The John & Joyce Ambruster
Play-Reading Series, 2023–2024

A few years ago, we decided we’d like to present more plays to our Rogue audience. Our season schedule was too full to offer more fully-produced plays, so we decided to produce a play-reading series. At the very same time, John & Joyce Ambruster asked to fund a special project at The Rogue.

It was a perfect marriage.

In The John & Joyce Ambruster Play-Reading Series we offer readings of plays that might be of interest to our Rogue audience. Each play is rehearsed by a group of actors for about 12 hours and performed with scripts in hand. Some of these plays will be fully produced in future years, and some of the plays are just interesting to hear once. Either way, you get to taste more plays each year.

The 2023–2024 Season of Play-Readings

This series is made possible by a generous grant from John and Joyce Ambruster

The Boys in the Band

by Mart Crowley

Sunday, July 23, 2023 at 2:00 pm

A group of gay men gather on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for a birthday party that quickly devolves when interrupted by a stranger.

Marjorie Prime

by Jordan Harrison

Sunday, October 1, 2023 at 2:00 pm

In this Pulitzer Prize nominated play, it’s the age of artificial intelligence, and 85-year-old Marjorie has a handsome new companion who’s programmed to feed the story of her life back to her in this richly spare memory play.

Seascape

by Edward Albee

Sunday, March 17, 2024 at 2:00 pm

This Pulitzer Prize-winning play is set on a deserted stretch of beach, where a middle-aged couple are joined by two sea creatures, a pair of lizards from the depths of the ocean, with whom they engage in a fascinating dialogue.

The Designated Mourner

by Wallace Shawn

Sunday, May 12, 2024 at 2:00 pm

In the very near future, in an unnamed Western country descending into fascism, artists and intellectuals become public enemy number one in this cerebral and intimate political drama.