THEATER THURSDAYS
NEW PLAY READING SERIES
An integral part of Silverthorne Theater Company’s mission is to promote the development of new work, especially by Western Massachusetts and New England playwrights. In 2018, we staged the world premieres of three new works, two of which were from such writers.
In 2019 we offer a series of rehearsed readings of new or new to us plays, followed by audience discussions. These will be held in different locations in the region. The readings are free and open to the public.
The purpose of the readings is to give a platform for new work to be heard, and when possible, to be able to give playwrights direct audience feedback. It also gives Silverthorne a look at plays that we might consider fully producing in future seasons.
Thursday, March 21 MOTHER, MAY I, by Dylan Brody
7 pm 12 Federal Street, Greenfield
A witty tale of longstanding intergenerational misunderstanding. A well-off older Boston couple Ellen & Paul Grunman spend most of their son Daniel’s rare visit home failing to discover the truth about his life in Los Angeles. They are equally obtuse about their grown daughter’s dreams & sexual preference. – will the blinders come off before it’s too late? Directed by David Rowland.
Thursday, April 18 SANDWICH, by Steve Henderson*
7 pm 170 Main St, Greenfield
- The playwright will attend the reading.
Three women, three generations, three sets of problems, one house – a recipe for flying sparks! Directed by Brianna Sloane
Thursday, May 16 RESTORATION ROOM, by Harley Erdman*
7 pm UMass Theater Department, Room 204
- The playwright will attend the reading.
Two academics, each married to someone else, struggle to resist the power of their mutual intellectual & physical attraction. Directed by Chris Rohmann
Thursday, June 13 DEAR GALILEO, by Claire Willett
7 pm 170 Main Street, Greenfield
Three women in three different times wrestle with their identity, the conflict between science and religion, and what it means to be their fathers’ daughters…. As the three stories move toward their point of convergence, the destinies of each become inextricably bound with the others, linked through time by love, family, grief, the search for identity and the wonder of the stars. Directed by Rebecca Daniels
Thursday, September 12 CAMPUS UNREST, by Talya Kingston*
7 pm Location TBA
- The playwright will attend the reading.
Complex choices face an inter-racial British academic couple newly arrived on the campus of a troubled American college. Directed by Trenda Loftin
Sunday, October 13 VERITAS, by Betty Shamieh
3 pm Deerfield Community Center
In the 1660s Harvard College’s governors insisted that Native American youths be trained at the College as Christian ministers to be able to convert their tribes to Christianity. This play explores the lives of the first four of these early converts and the attitudes at the time toward them. Post-show discussion led by historians & members of local Native American communities. Director TBA
Guidelines for playwrights regarding unsolicited manuscripts
Silverthorne Theater Company (STC) is the resident theatre company at Hawks & Reed in downtown Greenfield, MA, and our mission is “to present adventurous thought-provoking theatrical experiences, including productions of new and classic work, for audiences of all kinds and diverse populations” (for full mission statement: https://silverthornetheater.org/mission/).
We welcome new scripts and have produced several new plays in our six years of existence, but we have some very real limitations. Please read our guidelines and requirements thoroughly before submitting your play.
At STC, we currently have two ways we work with new plays.
This year, STC initiated a season of rehearsed readings of plays new to us that have not yet been fully produced. This program is still in its early stages, and we have great hopes for the success of our first season, which started with its first reading in March 2019. Though we give priority to regional artists, we accept submissions from playwrights across the country and abroad [in English only, please]. Plays for the 2019 reading series have already been selected, so any plays submitted specifically for this series will not be considered until planning begins for 2020. We hope to post submission deadlines for the 2020 reading series by the summer of 2019.
We have, on occasion, produced new plays as part of our main season. The determination of the suitability of a particular play for this kind of consideration is entirely at the discretion of the Literary Manager, in consultation with the Producing Artistic Director.
Production Guidelines:
Our performance space is small and not a traditional theatre space [no wings, limited backstage, used for other events and must retain its multipurpose character], so we are limited in our technical abilities and unable to support major technical requirements.
Due to our limitations, we can only consider new plays that require no more than eight actors [reasonable doubling included].
Our audience is sophisticated and used to challenging and thought-provoking theatre that’s also tasteful and does not include gratuitous shock elements.
Requirements for Submission:
If you wish to submit a play to STC, please send the casting requirement and the first twenty pages of your manuscript as a single document (e-file) to the STC Literary Manager at stcliterarymanager@gmail.com. Please also include the following information with your sample pages in a single separate document:
Playwright’s biography or resume (maximum two pages)
Production history of the play (if any)
Play synopsis and theme(s)
How you believe your play meets STC’s stated goals