ARC to Present Fundraiser Reading of THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT in May

The Actors' Reading Collective (ARC) will present a live reading of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis' hilarious, poignant, thought-provoking work The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot, to raise funds for ARC's first fully-produced, in-person production of The Antipodes by Annie Baker. Boasting a huge cast of outlandish characters, played by some of the Bay Area's most beloved performers, the play asks: Was Judas Iscariot the duplicitous master of his own fate, or a much-suffering pawn used for Jesus's ends? The Last Days puts Judas' case to a riotous trial, and asks the audience to reconsider forgiveness, faith, and the human inside one of civilization's most infamous figures. Join the Actors' Reading Collective for a live, in-person reading of The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot on Saturday, May 4th at 7pm at the Marin Shakespeare Company's beautiful indoor space at 514 Fourth St., in San Rafael, CA. Funds raised from this reading will go directly to produce ARC's first full production, and the West Coast premiere of Annie Baker's The Antipodes, targeted to open November 8th, 2024.

About the Play:

Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot is set in a time-bending, seriocomically imagined world between Heaven and Hell - a philosophical meditation on the conflict between divine mercy and human free will that takes a close look at the eternal damnation of the Bible's most notorious sinner. The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot "shares many of the traits that have made Mr. Guirgis a playwright to reckon with in recent years: a fierce and questing mind that refuses to settle for glib answers, a gift for identifying with life's losers and an unforced eloquence that finds the poetry in lowdown street talk. [Guirgis brings to the play] a stirring sense of Christian existential pain, which wonders at the paradoxes of faith" (Ben Brantley, The New York Times). 

DISCLAIMER: This play contains adult themes, and strong language.

Cast:

Directed by Luisa Sermol, and featuring a cast that includes ARC members Timothy Redmond, Leontyne Mbele Mbong, Catherine Castellanos, Tanya Marie, Howard Swain, Robert Parsons, Julia McNeil, Michael Gene Sullivan, Brady Morales-Woolery, Joseph O'Malley, Sylvia Burboeck, Liz Sklar, Mary Baird, Anthony Fusco, James Carpenter, Gwen Loeb, Danielle Levin, Stacy Ross, Sheila Devitt, and Catherine Luedtke.

The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot  by Stephen Adly Guirgis

A Fundraiser Event for ARC, the Actors' Reading Collective, directed by Luisa Sermol 

Date: Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 7:00 pm 

Location: Marin Shakespeare Company at 514 Fourth St., San Rafael, 94901

Run Time: 2.5 hours, including one 15 minute intermission.

About the Playwright:  

Stephen Adly Guirgis is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and longtime member of NYC's LAByrinth Theater Company. His plays have been produced on five continents and throughout the United States. They include: the extended, sold-out run of THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT, OUR LADY OF 121st STREET (named one of the ten best plays of 2003; Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Best Play Nominations), JESUS HOPPED THE A TRAIN (Edinburgh Fringe First Award, Olivier Nomination as London's Best New Play, Barrymore Award, "Detroit Free Press" Best Play Award), and IN ARABIA WE'D ALL BE KINGS (Ten Best of '99, "TimeOut New York," critics pick, "TimeOut London"). All four plays were originally produced by LAByrinth, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. He has received new play commissions from Manhattan Theater Club and South Coast Rep, and is a member of New Dramatists and the MCC Playwright's Coalition. Television writing credits include “NYPD Blue,” “The Sopranos,” David Milch's CBS drama “Big Apple,” and Shane Salerno's NBC drama “UC: Undercover.” He lives in New York City.

About ARC: 

The Actors' Reading Collective's (ARC) mission is to share the artistic, spiritual, and emotional fervor uniquely inherent to theater and storytelling, and to create a one-time, immediate, and visceral experience for audiences. When the Pandemic shuttered theaters around the world, our forced isolation threw into stark relief the vital importance of sharing human experiences, together in common spaces.  ARC was born out of a reaction to that isolation and the mutual need to tell stories through our passion for words, for Theatre, for gathering, and for celebrating the craft we love. Now ARC is moving out of its Zoom box origins and onto the Stage! This reading of The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot will raise funds for ARC's first full production, the West Coast premiere of Annie Baker's The Antipodes, slated to open November 8th, 2024.

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