Theater

RiverArts is proud to include Theater programming as part of our multi-disciplinary arts offerings. From performances of commissioned scripts by local playwrights to play readings of new works, we expand the power of the arts in our communities by showcasing diverse voices and stories.

Upcoming Events

Call For Submissions

RiverArts announces a call for scripts for our next River Readings!

RiverArts is seeking submissions of scripts for their 2nd annual evening of new play readings, River Readings, to be held on February 8, 2025.

Submissions should be approximately 30 pages in length and may be either a one-act or a selection from a full-length script. If the latter, please submit the full script as well. We ask that scripts have no more than four actors in the 30 page selection.

The plays that are selected will be directed and read by skilled actors with rehearsal over Zoom and in-person rehearsal the day of the reading. A small stipend and modest travel expenses to attend the reading will be provided. Working playwrights living in the Tri-state area are especially encouraged to submit. The selected playwright(s) will be expected to attend the reading on February 8th, 2025.

We are looking to share the experience of play development with our community and give them insight into the creative process, while providing the opportunity for playwrights to hear their work in a public setting.

TO APPLY
Please attach a script and a brief bio as separate PDF documents, labeled as LastName_FirstName_Script or LastName_FirstName_Bio

Submission Fee: $10.00

Deadline: November 1, 2024 by 5pm

Selected playwrights will be notified via email by December 6, 2024.

SUBMIT TO THE CALL HERE

Past Events

River Readings

Saturday, January 27, 2024
Themes recommended for ages 16+

Three contemporary playwrights share selected scenes from plays in progress. Experience new scripts on their journey of development read by talented actors, with a discussion to follow.

Amina Henry Interstate
Interstate tells a story about family and change. In the play, Red, a single flight attendant, takes her children on a cross country road trip. This trip sets in motion events that will either destroy this family or make them stronger.

Peggy Stafford Ambulette: a non emergency vehicle
Ambulette is a memory play that unfolds inside a moving non-emergency vehicle, a beach on the south side of Long Island, and a cemetery where people used to have picnics. It’s a journey of friendship, grief and remembrance.

Melisa Tien Disrupted
In the male-dominated tech arena, two women join forces to create a first-of-its-kind app—one that tracks the menstrual cycle—and form a partnership that is tested to its limits.

Kindness Committee

Friday, March 18, 2022 & Saturday, March 19, 2022

Set at a concert on a cold winter night, Kindness Committee sneaks us into the minds of seven audience members connected by varying degrees to one another. As the musician performs, each character’s inner world ignites. Some desire, others despise. One mourns, another commits to a life of living without a past. One warns of the limits of “kindness” while another embodies the act of forgiving. All of them peel away layers of their past as they reach for a sustainable present.

Kindness Committee delves deep into longings and forebodings, and examines the increasing importance of strengthening our community as our social, political and environmental problems mount.

Six Feet

Saturday, October 17, 2020

Doctor, caterer, therapist, lover. It’s been 217 days since the virus changed their lives. At 6 PM (Hawaii time), they’ll meet on ZOOM to discuss a tragic event that connects them all. But will this call tear them apart

RiverArts has commissioned an original, innovative play to be performed live on ZOOM. Written and directed by Melanie Hoopes (Netflix’s Bloodline, Here’s the Thing hosted by Alec Baldwin), SIX FEET is full of tension, intimacy, and a cathartic, biting clarity. It’s a play about confronting emotions that are made more raw, volatile, and intense the more they are confined. It shows us what happens when we rely on flat, 2D interactions to communicate things that are so much bigger than the spaces we inhabit.