Tag Archives: Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative

2024-2025 Season Announced by Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative

CPI_logoLocal Playwriting Group Selects Scripts for Staged Readings

Cincinnati, Ohio—July 10, 2024—At its June board meeting, Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative (CPI) Board of Directors announced the selected scripts for its New Voices 2024/2025 season which will showcase both new and emerging local playwrights.

The following CPI members will have their Full-length, One Act and Short plays performed as staged readings at the Fifth Third Theater in downtown Cincinnati on the following six Tuesday evenings at 7:30 p.m.

September 17, 2024
HeARTLAND by Paul Shortt

October 15, 2024
Thump by Michael DeFrancesco

November 12, 2024
Please Hold for the Pandemic . . . . by Liz Coley
The Beginning of Forever by Bertha Lynn Davis

February 11, 2025
Lovefest 3
CPI’s original ten-minute play festival fundraiser returns for a third time to support the American Heart Association with 8 short plays about love and romance! Lovefest 3 Playwrights will be announced in the Fall of 2024.

March 11, 2025
Finding Mickey Mantle by Wendy Vogel

April 15, 2025
Natchez Trace by Jeremy Simmons
Burnt Toast of Broadway by Greg Hatfield
Guardian Angel Blues by Dave Doster
This Ain’t Like You, Adrienne and An Old Person at the Bank by Roger Brookfield

Twenty-minute audience talkback sessions are conducted for staged readings with 2 or fewer playwrights at the end of each performance. Written feedback is obtained from the audience for staged readings with 3 or more playwrights.

Season tickets go on sale Friday, July 12 through Tuesday, September 17, 2024 for $50 which includes all 6 dates for the price of 5 and can be purchased online at https://www.cincinnatiarts.org/events/detail/cpi-new-voices-2024-2025-series or by calling the Aronoff box office at 513-621-2787. Online and phone orders will incur additional service fees. Single event tickets go on sale on July 30, 2024 for $10 per person plus service fees. Lovefest 3 tickets will be $15 each plus service fees. In person ticket purchases at the Aronoff box office will not incur service fees.

CPI is a non-profit theater arts organization whose mission is to support playwrights in the Cincinnati Metropolitan Area by offering free playwriting workshops, cold and staged readings to provide valuable feedback so that scripts can be further developed to potentially become fully produced or published.

To join CPI, visit the website at https://cincyplaywrights.org or follow on social media both on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cincyplaywrights and X https://x.com/cincyplaywright.

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EARTHFEST 2024 On April 16

CPI_Earthfest 2024EARTHFEST 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 |

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JANITOR’S CLOSET On March 12

CPI_logoJANITOR’S CLOSET
Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative
March 12
Aronoff Center Fifth-Third Bank Theatre [Downtown]

STAGED READING. Ethan, a lonely gay student at Ridgewood High, is attempting to make it out of his senior year alive by hiding away in a janitor’s closet for as long as possible. However, when his ex-best friend Allie reveals that she is secretly pregnant, hiding may not be a viable option anymore.

About the Author: Reece is currently in his Junior Year at Xavier University and is majoring in Theater Education. Janitor’s Closet is both Reece’s CPI debut and his Playwrighting debut as a whole. He is absolutely thrilled to be sharing this story with you and hopes that you will enjoy the piece! Reece would like to thank his family and friends for their undying support of him throughout his various theatrical pursuits. He truly could not have done this without them.

  • Tue, March 12 at 7:30pm

Official page |

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THE MAGIC OPRY on Feb. 20

CPI_logoTHE MAGIC OPRY
Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative
Feb. 20
Aronoff Center Fifth-Third Bank Theatre [Downtown]

Written by Leo Bradley

Rock Fork Records has fallen on hard times, and producer Nelson Easten is desperate to save both the recording company and his job. In the golden era of classis country music, Easton was on top of the country music world with hit songs, many emanating from the writing and singing of Rankin Winters, Nashville’s most successful male singer and song writer.

Together they were the Elvis and Colonel Parker of country music. However, time and the changing genre made them both passé in the country music industry. Although Easton has hung on to his role at Rock Fork Records, Rankin Winters has fallen into hard times and is now playing second venues and attempting to cope with forgotten fame, lost family, booze, and pills.

Easton, responding to pressure from his corporate bosses, comes up with a scheme to resurrect the fortunes of Rock Fork Records and the career of Rankin Winters. It all depends on whether Rankin still has hit songs in his soul, and how Nelson can parley the past glory into a new future for Rock Fork Records.

  • Tue, Feb. 20 at 7:30pm

Official page |

About the Author
Leo Bradley, Ed. D, is a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction. The Magic Opry is as realistic musical play that traces the evolution of country music from the hills of Appalachia to its current more universal popularity through the eyes of characters with different interests. Bradley’s play, Bleachers, presents, through music and dialogue, the parallels between the history of baseball and the story of America. His third play, Here’s to Living, is about the joys, conflicts, and challenges of aging. Dr. Bradley has also authored three novels published by Losantiville Press, one with an historic Civil War setting, a family saga of the 20th century, and a contemporary music tale set in Nashville, Tennessee.

Leo is also a songwriter, musician, and singer, having written and recorded three albums and having over forty of his songs recorded by Fraternity Records.

In his career as an educator in public schools and universities, Dr. Bradley authored eleven professional books on baseball history, school law, curriculum and instruction, and educational leadership theory.

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Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative Announces EARTHFEST 2024 Play selections

CPI_logoLocal playwriting group selects scripts to support Miami Group Sierra Club

Cincinnati—November 1, 2023– At its October board meeting, the Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative (CPI) Board of Directors announced the play selections for its Earthfest 2024 ten-minute play festival and fundraiser which will showcase the environmental efforts of the Miami Group Sierra Club.

The following 8 CPI members will have their plays performed as staged readings at the
Aronoff in downtown Cincinnati on Tuesday, April 16, 2024.

  • Eric Brose: In And Out
  • Liz Coley: End of the Line
  • Roger Collins: Think!
  • Doug Decatur: Earthworks
  • Susan Medure Decatur: It’s the Ecology, Stupid
  • Alan Jozwiak: The Earth Day Play (No Pageant)
  • Rick Schoeff: Express Your Love
  • Rose Vanden Eynden: C.C.N.A. (Concerned Cryptids of North America)

Tickets for Earthfest 2024 are on sale now for $15 and can be purchased online at the
following link: https://www.cincinnatiarts.org/events/detail/cpi-new-voices-april-16 or in person at the box office or by calling 513-621-2787.

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