This is Government

media release: Shake Rag Alley’s third annual Alley Stage Reading Series highlights the voices of Midwestern writers, focusing on the creative ecosystem of the Driftless Area, and provides a unique opportunity for playwrights to share their works-in-progress and receive valuable feedback with a staged reading and talkback session at the intimate outdoor theater Alley Stage.

Playwrights from Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin were invited to submit scripts for consideration. Playwrights, cast members, and musicians receive an honorarium for their participation, and playwrights also enjoy a one-night stay in Shake Rag Alley’s historic Coach House.

The Art Cafe will open at 3 pm with beverages for sale including The Cider Farm's hard cider, Coca-Cola products, and bottled water. The actors will take the stage at 4 pm for the reading and a talkback session. Tickets for each reading are just $5 and can be ordered online or purchased at the door.

Sept. 16: “This Is Government” by Nina Kissinger of Chicago

Nina Kissinger is a playwright originally from San Francisco and now based in Chicago. Her short play “The Exit Interview” was a winner of Vertigo Production’s 2022 10-Minute Play Festival and the Over Our Head Players’ 2023 Snowdance 10-Minute Comedy Festival. Her full-length work, “This Is Government,” was a winner of the 2022 Agnes Nixon Playwriting Festival. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied playwriting under Laura Schellhardt and Julie Marie Myatt. The all-Mineral Point cast for Kissinger’s play includes Gena Byrnes, Taitin Riley, Heather Harris, and Mo Grimm, with stage directions by Lisa Duwell. In “This Is Government,” after a bomb threat places all congressional buildings on lockdown, three summer interns find themselves stuck in the one place no one has ever wanted to work overtime: the U.S. government. As the crisis unfolds and their snack supply runs out, they question what power, if any, they have in this increasingly unstable system.