The Festival’s weekly reading series offers playwrights and audiences alike the chance to hear new works by America’s leading playwrights read by WTF company actors. Plays selected for Fridays@3 are frequently under consideration for a future production on WTF’s Nikos Stage.

SPECIAL WEDNESDAY READING

Kinship  | Wednesday, July 9, 2014 @ 2pm

Paresky Student Center

By Carey Perloff
Featuring Penny Fuller and Cynthia Nixon

She’s a hot newspaper editor who seems to have it all. But when late-night editing sessions with a young reporter (who happens to be her best friend’s son) turn into something more, her world begins to crumble. A story of obsession and desire set against Racine’s Phèdre, Carey Perloff’s Kinship tests the tensile strength of love and friendship, and finds them much more delicate than they appear. Incoming WTF Artistic Director Mandy Greenfield will moderate a talkback following the reading.

An Intervention | July 11, 2014

By Mike Bartlett
Directed by Lila Neugebauer

They were good friends, maybe even best friends, until a whole lot of booze, a new girlfriend, and a far-off war drove a massive wedge between them. Maybe it’s time to call it quits? An Intervention, penned by Mike Bartlett, author of the Olivier Award-winning Cock, is a mischievous and humorous drama that puts friendship and citizenship under a magnifying glass.

The Squeaky Wheel | July 18, 2014

By Jonathan Marc Sherman
Directed by David Bar Katz

Curtis’ life has just been turned upside down: In the last twenty-four hours he’s lost his job, his long-time girlfriend has kicked him to the curb, and it’s his birthday. The dude feels like he’s hit rock bottom. But after an unexpectedly life-changing tête–à–tête with Mary Cumtrary, the porn star from his adolescent wet dreams, Curtis endeavors to find a way forward by recalibrating his life and his relationship with his oldest friend. Festival alum Jonathan Marc Sherman’s hilarious and insightful The Squeaky Wheel explores friendship, sexuality, and growing up.

Five Mile Lake | July 25, 2014

2013 L. Arnold Weissberger Award Winner
By Rachel Bonds
Directed by Emily Mann

Never having strayed from his quaint Pennsylvania hometown, Jamie enjoys a tranquil life fixing up his grandfather’s old lake house and pining after his troubled coworker at the local bakery. But when his estranged brother Rufus returns unexpectedly one bleak winter weekend with his girlfriend in tow, Jamie’s peaceful existence is suddenly anything but. Rachel Bonds’ Five Mile Lake is a tender look at young people yearning to make the right choices—and facing those choices they’ve already made—as they enter adulthood in a rapidly changing world.

All the Roads Home | August 1, 2014

By Jen Silverman
Directed by Jackson Gay

Madeleine wanted to be a dancer, her daughter, Max, wanted to be a cowboy, and Max’s daughter, Nix, has no idea what she wants, but knows it has to be enough for all of them. Three generations of headstrong women choose which dreams to sacrifice and when to keep fighting in Yale Drama Series winner Jen Silverman’s funny and poignant All the Roads Home.

Behold My Heart | August 8, 2014

By Joshua Leonard & Rebecca Lowman
A joint presentation by WTF and the Williamstown Film Festival
Directed by Steve Lawson

When 16-year-old Marcus’ father abruptly exits the scene and his mother falls apart, Marcus stomachs his own grief to become the man of the house. His girlfriend, pals, and neighbors all help in their ways, but ultimately the only people who can find a way forward are mother and son. Behold My Heart, a screenplay by Joshua Leonard of The Blair Witch Project fame and Rebecca Lowman, will shoot in California this fall.

Bright Half Life | August 15, 2014

By Tanya Barfield
Directed by Evan Yionoulis

Erika and Vicky are hurled through 25 years of love and heartbreak in a collection of the moments that make up a life. Bright Half Life, written by celebrated playwright Tanya Barfield, author of last season’s critically acclaimed Off-Broadway hit The Call, collides an ever-shifting present with fragments of the past to create a stunning and kaleidoscopic love story.