World Premiere of COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE Comes to Trinity Rep

Trinity Repertory Company will open its 2025-26 Season with Cold War Choir Practice by Ro Reddick, a dark comedic thriller with original music, directed by Aileen Wen McGroddy. This show runs September 4 – October 5, 2025. The opening night performance is on Wednesday, September 10 at 7:30 pm, with press invites to come.

“We are excited to introduce the exceptional voice of Ro Reddick to Trinity Rep’s audiences,” The Laura H. Harris Artistic Director Curt Columbus said. “Her plays are wildly intelligent, wickedly funny, and inherently socio-political. Nominated for The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, her playwriting presents incredible roles for actors to fill and very human stories for audiences to enjoy.” 

ABOUT COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE 

It’s twilight in Ronald Reagan’s America and the specter of nuclear war hangs over the country–but rent is still due on the 1st. When a prominent Black conservative brings his mysteriously ill wife home for the holidays, the unplanned reunion sets long simmering tensions within the family to boil–and throws each member into a bizarre maze of Reaganomics, Cold War espionage, capitalist cult predation, and… choir practice. Featuring original music and set in the mesmerizing ambiance of a retro roller-skating rink, Cold War Choir Practice celebrates the lengths we go to for those we love.   

First developed for Brown University’s Writing is Live new play festival, Cold War Choir Practice recently completed a sold-out, critically acclaimed Off-Broadway workshop co-produced by Clubbed Thumb and Page 73. The New York Times named it a Critics’ Pick. Trinity Rep’s production is the world premiere. 

"The gift of an iterative process is having more time to uncover what the play really wants to be,” said Ro Reddick. Not to invoke ‘math,’ but playwriting can feel a bit like a curve approaching an asymptote. That’s part of the fun.” 

THE CREATIVE TEAM AND CAST 

Ro Reddick (she/her) is a queer Black playwright, songwriter, actor, and recent graduate of Bown University’s MFA playwriting program. She has given readings and run labs at the Ground Floor (Berkeley Rep), Bushwick Starr Reading Series, Clubbed Thumb’s MFA Showcase, and Williamstown Theatre Festival (NYC Reading). She earned a Venturous Fellowship Nomination, was a Lambda Literary Fellow in Playwriting, an Adele Kellenberg Seaver Fellow in Creative Writing at Brown University, a participant at the La Mama Umbria International Playwright Retreat, the recipient of a Miranda Theatre Company Playwright Grant, and a two-time O’Neill finalist. As an actor, Ro has performed at theaters including Hartford Stage, McCarter Theatre Center, Long Wharf, and KC Rep; off-Broadway in Silence! The Musical; and on screen in The Americans, Louie, and Sex and the City 2. As a singer, she has performed and co-written songs for a country, rock and blues band. She also writes original songs for her plays and is an alum of the BAI Songwriting Workshop. 

Director Aileen Wen McGroddy the Co-Artistic Director of TUTA Theatre Chicago. A 2022 graduate of the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Program in Directing, she has directed at Woolly Mammoth, Geva Theatre Center, Northern Stage, Portland Stage, The Kitchen Theater, Winnipesaukee Playhouse, Clubbed Thumb, New York Classical Theatre, The Bushwick Starr, The Whiskey Rebellion, Emerald City Theatre, and Breckenridge Backstage Theatre, among others. She has received fellowships from New York Theatre Workshop, Roundabout Theatre Company, The Drama League, and BOLD. 

Aileen will work with music director Bethany Aiken, choreographer Taavon Gamble, resident scenic designer Michael McGarty, Costume Designer April M. Hickman, lighting designer Eric Watkins, sound designer Caroline Eng, shadow puppet designers Drew Dir and Sarah Fornace, and fight choreographer Mark Rose. 

The cast features Brown/Trinity Rep students Lucia Aremu as Meek, a 10-year-old girl unexpectedly recruited as a Soviet spy; and Mathieu Myrick as her father Smooch, an ex-Black Panther-turned-roller rink owner. Rounding out the central family are three Trinity Rep company members: Jackie Davis as Meek’s grandmother Puddin’, Taavon Gamble as Meek's conservative uncle Clay, and Rebecca Gibel as Virgie, Clay’s mysterious wife. The cast also features guest artists Alison Russo, Anna Slate, Hannah Spacone, and Emily Turtle as members of the mysterious, titular choir. 

SPECIAL EVENTS 

Continuing Trinity Rep’s tradition of offering affordable tickets for all, the theater will hold two Pay What You Wish performances of Cold War Choir Practice on Thursday, September 4, 2025 and Tuesday, September 9 at 7:30 pm. Pay What You Wish tickets are limited to two per person and can be purchased online, by phone, or the day of at the theater. 

Returning this season are Neighborhood Nights, where Rhode Island residents can access a 20% discount on 6:00 pm Sunday evening performances, based on where they live. Providence County residents are eligible for a Neighborhood Night discount for every Sunday evening performance. The Neighborhood Night performances for Kent County, Washington County, and Bristol & Newport County residents are on September 14, 21, and 28, respectively. Guests may claim this discount by entering their county name in all capital letters at checkout (i.e., PROVIDENCE).