Play Club: An Evening of Theater Appreciation
Each month, we analyze and discuss one play, first as a literary piece and then as a production piece. If you love to go to the theater, enjoy reading plays, create theater on any level and/or love story-telling, come and join a lively conversation about what makes a great play.
Actors will read from pivotal scenes and prompt a group discussion about the play on the page. Then a theater artist (i.e. director, production designer, sound designer, costumer designer) will give a designer pitch for how to bring the play to the stage.
Come to the meeting, having read the play (as best you can).
Snacks will be provided and BYOB.
Doors open at 6:45 pm and the club will meet from 7:00 - 9:00 pm up on The Loft and on the second floor when the weather gets cold.
This is a free event, but please register as space is limited! You can come to one meeting or as many as you’d like!
Meet our Play Club Host, Vanessa Eskridge
Vanessa Eskridge is an actress and singer who has performed in New York, London and more recently with many companies in Baltimore. With the belief that a good play can be transcendent, Vanessa aims to create more space for theater in the world by bringing people together for an ongoing dialogue about plays, production, and performance.
Upcoming!
Play Club meets the second Monday of every month. This is a free event, but please register as space is limited!
Our next meeting with be Monday, November 11.
Monday November 11, 2024
Play: Our Town by Thornton Wilder
Theater Artists: Actors and designers from Manor Mill Playhouse’s production
Did you catch Manor Mill Playhouse’s captivating production of “Our Town”? Whether you have cherished memories of reading it or are discovering it for the first time, we invite you to dive deeper into this timeless classic.
Join us for a unique Play Club gathering featuring actors and designers from our acclaimed production. Engage in a lively discussion about the play’s themes and the creative choices that brought it to life on stage.
All are welcome to this free event!
*Please note that Play Club will not be meeting in December. Play Club will resume meetings on the 2nd Monday of each month starting in January , 2025.
Sign up for our mailing list! Feel free to send us an email, too playclub@manor-mill.com
Past Play Club Topics
August/September/October
Monday, July 8, 2024
Play: Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune
by Terrence McNally
Theater Artist: Kay-Megan Washington, intimacy coordinator
Kay-Megan Washington is a seasoned stage, television and film actor, and now intimacy director. Having worked in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion and mental health treatment for both survivors and perpetrators of sexual violence in her non- theatre life, moving into advocating for artist safety, bodily autonomy, and universal use of consent practices seemed an obvious next step. Kay-Megan is currently completing certification through Intimacy Directors and Coordinators (IDC).
Monday, June 10, 2024
Play: A stage reading of “Touch”
by Toni Press-Coffman
Directed by Eden Walker
Featuring: Aryah Fradkin, Brad Norris, Eden Walker and Vanessa Eskridge
M. Eden Walker received her BA on a full ride scholarship as a performer, director and playwright from Boise State University on the twelfth day of May 2001, with all the rights and responsibilities pertaining hereto. She then jumped into a Uhaul with her two cats, no job, and no GPS and drove to New York City without ever having been there before, to seek her miraculous fortune in the theatre. NYC Theatre: Macbeth (Lady Macbeth 2008), and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Mistress Quickly, 2007) produced by The Oberon Theatre Ensemble. Self-Produced Credits: The Ascetic of Lincoln County (2004 with the NY Fringe). Eden directed and starred as Emily in Our Town (2005), Leapfrog through Time and Space (2005, Awesome New York Times Review), The Rehearsal (2006); Chesapeake by Lee Blessing (2008). Eden produced and performed The Dream of a Ridiculous American, written and directed by Phil Atlakson, at the United Solo Festival on Theatre Row in 2013, which achieved a sold out and extended run. Last fall, Eden produced her new play, Lady a modernized bastardized version of Lady Macbeth’s story mixed with a Brain Epstein nightmare in Baltimore at the BIG Improv theatre space, and then again in NYC at the United Solo Festival, again to a sold-out house with standing room only. Her 14-year-old son, Teagle Walker, played the title role. The “M” in Eden’s professional name comes from her patron saint, St. Mary of Egypt. For Eden, the theatre is first and foremost a spiritual errand; she just does what she is told. If you want a wild ride, read the life of St Mary.
Monday, May 13
Play: The Wolves by Sarah Delappe
Theater artist: Max Garner
Max Garner (he/him) founded Rapid Lemon Productions in 2012, as a theater company governed by the urgent need to amplify new voices, and to bridge the isolating gaps across Baltimore's arts landscape. A reluctant producer and former playwright, Max is best known for his design work - his soundtracks have appeared with AXIS, Mother Lode, PTB, Mongrel, Rep Stage, The Flying Tongues, CTA, Top Floor, Run of the Mill, TMC, Arena Players, FPCT, Cohesion, Single Carrot, and RLP; and professional productions for Coppin, Morgan, Loyola, and Catholic Universities. www.rapidlemon.org.
