One Time

media release: Under the artistic direction of playwright Marcia Jablonski, the Alley Stage Reading Series continues to provide a space for Midwestern playwrights to develop their work, receive valuable feedback, and collaborate with regional actors. Now in its fifth year, this series remains an integral part of Shake Rag Alley’s mission to cultivate creativity in our rural community.

We are thrilled to announce the playwrights selected for this year’s staged readings at Alley Stage, our intimate outdoor amphitheater.

These playwrights will bring their works-in-progress to life through a staged reading and audience talkback, with Shake Rag Alley providing a venue, casting support, and a post-performance reception.

Mark your calendars and join us for a summer of storytelling, where new works take shape under the glow of afternoon light in our historic quarry-turned-theater.

Aug. 17:

Synopsis: Sometimes it takes a lifetime of stories to tell the story of a lifetime. Unrequited love, religious epiphanies, posing in the nude, an abusive marriage, and the secret powers of nuns … these are just some of the stories Sonia and Mason tell each other from their individual lives. Now, can they complete the story of a

common past they once shared more than three decades earlier?

Richard Conlon is a proud Lifetime Member of the Dramatists Guild and Resident Playwright Alum at Chicago Dramatists where his social satire, 7 Minutes to Live, received an extended-run world premiere last August. Kerry Reid of the Chicago Reader called it: “Highly entertaining, funny, sexy, action-packed” with

“whip-smart dialogue” and “the edgy, high-talent ingredients Chicago storefront theatre is famous for.” He is an O’Neill Semi-Finalist, and was selected as a 2020 Kennedy Center Playwright. Richard’s work has won several awards and been published by Next Stage Press, Eldridge Publishing, Smith & Kraus, and Flowersong Press. His sci-fi play Memory, Speak was produced in April in Otherworld Theatre’s Paragon Festival in Chicago. Earlier this year, he was selected to create a new play as part of “Uncovered Scenes from Ukraine”. The play, A Harvest Truth, was awarded The Vinnytsia Citation by the Festival Producer and Ukrainian Jurors.

For more details about the series and upcoming performances, contact Executive Director Christina Kubasta at ckubasta@shakeragalley.org. See you at the stage!

If you’d like to join a cast, or perform music at a future Alley Stage event, please share your information here.