All graphics by Kelly Garrett.
We'll roll out a new one each month!
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.
funded, in part, by:
Carole Braden
2020 Echo Reads Schedule:
NEW FOR 2020, we present 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 during those experiments, 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
Tuesday, March 17 / 7:30pm
Lochwood Library Black Box Theater
11221 Lochwood Blvd Dallas TX 75218
Wednesday, March 18 / 7:30pm The African American Museum
3536 Grand Ave Dallas TX 75210
April 2020
march 2020
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.
Pending Rights.
Tuesday, April 21 / 7:30pm
Lochwood Library Black Box Theater
11221 Lochwood Blvd Dallas TX 75218
Wednesday, April 22 / 7:30pm Owenwood Farm & Neighbor Space
1451 John West Road Dallas TX 75228
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)
Tuesday, May 19 / 7:30pm
Lochwood Library Black Box Theater
11221 Lochwood Blvd Dallas TX 75218
Wednesday, May 20 / 7:30pm T.B.A.
may 2020
june 2020
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)
Tuesday, June 16 / 7:30pm
Bath House Cultural Center
521 E Lawther Drive Dallas TX 75218
Wednesday, June 17 / 7:30pm
Cathedral of Hope
5910 Cedar Springs Rd Dallas TX 75235
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!
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
january 2020
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.
American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award (2014)
Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Finalist (2014)