Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
Read to Relate is a year round, community centered and community run play discussion group offered by Theatre Memphis. From November to April, Read to Relate will meet 1-2x each month to discuss plays written by and about BIPOC, ALAANA and/or differently abled communities. Theatre Moderators from our Local Arts Community will lead each discussion, dissecting a total of ten plays per season. Of these ten plays, the group will select two works to be fully realized as stage readings. These readings will be open and accessible to the general public. Our Read to Relate plays will also be considered for full stage production in Theatre Memphis’s upcoming seasons.
This program is designed to bridge the divide between our personal understanding of the world around us and the stories of lives we are less familiar with. Our objective is to utilize our resources to amplify the voices of marginalized and oppressed groups and celebrate the collective human story through theatre.
Participation is free of charge. Those interested in participating may either rent their scripts from Theatre Memphis with a $10 refundable deposit or purchase each play independently. Participants can register for as few or as many discussions as they are interested in.
* ALAANA – African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, and Native American
Read to Relate 2024/25 Reading List
Intimate Apparel
Intimate Apparel Intimate Apparel is about the empowerment of Esther, a proud and shy seamstress in 1905 New York who creates exquisite lingerie for both Fifth Avenue boudoirs and Tenderloin...
Our Lady of the Tortilla
Our Lady of the Tortilla By Luis Santeiro Moderator: Monica Sanchez The Cruz family is volatile even in the best of times. On this particular day, Nelson, the youngest son,...
Real Women Have Curves
Real Women Have Curves Set in a tiny sewing factory in East L.A., this is the outrageously funny story of five full-figured Mexican-American women who are racing to meet nearly...
Toni Stone
Toni Stone Toni Stone is an encyclopedia of baseball stats. She’s got a great arm. And she doesn’t understand why she can’t play with the boys. About the first woman...
Cherokee Family Reunion
Cherokee Family Reunion This modern-day Brady Bunch blends two nearly grown families when a Cherokee man, John, and a white woman, Emma, get married and move into his small community,...
Blues for Mister Charlie
Blues for Mister Charlie In a small Southern town, a white man murders a black man, then throws his body in the weeds. With this act of violence–which is loosely...
Pipeline
Pipeline Dominique Morisseau’s hard-hitting drama, Pipeline takes a deep look into the American educational system for underprivileged students. Nya is an inner-city high school teacher whose son, Omari, is educated...
Electricidad
Electricidad Intimate Apparel is about the empowerment of Esther, a proud and shy seamstress in 1905 New York who creates exquisite lingerie for both Fifth Avenue boudoirs and Tenderloin bordellos....
The P Word
The P Word Zafar flees homophobic persecution in Pakistan to seek asylum in the UK. Londoner Bilal (or Billy as he prefers to be known) is ground down by years...
I Am My Own Wife
I Am My Own Wife This acclaimed one-man show explores the astonishing true story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. A transvestite and celebrated antiques dealer who successfully navigated the two most...
Past Programs
Overheard: Fourteen Commissioned Monologues Written by TNB2S+ Artists for TNB2S+ Artists
Overheard: Fourteen Commissioned Monologues Written by TN2BS+ Artists for TN2BS+ Artists By Various Authors Moderator: TBD For the grand finale of the inaugural Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival in October...
The Thanksgiving Play
The Thanksgiving Play By Larissa FastHorse Moderator: Karon Samuels High school drama teacher Logan is desperate to save her career. Always ready to rock the boat, she is now facing...
37 Incidents between Victoria and Her Brain
37 Incidents between Victoria and Her Brain By Libby Heily Moderator: Jasmine Settles Incidents Between Victoria and Her Brain explores the complex relationship between our minds and ourselves. Like most...
Dreary & Izzy
Dreary & Izzy By Tara Beagan Moderator: Dr. Niambi Webster 1975, Lethbridge Alberta. When the Monoghan sisters lose their parents in a car accident, Deirdre remains as the sole caregiver...
Venus
Venus By Suzan-Lori Parks Moderator: Cleavon Meabon IV Venus is a semi-biographical play about Saartjie Baartman, a member of a freak show label called the “Hottentot Venus”. Set around 1810,...
Noura
Noura by Heather Raffo Moderated by TBD Inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Eight years ago, Noura and her family fled their home in Iraq. Today, she plans the...
Xtigone
Xtigone By Nambi E. Kelley Moderated by Cleavon Meabon IV Set in Present Day Chicago, Xtigone’s brothers have been killed in drive-by shootings by each other’s rival gang. Her uncle,...
SPUNK
SPUNK Staged Reading: May 22, 2024, 7pm, Next Stage, Pay-what-you-can. By George C. Wolfe Moderated by Niambi D. Webster George C. Wolfe blends Zora Neale Hurston’s evocative prose and Wolfe’s...
The Amen Corner
The Amen Corner The Amen Corner is a three-act play by James Baldwin. It was Baldwin’s first work for the stage following the success of his novel Go Tell It...
You for Me for You
You for Me for You By Mia Chung Moderated by Eileen Kuo As they attempt to flee the Best Nation in the World, North Korean sisters Minhee and Junhee are...
The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie By Tennessee Williams Moderated by Thomas King The Glass Menagerie is a memory play by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. The play has...
Bulrusher
Bulrusher By Eisa Davis Moderated by Keia Johnson In 1955, in the redwood country north of San Francisco, a multiracial girl grows up in a predominantly white town whose residents...
Is God Is
Is God Is By Aleshea Harris Moderated by Dr. Niambi Webster Twenty-one year old African-American twin sisters Racine and Anaia were burned and scarred as babies. Racine has burn scars...
