The Actors’ Reading Collective Hosts Outside the Box Summer Reading Series
Outside the Box 2025 delivers an exciting array of storytelling, from comedy and tragedy to mystery and family drama.
The Actors’ Reading Collective will return with the third annual summer reading series Outside The Box. Presented in the company’s signature acclaimed style of staged readings with large-cast ensembles of all-star Bay Area and National talent, this year’s series builds on our community partnerships to offer each play in two Bay Area theatre locations, in San Francisco and Berkeley. Outside the Box 2025 delivers an exciting array of storytelling, from comedy and tragedy to mystery and family drama.
This summer’s series kicks off with The Thin Place, a minimalist ghost story exploring liminal spaces. Emilie Talbot directs award-winning playwright Lucas Hnath’s spine-chilling mystery. Second in the series is Tony winner Appropriate, recently extended on Broadway. Leontyne Mbele-Mbong directs this dark family drama by MacArthur genius and Pulitzer Prize winner Branden Jacob Jenkins. The third play of the summer brings a poignant father-daughter road trip in The Best We Could. Timothy Redmond directs this Edgerton Foundation New Play Award recipient. The summer reading series concludes with Recipe, a comedy about The Morning Glory Baking Circle for Revolutionary Self Defense. Ansley Valentine directs this political comedy by ARC’s very own award-winning playwright, actor and director Michael Gene Sullivan.
This summer’s Outside the Box staged reading series explores themes of facing death, facing who we are in life, moral ambiguity, love, family relationships and social change. Born in these recent years of instability and unrest, ARC believes in the power of storytelling to remind us of our common humanity. We find comfort, catharsis, hope and joy in exploring these themes together, in community with the audience.
Each play features the outstanding talents of the Actors Reading Collective:
The Thin Place: Michelle Apriña Leavy, Ron Chapman, Amy Kossow, Danielle Levin
Appropriate: Harry Davis, Isabel Langen, Catherine Luedtke, Ash M.B., Luisa Sermol, Michael Ray Wisely
The Best We Could: James Carpenter, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, Lisa Morse, Robert Parsons, Michelle Talgarow
Recipe: Mary Baird, Anne Hallinan, Asia Jackson, Julia McNeal, Emilie Talbot
The Actors’ Reading Collective (ARC) envisions a world where live theater challenges, entertains, and inspires conversation and community engagement, to center empathy and create human connection, and where theater artists of all backgrounds and identities have supported and expansive opportunities for creative fulfillment.
ARC’s mission is to inspire and challenge audiences with captivating, language-centered, ensemble-based storytelling from a broad range of playwrights.
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The Still Point: An Immersive Experience SOMArts Cultural Center (7/16-7/25) |
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark SPARC (7/03-7/26) |
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Hadestown (Non-Equity) Orpheum Theatre San Francisco (1/07-1/10) |
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Pamela Gaye Walker’s Little BIG Mouth The Marsh Berkeley (7/12-8/02) |
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Elizabeth Du Val’s For When Things Fall Apart The Marsh (8/15-8/16) |
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JAD Experience presents LUNAE Tara Firma Farms (7/17-7/26) |
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Josh Kornbluth’s What Is To Be Done?: Fighting Fascism and Depression The Marsh San Francisco (6/19-7/31) |
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The Cottage Cloverdale Performing Arts Center (8/01-8/16) |
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Dear San Francisco Club Fugazi (9/16-9/30) |
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The Phantom of the Opera San Jose Center for the Performing Arts (10/07-10/18) |
