Growing our Greenhouse Play Reading Series

Now in its third season, our Play Reading Series has seen a lot of growth.

Its popularity has allowed us to expand from one night of a title, to two; and update our ticketing system from a generic online form (that, if you know you know, sometimes wasn’t able to handle all of our reservations) to an improved seat selection model. Don’t worry, with all these updates we still offer a relaxed evening with free tickets to each performance.

Also new this season, starting with VEAL, every reading will have Open Captioning! We heard from a lot of audience members that they love the reading series for its accessibility, and we are so excited to continue to make the series more accessible and welcoming!

With all this excitement about our Greenhouse Play Reading Series, we are often asked if we will be doing full productions of the plays that we produce as play readings. 

The answer is: Potentially! But that is not the main purpose of the readings.

Play readings give us a lot of freedom to do scripts that we love but that we are unable to do right now, often for financial reasons. However, doing scaled-down readings of these dynamic scripts provide us with a lot of flexibility.

So, why did we choose these scripts in particular?

VEAL by Jojo Jones

VEAL focuses on a very specific group that has had to grow up quickly and has often been the subject of derision and scrutiny – the young woman. The epic world of school-age horror and casual violence is laid bare in this play for all its ugliness while being wickedly funny. One of the best gifts that we can give our audiences is the profound pleasure of deep escapism. To be dropped into a story that makes you (literally, physically) lean forward to keep pace with it – is one of the greatest joys of live performance. The grip that VEAL has on its audience is thrilling.

TULIPA by Kate Douglas

We fell in love with the ferocity of this play. Kate Douglas is a singular voice in the American Theater. TULIPA is a one-woman show about a relatively unknown period of history - Holland's Tulipa Mania in the 17th century - and its language is both muscular and poetic. We are doing this play to amplify a riches-to-rags story where the protagonist's journey of self-realization does not mirror a societally condoned idea of success. This deeply beautiful play will feature renowned performer Sarah Agnew, who we are thrilled to have back at the Jungle Theater.  

WORK HARD HAVE FUN MAKE HISTORY by reid tang

This play is a collective laugh at the baffling comedy of our technology-saturated and billionaire-plagued society. The title of the play is Amazon's real company motto, coined by Jeff Bezos, and writ in large letters on the walls of Amazon's warehouses. Rather than gloomy analysis about the state of the world, the play's smart, thought-provoking, and humorous take creates an uplifting experience. At times quietly poignant and at others absurdly humorous, we think this free-wheeling and sharp play will appeal to anyone who has been on hold with customer service long enough to contemplate the meaning of life.