Read & Rant

Online Event!

6:30pm-8:30pm MST

Athena Project’s Read & Rant program seeks to combine the sharing of theatrical work with the wider public and the new play development aspects of our former Plays In Progress Series while also fostering collaboration between playwrights and dramaturgs. Think book club for plays! Learn what makes a good script, discuss how it affects us, and explore the ways it links to the larger world. This monthly free offering to the community aims to raise awareness of the under-representation of women’s stories on stage.

Each month, we discuss new and unproduced scripts selected from a nationwide call for submissions. Join us to converse with invited playwrights who bring an in-depth knowledge of the works and theatrical writing at large. Guided by a dramaturg, we also invite you to share your constructive comments, thoughts, and affirmations in order to aid in the development process of the pieces.

Once registered, you will receive an email with links to the scripts - we ask that these by read in advance of the event. Please read this description in full to receive information on how to access the links to scripts once you register.

This month we will be featuring:

Marilyn Anderson' s Not Tonight, Vito!

The four wives of the four biggest Mafia Dons in Chicago, 1931, go on strike to protest the violence – until the men put down their guns, the gangsters’ wives, mistresses, and prostitutes all over town have a boycott on sex. It’s Lysistrata as it’s never been done before – with a “mob” angle.  An updating of the classic Lysistrata, Not Tonight, Vito! is a timeless story that puts a comic twist on a serious problem. In Hollywood terms it’s “The First Wives Club” meets “The Godfather” or “The Sopranos” meets “NO Sex in the City!”

An elderly wildlife carer returns home from the Australian Outback to the American Midwest to set her affairs in order — only to become embroiled in a family tragedy that could cost her the remainder of her life. The Nashes, upwardly mobile conservatives from Ohio, doggedly pursue the American dream. As moral standards blur around them and acts of betrayal and brutality shake their lives, the certainties that have been the bedrock of their collective identity give way. When an enigmatic great-aunt comes to visit, long buried resentments surface, and with them questions. Does true altruism exist? Are humans, at once, the most altruistic and most cruel species? Altruism, a story of quiet heroism and struggle amid privilege, reminds us that it is the small acts that confer immortality.

You will receive a confirmation email with your registration AND LINKS TO ACCESS THE SCRIPTS. Please be on the lookout for this email - if you scroll down there is a section with information on our plays and links for the scripts. If you do not see this email, please check your spam folder.

The Zoom link for the meeting will be emailed out to attendees 30 minutes prior to the event.