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All graphics by Kelly Garrett.

Echo Reads is a Free Theater Experience. Directors lightly rehearse readings of plays with professional actors who carry their scripts as they perform for the audience. After the show, the audience is invited to stay and discuss the play with the Actors, Director, and Echo Creatives in a casual, welcoming setting. Venues all over Dallas!

funded, in part, by:

Carole Braden

2020 Echo Reads Schedule:

Twelve staged readings of Six plays written by multi-cultural women.

Each play is presented TWO times at TWO DIFFERENT Partner Venues.

No Reservations. Free Admission. Donations happily accepted.

Venues have free, lighted parking. ADA Compliant.

Duration will vary based on script length and audience discussion.

- Echo Reads is intended for mature audiences. Viewer discretion advised. -

DO NO HARM by Anyika McMillan-Herod

directed by vickie washington

In the mid-1800s, Dr. John Simms—the “father of modern gynecology”—conducted a series of gruesome medical experiments on three enslaved women: Betsey, Anarcha, and Lucy. Do No Harm imagines what their lives were like, giving a voice to unheard women of the past. A harrowing tale of faith, found family, and a dark reminder of who we sacrificed in the name of science. Anyika McMillan-Herod is a Dallas-based, African American playwright.

Co-produced with Soul Rep Theatre

THE GREAT LONELY ROAMER & THE NIGHT THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING by Christina Quintana

directed by Jane Farris

Only two polar bears are left on the planet. On New Year’s Eve, one bear searches suburban Texas for a new, air-conditioned home, while his sister attempts to track him down in New York City. A gun-toting trucker tries to race his pregnant wife to the hospital. A first date laced with supercharged marijuana takes a turn at a police stop. A wild night ensues that will affect the future of an entire species. Christina Quintana (AKA: CQ) is a queer, cross-genre writer with Cuban and Louisiana roots.

SAMSARA by Lauren Yee directed by LisaAnne Haram

Katie and Craig are having a baby…with a surrogate…who lives in India. Craig reluctantly travels to the subcontinent, where he meets Suraiya—their less-than-thrilled surrogate who dreams of med school. As all three “parents” anxiously wait for the baby to be born, the “mothers” are haunted by phantoms from their imaginations, in the form of a provocative Frenchman and an inquisitive fetus. An absurd and epic take on modern day colonialism and what to expect when you’re expecting someone else’s child. Lauren Yee is an Asian-American actress and playwright.

Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Winner (2012)

THERE IS EVIL IN THIS HOUSE by

Natalie Nicole Dressel

directed by David Fisher

This play was written as a biography by Natalie Nicole Dressel, an actress/playwright from Muskegon, Michigan. The coming of age story follows a trans-woman as she unwinds the many twisted threads of her life: her mother is manic, her new step-dad is a con-man, and the ghost of her dead father won’t stop re-arranging the furniture. The play weaves therapy, horror, Hamlet, and late-night talk shows together into a meta-theatrical examination of Penny’s continually evolving relationship with her mother and how the past can—quite literally—haunt you.

Eugene O'Neill National Playwright Conference, Finalist (2019)

Production Team

Producer Elly Lindsay

Producer Eric Berg

Producer/Tech Director Randall Bonifay

Venue Manager Alett Gray

Managing Artistic Director Kateri Cale

Special Thanks to:

Robert G. McVay

Official Echo Reads Cookie Sponsor:

Concluded!

january 2020

CHURCH by Young Jean Lee

directed by Caroline Hamilton

Korean-American Playwright Young Jean Lee transforms her life-long struggle with Christianity into an exuberant church service that tests the expectations of religious and non-religious alike, blurring the line between the stage and the pulpit. Never content with simple parody, Lee aims to give her audience a true religious experience.

Tuesday, January 21 / 7:30pm

Arts Mission Oak Cliff

410 Windomere Ave Dallas TX 75208

Wednesday, January 22 / 7:30pm Lochwood Library Black Box Theater

11221 Lochwood Blvd Dallas TX 75218

february 2020

I AND YOU by Lauren Gunderson

directed by Eric Berg

Caroline hates poetry. Home-bound from a life-threatening illness, she has decided isolation is the safest way to spend her few-remaining days. But Anthony, a devoted Walt Whitman enthusiast, has other plans. A play about how a mundane school project on "Leaves of Grass" can grow into life-altering event. An examination of youth, human connection, and what it means to die young. Lauren Gunderson is our most produced American playwright.