Category Archives: Staged Reading

LOVEFEST 3
Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative
Feb. 11
Fifth Third Bank Theater [Downtown]

A Ten-minute play festival and fundraiser showcasing the health and wellness community efforts and spotlight local Women of Impact during Heart Month with the Cincinnati Area Heart Association.

The plays by CPI members chosen to be performed as staged readings are:

• MIXED DOUBLES by Liz Coley
• RUNNING AGAINST TIME by Doug Decatur
• ONE NIGHT STANDS by Dave Doster
• LAST CALL by Rose Vanden Enyden
• SEVENTEEN by Terri Foltz
• A SECOND CHANCE by Camilla McMahon
• HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS by Fred Rothzeid
• RONCO PRODUCTS by Charles Stephan

• Tue, Feb. 11 at 7:30pm

Official page |

THUMP
Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative
Oct. 15
Aronoff Center Fifth Third Bank Theater [Downtown]

Written by Michael DeFrancesco

A director and two couples meet to discuss and agree on a scenario for a community theater contest. For one of the couples an event lays bare their fight of conscience.

About the Author:
Michael taught drama and English to high school students outside of Cincinnati. While teaching, he was awarded a Rockefeller grant to the University of Cincinnati’s Theater Arts program, where he earned an M.A. His Master’s thesis was a Readers Theater production of Black poetry with five black students in the high school where he was teaching. Because of getting a family quickly while in graduate school, he backed off of the Theater except to watch it.

He became more interested in writing than acting, and engaged in that off and on over a number of years. In the past dozen years he has written several plays: four full lengths, two as one acts and four as ten-minute plays.

He is a member of the Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative and has had several staged readings at CPI: The Circle, The Car Ride, The Hound, and for October 2024, Thump.

Tue, Oct. 15 at 7:30pm

Official page | Facebook event |

HeARTLAND
Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative
Sept. 17
Aronoff Center Fifth Third Bank Theatre [Downtown]

Written by Paul Shortt

Rural Kansas 1970, Phillip and Bobby Hart, art and music teachers with a sideline antique business, have a developing conflict: Bobby disapproves of Phillip’s rising ambition, grandiosity and, most particularly, his art forgery ¬– forgeries Bobby once considered mischievous and exciting. Suddenly, malicious accusations from the outside are made against Phillip.

About the Author:
Career set design professor, UC-CCM, with Playhouse, Opera, Ballet and other credits; also delving into architecture and themed attractions in the US and abroad. Hooked on writing short fiction, poetry, and plays from several summer stints with Antioch Writers and Kenyon Playwrights workshops.

• Tue, Sept. 17 at 7:30pm

Official page | Facebook event |