Bristol Riverside Theatre to Present 'America Rising', A New Reading Series

Bristol Riverside Theatre is thrilled to kick off its America Rising: Voices of Today reading series with Bridget Carpenter’s Up. This first reading in the series will take place Sunday, September 28 at 5 p.m. at St. James Parish Hall, 225 Walnut Street in Bristol. Individual tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, and subscriptions are $45, $40 for BRT members.  Tickets include dinner.

Conceived, produced and directed by Artistic Associate Adam Goldstein, the America Rising: Voices of Today staged reading series is a celebration of culture and language. While not a full production, staged readings provide an intimate “staging” of each play where the writer’s words can take Center Stage. Presented in partnership with Temple University’s MFA graduate acting program, the series opens the door to the hottest new voices of the American theatre.  Each evening will consist of live entertainment, food and drink, the reading itself and an extensive talkback with the cast, director and in many cases the playwright themselves.

Up showcases the highs and lows of following dreams. Walter Griffin was famous – a man literally above all others as his lawn chair took to the skies years ago.  Now the lawn chair sits quietly in the basement and Walter’s life and family begin to crumble around him following the loss of his job.  Walter would rather invent, create and do something great than work. As his son goes through teenage growing pains and his wife struggles to hold the family together, can Walter do the impossible and fly once again?  Up is an extraordinary piece filled with humor and inspiration for all of who have dared to dream.

The cast for this reading includes: Susan Lehman, Dr. Roberta Sloan (Chair of Temple University Theatre Department), Libby Spangler (Temple undergrad), Mark Sherlock (Temple undergrad), and David Blatt.

The program also includes a performance by Doylestown-based band The Windsors. A public forum discussion will be followed by a panel to discuss the women’s issues associated with the play. The panel includes Susan Atkinson – BRT Founding Producing Director, Alison Belevance – Director of Education and Training for Planned Parenthood of Bucks County, Kathleen Beveridge – Executive Director of the Bucks County Women’s Fund, Adam Goldstein and Dr. Sloan.

Bridget Carpenter has written several plays and for the television shows Friday Night Lights and Dead Like Me. Her plays include: Fall (Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), The Faculty Room (Kesselring Prize), and The Death of the Father of Psychoanalysis (& Anna). Her work has been produced by Trinity Rep, Center Stage, Berkeley Repertory Company, Mark Taper Forum, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, among many others. She has won fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Princess Grace Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group.

UP was commissioned by Perseverance Theatre in Alaska and premiered there in 2002.  Productions at Oregon Shakespeare Festival last season and upcoming next season at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago.

Future America Rising readings are:

Lullaby
By Michael Elyanow
Sunday, November 16, 2008

Sick?
By Zakiyyah Alexander
Sunday, February 15, 2009

Harmless
By Brett Neveu
Sunday, March 29, 2009

Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue (2006 Pulitzer Prize finalist)
By Quiara Alegría Hudes (2008 Tony Award winner)
Sunday, May 3, 2009