FIFTH OF JULY to Receive One-Night Staged Reading in Carlsbad

Carlsbad Play Readers will present a one night only staged reading of Lanford Wilson's beloved classic Fifth of July, on Sunday, June 1, 2026 at 7:00 PM at the Carlsbad City Library on Dove Lane. Admission is pay what you can at the door.

Set on a Missouri farm in the summer of 1977, Fifth of July follows Ken Talley Jr., a disabled Vietnam veteran, as he contemplates selling his family's land to a group of old friends from his activist days. By turns funny, tender, and deeply moving, Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play remains one of the great American works about family, belonging, and the long aftermath of the 1960s.

The reading is directed by Allen Lucky Weaver, Casting Director of Cygnet Theatre and East West Players, the nation's largest and longest-running Asian American theater.

The cast includes Wil Bethmann as Kenneth Talley, Jr. - Craig Noel Award nominee; Diversionary, Cygnet Theatre; Linda Libby as Sally Talley - Craig Noel Actor of the Year 2013; Resident Artist, Cygnet Theatre; Alyssa Anne Austin as June Talley - BroadwayWorld San Diego Award winner; The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse; Steven Lone as John Landis - Craig Noel Award winner; Cygnet Theatre, UC San Diego; Faith Carrion as Gwen Landis - Diversionary Theatre, The Old Globe; Kaia Bugler as Jed Jenkins - The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse POP Tour; Audrey Deubig as Shirley Talley - Cygnet Theatre, Moonlight Amphitheatre; Eli Wood as Weston Hurley - Craig Noel Actor of the Year 2025; Cygnet Theatre, Moonlight Amphitheatre.