Our hope is to produce four workshop productions of Rachel Lynett’s plays every season.
For our first season, you will alway be the first audience to hear the play and will also be a part of the workshop process, which is integral to the development process.
Next Up
We are going dark for the rest of 2021. Look out for new shows in fall 2022!
Past Events
Taylor Swift, Disney Movies, and Cigarettes
December 13, 2020* / 6 p.m. central (7 p.m. eastern)
In a deeply autobiographical play, Rachel Lynett explores what it means to really search for happiness, especially in a 2020 world.
Walking through Taylor Swift’s discography (because duh she loves Taylor Swift), the narrator attempts to piece together what moments have been absent of joy and to find reasons to fight for self-contentment, even in the darkest times.
Content warning: sexual abuse, domestic abuse
Tickets are available for $10 on Eventbrite, or by season pass. This production — like all shows and special events in our 2020/2021 season — will be hosted on Zoom.
The Cast
Rachel Lynett is a queer Afro-Latinx playwright who writes dark comedies about complex, complicated women of color. Her recent playwriting credits include commissions with Barrington Stage Theatre Company (HOLY GROUND), Florida Studio Theatre (CARRY ME and AS YOU ARE), and Theatre Lab (LAST NIGHT). Other credits include LAST NIGHT presented as a reading with Theatre Lab (2020); HERE BE DRAGONS presented as a reading with Capital Rep (2019); YOU WERE MINE presented as a reading at the Kennedy Center Page to Stage Festival presented by Theatre Prometheus (2019); HE DID IT presented as a reading with Equity Library Theatre, Chicago (2018) and presented as a workshop production with University of Central Florida’s Pegasus PlayLab; REFUGE as part of Z Space’s Problematic Play Festival (2018); GOOD BAD PEOPLE as part of Talk Back Theatre’s Reading Series (2018), part of American Stage Theatre Company’s 21st Century New Voices New Play Festival (2018), part of Jackalope Theatre’s CIRCLE UP series (2017) and as a reading as part of Unicorn Theatre Plays In Progress (2018); WELL-INTENTIONED WHITE PEOPLE as the Michigan premiere with Matrix Theatre (2018), the world premiere with Barrington Stage Theatre Company (2018), the Downstage Left Residency with StageLeft (2017), part of Orlando Shakespeare New Play Festival (2017), and receiving honorable mention for the 2017 Kilroys for her play (2017). Her play, ABORTION ROAD TRIP received a workshop production produced by Theatre Prometheus as part of Capital Fringe where it won Best Comedy (2017) and then was later presented by Theatre Prometheus, as a part of the 2017 Kennedy Center Page to Stage Festival. Rachel Lynett is also the 2018 Recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship and one of the 2020 recipients for the Artist 360 grant.
PREVIOUS SHOW: Black Mexican
October 4 / 6 p.m. central (7 p.m. eastern)
Who gets to be a part of Latinidad?
While Valery fights to prove Ximena isn’t Cuban, Alia has given up fighting that she is Latine. As the women in this play discover the truth about themselves and each other, they also have to face the internal bias that allowed a white woman to be Cuban but didn’t allow a Belizean to call herself Latine.
The Cast
ALIA
RAFA
XIMENA
VALERY
ZOE
STAGE DIRECTIONS
Alex Dauphin
Kiara Lauren
Ashley Love
Amanda Espinoza
Jessica Carmona
Lori Vega
Admission
Admission for this reading on Zoom is $10, or $15 to purchase a recording of the reading to watch later. You must have Zoom to attend this reading. Season pass holders do not need to purchase a ticket. Ticket sales for reading admission end at noon on October 4.
Audience members will receive a link via email to the Zoom meeting in advance of the show.
At RLTC, we will always pay our contractors and actors, or else the show doesn’t happen. Buying a ticket or making a donation means we can keep our promise and continue to pay theatre artists.
Meet the Cast
Alex Dauphin (Alia) is an actor, writer and filmmaker based in Atlanta, GA. Regional theatre credits include Seize the King at Alliance Theatre; A Christmas Carol and The Wolves at TheatreSquared, The Light at The New Colony), Clearing at Commission Theatre. Television credits include MacGyver and Chicago Med. Alex is the founder of Black Stories Project and directed its first docuseries, “That is Racism”, which is available on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Kiara Lauren (Rafa) is an NYC-based actor and director charged with using storytelling to connect black and brown communities to ultimately change our multifaceted, multicultural, and complex perceptions of the world. This is her debut with the Rachel Lynett Theatre Company and she looks forward to collaborating more in the future. To keep up with her work follow her business instagram @cinnamonsagevsn !
Ashley Love (Ximena) is currently in San Angelo, TX where she serves as the Director of University Theatre at Angelo State University. Favorite acting credits include the roles of Rissa in House of Several Stories (Kennedy Center and The Blue Theatre), Sherry in Tigers Be Still (Outpost Rep), and Becky in Bad Habits (William Inge Festival). Favorite directing credits include Footloose (Theatre West Virginia) and La Vida de Algodón (Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts). Ms. Love serves on the board of directors for San Angelo’s Be Theatre.
Amanda Espinoza (Valery) is an educator, actor and improviser born and raised in West Texas. She received her MFA in Performance and Pedagogy from Texas Tech University. She developed and teaches residencies focused on The Hunter Heartbeat Method- a Shakespearian based theater program specifically for students on the autism spectrum in New Jersey. She recently spent time training and working in Linklater and Theatre of the Oppressed at California State University’s Summer Arts program. Her work has been seen at the Voice and Speech Trainers Association’s Identity Cabaret and at The Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s New Play Development Showcase in Chicago. She is currently the Education and Community Engagement Manager at Two River Theater in Red Bank, NJ.
Jessica Carmona (Zoe) is an Afro-Boricua professionally trained Actress and Playwright based in Brooklyn. She has acted on stage and on film, and loves working on new works in development. She especially enjoys working on projects that focus on telling LatinX and Afro LatinX narratives. Graduate of NYU Tisch, Acting Program.
Lori Vega (Stage Directions) NYC credits: P*SSYC*CK KNOW NOTHING (Target Margin Theater) Pay No Attention to the Girl (Target Margin Theater & Spoleto USA), The Bacchae (Classical Theatre of Harlem), If On A Winter’s Night (The Tank), Mail Order Bride (Theatre Row), La Tempestad (The Ohio). Regional credits: Babel & Ushuaia Blue (UPCOMING at Contemporary American Theatre Festival), Nonsense and Beauty (The Rep Theatre of St. Louis), Halftime with Don (NJ Rep), As You Like It (Lake Tahoe Shakespeare and Idaho Shakespeare), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lake Tahoe Shakespeare), Romeo and Juliet (Saratoga Shakespeare), and Peter Pan (Dorset Theatre Festival). TV & New Media: Bull (CBS), El Deafo (Apple TV Plus), How Did That Happen?! (webseries). www.lorivega.net
To see our past productions, please click here.