Monday, April 8
Play: The Flick by Annie Baker
Theater artist: Laura Malkus, producer
A Baltimore native, Laura Malkus is a veteran of local small and mid-sized stages where she has performed, advocated, and served for more than three decades. Throughout her life as an artist, she has been an actor, divisor, playwright, teacher, producer, musician, and a singer/songwriter for a local alt-country band. In her professional career, Laura has two decades of experience serving local arts and educational organizations in strategic, fundraising, operations, advocacy, consulting, and marketing/communications capacities. Organizations where she has worn many of these hats include Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Single Carrot Theatre, Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance, Maryland Institute College of Art, Mid-Atlantic Arts, The Maryland State Arts Council, The Baltimore Small Stage Coalition and various other community orgs and enterprises. She currently serves as the Board President of Fells Point Corner Theater, helming its organizational renaissance through the choppy waters of the recent pandemic and into the uncharted territory of current industry challenges. By day she works as the Marking and PR Manager for Towson University's College of Fine Arts and Communication, where she graduated many years ago with her acting degree. She attended the professional actor training program at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute (NYC) and holds a Graduate Certificate in Arts Leadership and Cultural Entrepreneurship from Northeastern University. Laura is deeply passionate about sustaining the unique value and impact of small, community-centric arts organizations, especially in Baltimore. She truly believes that Baltimore's arts organizations can become stronger, more vibrant, and more just all at the same time.
Monday, March 11
Play: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens
Theater artist: Brad Norris, production designer
Brad Norris is a Baltimore based Scenic Artist, Sound Designer, Fight Choreographer, Director, Production Manager, and Arts Administrator. Brad spent a good part of his early career in Chicago, IL where he graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Theatrical Directing and Technical Theatre. He worked as a lighting designer for many dance and theatre companies in the Chicago area before becoming an operations coordinator for touring Broadway productions with Jam Theatricals. After moving to Baltimore in 2009 he worked at Baltimore Center Stage as their events coordinator, and co-founded his own theatrical company, Cohesion Theatre Company, where he worked as Co-Founder, Executive Director, Production Manager, Director, and Designer from 2014 until 2019. He has also freelanced throughout Maryland as a scenic designer, fight choreographer, and director at companies such as Strand Theatre, Submersive Productions, Spotlighters Theatre, Interrobang Theatre, and many more. He is currently the Managing Director of Fells Point Corner Theatre, the Production Manager for the Performing Arts Department at CCBC, a collaborating artist with Motte & Bailey, prod., and the creator and Game Master of Baltimore's favorite retro-sci-fi sitcom show, Planar Taxi Co. He is passionate about justice, representation, indigenous sovereignty, and centering non-straight-white-cis-male stories and opinions everywhere possible. He loves his wife and kids and would be nowhere without them.
Monday, February 12
Play: Crimes of the Heart, by Beth Henley
Theater artist: Britany Marriott (Kurenai Kiba), costume designer
Kurenai is a New York born, Baltimore based cosplayer, self-published writer, podcaster and artist, and now convention chairwoman of KhromaKon, a new Baltimore based convention. She's been a featured artist at conventions as well as in interviews and podcasts. Leading as well as participating in panel discussions focusing on diversity, cosplay, and art, Kurenai's knowledge stems from her background in the Arts, Comic History, and Graphic Design. With her motto "Creating Fantasy and Altering Reality", she works tirelessly to expand her side of the internet by evolving her cosplay portfolio, increasing the details in her costumes, as well as showcase her available artwork and cosplay accessories at conventions across the country. Kurenai is currently working on creating KhromaKon, a brand new arts themed convention, more episodes on her podcast "Noir Narration", which focuses on fairytales and folklore from cultures of color, and working on costumes for Baltimore based companies.
January 22, 2024
Play: Intimate Apparel, by Lynn Nottage
Featured theater artist: Belle Burr, director (recently directed Intimate Apparel at Fells Point Corner Theatre)
About Belle Burr
An alumni of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Belle Burr has studied classical theater, Commedia Dell'arte, Dance and Film. When not directing Belle combines theater with history to teach children of all backgrounds about the world around them and as an actor she has performed all over the country in various styles of dramatic and comedic theater.
You can follow her adventures via @BelleBurr on Instagram, check out her reviews and podcasts at Pop Culture Uncovered and PCU on YouTube, catch her on tour with the American Immersion Theater or join her at a show with the crew of Drop Three Sketch and Improv.