The Landing Theatre Company Announces the Winners of the 2017 New American Voices Play Reading Series

The final selections have been made for the Landing Theatre Company's New American Voices Play Reading Series, which annually features four new plays by American authors. This year's event will be held the weekend of April 1-2, 2017 at The Docks Theatre, where the company makes it's home.

The award-winning Landing Theatre Company is dedicated to advancing American Theatre through the cultivation of extraordinary American playwriting and presenting American works that have significant artistic worth to our community, our culture and our history.

This year's winners are:

WANDA, DAISY AND THE GREAT RAPTURE by Alexis Schaetzle

It's a sticky hot summer in the swamplands of Pawley's Island, South Carolina. Step-sisters Wanda and Daisy struggle to get by as the people they love disappear; Wanda's mother has recently died, and Daisy's father is fading away as his Alzheimer's worsens, and his obsession with an impending rapture intensifies. The girls summon dark memories as they try to repair their fractured relationship, and find a little light. A magical story about how we hold onto family, the past, and ourselves while we seek better lives, and wait patiently as the Great Rapture hails us -- or doesn't.

LIGHT by John Bavoso

Silvia and Cat Henson have just moved from a tiny apartment in Washington, DC, into their sprawling dream home in the small, affluent town of Greenville, Delaware. However, this was recently the home of a teenaged mass shooter and his single mother. Is this the right time and place for Silvia and Cat to bring a new baby into the world, or will the house create an irreparable rift between them and their new community?

UNDER THIS ROOF by Barbara Kingsley

Set In the segregated black neighborhood of Central Cleveland in the late 40's, Mamie Warren needs household help after her husband, Raymond, has an accident. On recommendation, Mamie hires a down-on-her-luck woman named Bessie, whose arrival brings surprises and new challenges. The circumstances force them to confront prejudices, perceptions and secrets that unexpectedly surface in this two-act drama.

THE BENDERS: A DARK WESTERN by Anne Phelan

Inspired by the true-life story of The Bloody Benders, the first mass media serial killer story in American history. In 1871, the media converged on the Bender family's small inn outside of Independence, Kansas, where the Benders killed dozens of travelers and buried them in a nearby orchard.

Performances are scheduled for Saturday, April 1, at 1 p.m. (WANDA, DAISY AND THE GREAT RAPTURE by Alexis Schaetzle) and 7 p.m. (BLIGHT by John Bavoso); and Sunday, April 2, at 1 p.m. (UNDER THIS ROOF by Barbara Kingsley) and 7 p.m. (THE BENDERS: A DARK WESTERN by Anne Phelan) at The Docks Theatre, 1119 Providence. Talkbacks with the playwright, actors and director follow each reading. Free, but donations are suggested to support new play development.