GARDEN LIVE READING SERIES to be Presented by Houses on the Moon
The series opens with Inheriting the Well by Lisa McCree, directed by Rosalyn Coleman Williams, on Monday, June 16 at 6 pm.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Jun. 05, 2025
Houses on the Moon Theater Company is launching its Garden Live Reading Series, a bold new initiative spotlighting three groundbreaking plays by emerging and underrepresented voices. Selected by a diverse committee, each script will receive a professionally directed staged reading in 2025, inviting audiences into vibrant conversations around identity, family, and justice.
The Garden Live Reading Series was born out of a virtual initiative during the pandemic: in 2020, Houses on the Moon developed a monthly Zoom gathering to nurture new work and deepen artistic connection across its community. What started as an intimate online reading series has since blossomed into a global platform for emerging and established playwrights to share and develop bold, personal, and socially resonant stories. Now, in collaboration with Ensemble Studio Theatre and PCC, Houses on the Moon is launching the 2025 Garden Live Reading Series—a curated lineup of live, in-person staged readings. Through the Garden Live, Houses on the Moon will give writers vital resources and creative support, while inviting audiences to engage with fresh, unheard stories that reflect the complexities of our world.
The series opens with Inheriting the Well by Lisa McCree, directed by Rosalyn Coleman Williams, on Monday, June 16 at 6 pm at New Stage Performance Space (36 W 106th St, NYC). Set in the charged aftermath of the Kempton Street riot, the play traces three generations of a Black family navigating inherited trauma around mental illness, addiction, sexuality, and the fight for equality.
The cast of Inheriting The Well will include PENWAH, Imani Jones, Evan Frazier, Perri Gafney, & Emily Casey.
Upcoming Garden Live Readings:
SYNDROME by Robb Leigh Davis — Monday, September 22, 2025.
FAMISHED [갈망] by Zoe Kim — Monday, December 8, 2025.
“These plays crack open the silences that live in our families, our bodies, and our communities,” says Emily Joy Weiner, Artistic Director of Houses on the Moon. “The Garden Live Reading Series is about planting those stories in a space where they can take root, thrive, and be shared.”
The Garden Live Reading Series continues Houses on the Moon’s long-standing mission to cultivate space for storytelling that heals, challenges, and brings communities together.
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