George Foundation Grant for Emerging Playwrights; and New Works Development Residency, Madison. She is currently an artistic director at Shake Rag Alley, where she conceived of and helps produce the annual Alley Stage Reading Series. Marcia is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. Her children’s book, All of You, is being published in 2023.
Scott Strom
And a Belle’s Merry Reign
4 pm Saturday, June 24
Followed by a talkback session & reception
Synopsis: Mary and Raine are twins who have switched places so many times that they can no longer remember who is who. When a young woman named Annabelle arrives claiming to be Mary’s daughter, the twins must discover who is the true mother.
Bio: Scott Strom (they/them) is a queer writer from Chicago with a BA in Writing for Performance (Playwriting) and Creative Writing (Poetry) from Columbia College Chicago. They are the author of the chapbook god’s afterdrips (published by Fjords), and their work has been featured in Barrow Street, peculiar: a queer literary journal, Sleet Magazine, Rattle, A-Minor Magazine, SAND, and Into the Void.
Website: scottstrom.com
Instagram: @scotty.strom
Brian James Polak
News for the Deaf Man
4 pm Saturday, July 29
Followed by a talkback session & reception
Synopsis: Having reached rock bottom, Harry reconnects with his estranged artist father. When the old man’s health appears in decline, Harry is caught between cashing in his famous father’s art in order to save himself, and reconciling their long-ago destroyed relationship.
Bio: Brian James Polak lives in Madison and is an award-winning playwright born and raised in New Hampshire. His plays have been presented at venues around the country, and have been published by Smith & Kraus, Talon Review, Commonplace Books, NoPassport Press, Next Stage Press, and Canyon Voices. Brian is the producer and host of American Theatre magazine’s “The Subtext,” a podcast about what makes playwrights tick. He earned his MFA in Dramatic Writing from the University of Southern California.
Twitter & Instagram: @bejaypea
Nina Kissinger
This Is Government
4 pm Saturday, Sept. 16
Followed by a talkback session & reception
Synopsis: After a bomb threat places all congressional buildings on lockdown, three summer interns find themselves stuck in the one place no one has ever wanted to work overtime: the U.S. government. As the crisis unfolds and their snack supply runs out, they question what power, if any, they have in this increasingly unstable system. Nina Kissinger’s new dark comedy, This Is Government, grapples with the real-time consequences of political disarray.
Bio: Nina Kissinger is a playwright originally from San Francisco and now based in Chicago. Her short play The Exit Interview was a winner of Vertigo Production’s 2022 10-Minute Play Festival and the Over Our Head Players’ 2023 Snowdance 10-Minute Comedy Festival. Her full-length work, This Is Government, was a winner of the 2022 Agnes Nixon Playwriting Festival. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied playwriting under Laura Schellhardt and Julie Marie Myatt.
Instagram: @ninakissinger
2022 Season Performances
Our second season of staged readings was made possible in part by a grant from the Mineral Point Community Foundation and featured Afternoon Tea with homemade Cornish tea biscuits made by Dodge Baker of Mineral Point. Many thanks to the playwrights, cast members, musicians, and volunteers who participated in 2022!
Greg Minster
Charlie, Chastening Darwin
Marnie Bullock Dresser
Western Swing
with Afternoon Tea music by Nath Dresser
Deb Meyer
The Whole Shebang
with Afternoon Tea music by Shekinah King
Deanna Strasse
Write You Down
with Afternoon Tea music by Amanda Zasada
2021 Season Performances
Our inaugural season of staged readings, A Picnic & A Play, was made possible in part by a grant from the Mineral Point Community Foundation. Many thanks to the playwrights, cast members, musicians, volunteers, and Mineral Point restaurants who participated in 2021!
Marcia Jablonski
Occam’s Razor
with picnic music by
Driftless Standard Time
Brendon Smith
Step Two
with picnic music by
Kurt Kieffer
Jan Levine Thal
Cassandra’s Gift
with picnic music by
The Firesides
Kurt McGinnis Brown
Love or Forever?
with picnic music by
Libby Dunn
Bob Curry
Shelter
with picnic music by
Don Greenwood
