The John & Joyce Ambruster
Play-Reading Series, 2025–2026

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 2025–2026 Season of Play-Readings

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

The Sun Also Rises

by Ernest Hemingway
adapted by Christopher Johnson & Sophie Gibson-Rush

Saturday, July 19, 2025 at 2:00 pm
Sunday, July 20, 2025 at 2:00 pm

Hemingway’s groundbreaking 1925 novel follows American expatriate journalist Jake Barnes through the cafes of Paris into the bullring of Pamplona in this raucous and moving account of the lives and loves of the “lost generation.”

Crime and Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoevsky
adapted by Marilyn Campbell & Curt Columbus

Saturday, March 28, 2026 at 2:00 pm
Sunday, March 29, 2026 at 2:00 pm

Adapted from one of the greatest works of world literature––the harrowing story of an impoverished young man in 1860s Saint Petersburg who sets out to kill an old pawnbroker in order to liberate himself from extreme poverty.

Sponsored by Clay Shirk

Shining City

by Conor McPherson

Saturday, May 23, 2026 at 2:00 pm
Sunday, May 24, 2026 at 2:00 pm

From the author of The Weir and The Seafarer, this gripping ghost story set in modern-day Dublin sees a recent widower and a former priest come together in a series of confessional encounters to face down the phantoms that haunt them both.

Sponsored by Lori Levine & Gary Benna

Four-reading subscription packages are available now for $72.

Three-reading subscription packages will become available in July for $54.

Single tickets for The Sun Also Rises go on sale July 1, and single tickets for the other three readings go on sale in early August.
Single tickets are $20.

Season ticket holders are provided reserved seating.