Reading Series History

Staged Readings

WingSpan produces one staged reading each year
of a new, unproduced play that fits our mission statement.  

History

THE CARPETBAGGERS CHILDREN
By Horton Foote.  Directed by Susan Sargeant
April 8 & 9, 2011
This reading was a part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Horton Foote Festival and was produced
in partnership with One-Thirty Productions.
Set in Horton Foote's fictional Harrison, Texas, the three remaining Thompson sisters spin the yarns of their family and an era.  Their father, a Union soldier, returned after the Civil War as a Carpetbagger, and amassed a twenty thousand acre plantation.  Preserving that plantation becomes the central issue of his daughters' lives.  Foote weaves his elegant blend of poignant and gentle humor throughout this tale of identity and destiny.
 

¡CENOTE!
By Isabelle Russell-Ides.  Directed by ElizaBeth Bontley.
April 15 & 16, 2010.
A magical realist Mayan adventure, a love story, a tale of the Meso-American rich  that jumps time between the present and an ancient past.  ¡CENOTE! is the sinkhole where the virgins jumped to their death or immortality, if the Ah Wahkán is to be believed.


 GOD GOLIATH
By Angela Wilson.  Directed by ElizaBeth Bontley.
April 9 & 10, 2009.
1920; Dr. Leopold Weiss and his X-ray machine vs his famous brother, Harry Houdini.
Machine vs Man, Medicine vs Magic.
Hanging in the balance:  the life or death of his patient, Mrs. Enid Churchill.

 10 :10
A screenplay by Vicki Caroline Cheatwood.  Directed by Gail Cronauer.
March 13th & 14th, 2008.
A dark comedy in which a mild mannered vocal teacher meets her
cowboy-dream-come-true at a wedding - her wedding!
10 :10, the relationship you'll never go back to; the sex you'll never forget.

 

 BLOODLETTERS
By Tom Sime.  Directed by Robin Armstrong.  March 16th & 17th, 2007.
 Comic . . .  Violent . . . A split-level thriller.  Where life and work converge upon a middle-aged horror fiction writer and her suburban family.
In 2008, The Modern Stage produced BLOODLETTERS at Teatro Dallas.

 

 ALL OF THE ABOVE
By Tom Sime.  Directed by Marianne Galloway.  March 23rd & 24th, 2006.
Comedy.  Tragedy.  Love Story.  Thriller.  All of the Above.  This funny and suspenseful play about a deaf-mute, philanthropist, her unstable translator, and the thief who comes between them.  All of the Above won the 2005 Peterson Emerging Playwright Competition at Catawba College in North Carolina; where the play received a student production in February 2006.
In 2007, Risk Theatre Initiative produced ALL OF THE ABOVE to open their new performance space.

 

 BRIDGE TO CHINA BASIN
By Barbara Macchia. Directed by Robin Armstrong.  April 21st & 22nd, 2005.
From  3rd Street in San Francisco, Bridge to China Basin carries us over a canal to an isolated peninsula, though a hole in a fence to an emcampment of the homeless:  Mary, Shelly, 'Crazy' Janey and Tweeker Tom.

 
 

 FEY
By Valerie Brogan Powell.  Directed by Matthew Tomlanovich.
February 20th & 21nd, 2004.
FEY: Marked by an otherworldly air or attitude; visionary; crazy; touched; doomed. Two sisters must decide if their mother's choice to live as the Queen of the Fairies makes them fairy pricesses or gives them power of attorney. 
In 2007, WingSpan produced this play as Sidhe for the FIT fest.
 
 

 TOUCH & GO
By Vicki Caroline Cheatwood. Directed by Beverly Jacob Daniel. February 20 & 21, 2003.
TOUCH & GO is a fast paced urban comedy about life, love and art! It explores the fluorescent world of the all-night diner.

 

 GEM OF THE HILLS
By Valerie Brogan Powell. Directed by Nicki Flacks. April 26 & 27, 2002.
GEM OF THE HILLS is a shocking story set in northeast Alabama. Based on the true crime tale of Marie Hilley - a journey of murder, deceit, a daughter's love and a mother's betrayal. The play explores the question: Do we ever really know anybody?

 

 TURNING FOR HOME
By Lexie LaBove. Directed by James Paul Lemons. October 19 & 20, 2001.
TURNING FOR HOME revolves around Richard Powell, an architect, suffering from a brain stem stroke and his wife Tess. As Tess struggles with the eminent death of her husband and what her world will be without him; Richard creates a world in which he can transmit his final tribute to the woman he loves and the legacy he wants to leave behind. Richard communicates with Tess in the only language left to him.