Rep @ Home with What’s in a Play?

Are you a passionate play reader? Or perhaps you’d like to be? Then please join us for What’s in a Play? where we read a script and come together to talk about it online. The free conversations take place via Zoom on Mondays at 6:30pm and 8pm, and on Tuesdays at noon and 1:30pm. The playwright is not present.

The conversation is free, but the plays usually need to be purchased, which helps put some money in the pockets of playwrights at a time when many of their productions have been canceled or postponed.

Invites to What’s in a Play? go out every Monday or Tuesday, two weeks in advance of the conversation. Want to get one? Join our email list and choose “What’s in a Play” on the Update Your Interests tab. If you’re already on our email list, log in and select “What’s in a Play.”

Upcoming conversations

Register for a session, then purchase and read the play before your discussion. Each session is limited to 35 participants. Registration for each week is separate, so you can register for all the upcoming sessions, or just one.

• March 1–2 · Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel
• March 8–9 · Jitney by August Wilson
• March 15–16 · Oedipus el Rey by Luis Alfaro
• March 22–23 · Detroit by Lisa D’Amour
• March 29–30 · Yoga Play by Dipika Guha

What’s in a Play? archive

Here’s a list of plays we’ve discussed so far. Click the play title to purchase a copy online—you’ll be supporting the playwrights during this challenging time.

• February 22–23 · Guards at the Taj by Rajiv Joseph
• February 8–9 · A Boy and His Soul by Colman Domingo
• February 1–2 · Our Lady of 121st Street by Stephen Adly Guirgis
• January 25–26 · The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe
• January 11–12 · Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks
• January 4–5 · August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
• December 21–22 · She Loves Me by Joe Masteroff, Jerry Bock, and Sheldon Harnick
• December 14–15 · Bulrusher by Eisa Davis
• December 7–8 · A Bright Room Called Day by Tony Kushner
• November 30–December 1 · Caught by Christopher Chen
• November 16–17 · The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse
• November 9–10 · Our Town by Thornton Wilder
• October 26–27 · Ghost Quartet by Dave Malloy
• October 19–20 · Lydia by Octavio Solis
• October 12–13 · King of the Yees by Lauren Yee
• October 5–6 · Machinal by Sophie Treadwell
• September 28–29 · Hir by Taylor Mac
• September 21–22 · Familiar by Danai Gurira
• September 14–15 · Fefu and Her Friends by María Irene Fornés
• August 31–September 1 · Marie Antoinette by David Adjmi
• August 24–25 · Bright Half Life by Tanya Barfield
• August 17–18 · Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz
• August 10–11 · The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz
• August 3–4 · Mad Forest by Caryl Churchill
• July 27–28 · Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage
• July 20–21 · Cost of Living by Martyna Majok
• July 13–14 · Golden Child by David Henry Hwang
• July 6–7 · Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith
• June 29–30 · Marisol by José Rivera
• June 22–23 · In the Red and Brown Water by Tarell Alvin McCraney · We encourage people to purchase this play through Marcus Books in Oakland (local phone orders only: 510 652–2344)
• June 8–9 · The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (free to read online)
• June 1–2 · The Language Archive by Julia Cho
• May 25–26 · Uncle Vanya translated by Annie Baker from Anton Chekhov
• May 18 · Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
• May 4 · A Doll’s House translated by Paul Walsh from Henrik Ibsen (not available for purchase)
• April 27 · How to Transcend a Happy Marriage by Sarah Ruhl