Category Archives: Staged Reading

EARTHFEST 2024
Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative
April 16
Aronoff Center Fifth Third Bank Theater [Downtown]

This evening of eight ten-minute plays celebrates Earth Day 2024 in support of the Miami Group Sierra Club.

• IN AND OUT by Eric Brose
  Would you rather sit inside watching a screen with terrible news or go outside and enjoy nature as it burns away?
• END OF THE LINE by Liz Coley
  For some folks it’s the end of the world; for others, it’s the beginning.
• THINK! by Roger Collins
  With their daughter’s birthday approaching just ahead of Earth Day, Sally and Robert find the tables turned as their daughter and son-in-law present them a very unusual “gift.”
• EARTHWORKS by Doug Decatur
  Love for our Earth began at Fort Ancient and the Hopewell Tribe.
• IT’S THE ECOLOGY, STUPID by Susan Medure Decatur
  Things ain’t what they used to be, or are they?
• THE EARTH DAY PLAY (NO PAGEANT) by Alan Jozwiak
  Socially conscious middle-schoolers find some unexpected benefits to recycling while protesting their school’s Earth Day Play [no—Pageant!]
• EXPRESS YOU LOVE by Rick Schoeff
  A grandparent, deeply troubled by their sensitive, young granddaughter’s depression over the state of the environment and the politics that seem to deny the problems, has returned to a psychotherapist.
• C.C.N.A. (CONCERNED CRYPTIDS OF NORTH AMERICA) by Rose Vanden Eynden
  Concerned about the escalating climate crisis, a group of cryptids meet to discuss their options to save their world.

• Tue, April 16 at 7:30pm

Official page | Facebook event |

HERE’S TO LIVING
Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative
Feb. 22
Aronoff Center Fifth Third Bank Theater [Downtown]

CPI New Voices Series presents a reading of Here’s to Living by local playwright Dr. Leo Bradley.

Living and enjoying a full and satisfying life while growing old is proving to be a challenge to Jesse Kincaid as he grapples with the challenges of retirement.  Everyone around him, both family and friends, seems to feel he is “losing it” and is in dire need of advice as to how to live out his life.

His daughter is worried about both his health and how to preserve his life-long accumulated wealth. The fact that Jesse thinks love can still happen at any age only increases the family tensions.

Jesse’s friends, ranging from former professional colleagues to financial, legal, real estate advisors, and golf partners, all have different perspectives on needed changes in Jesse’s life.

Helping Jesse to navigate this labyrinth is Glenn, his life-long friend and soul mate. Together they attempt to convince themselves and others to not stand on the shoreline and watch the river flow by, but to sail their vessels until the river runs dry.

1/20/22 – Health and Safety Guidelines

• Tue, Feb. 22 at 7:30pm

Official page |

THE CIRCLE
Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative
Jan. 11
Aronoff Center Fifth-Third Bank Theatre [Downtown]

CPI New Voices Series presents a reading of THE CIRCLE by local playwright Michael Defrancesco.

A new inmate is assigned a prison cell. He is dominated by his cellmate who controls everything about their habitation, and who learns information dangerous to the newcomer–who has lived with his increasingly concerned mother as she observes his personality change from that of a passionately committed young man to a furtive alcoholic. The Circle reveals details of his downward spiral and desperate grasping at some sort of salvation.

12/10/21 – COVID-19 Policy

• Tue, Jan. 11 at 7:30pm

Official page |