Endstation summer season begins with Playwright’s Initiative Reading Festival

Endstation Theatre Company, the resident professional theatre of Randolph College, will kick off its 2024 season with a new play reading series, followed by two full-scale productions: Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and the drama Every Brilliant Thing. 

The Playwright’s Initiative Festival, which runs from June 13-16, features staged readings of new and original scripts about Central Virginia—an important step in developing material for fully staged productions. 

Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.endstationtheatre.org/tickets-2024. 

The readings will be held at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College on the following days and times: 

Thursday, June 13th at 7:30 p.m.

Good Birth by Patrick Earl, Endstation’s executive director, is a new play about The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, which became known for its forced sterilization of the poor and people of color. It was also at the center of the 1927 Supreme Court decision Buck v. Bell that upheld a physician’s right to forcibly sterilize a patient. Good Birth is a fictional tale of a young girl asked too soon to fight for her right to bear a child and suffer society’s misguided view of intelligence, all while facing down the brute force of the American Eugenics Movement in the early 1900s. This play contains references to sexual abuse and violence. 

Friday, June 14th at 7:30 p.m.

The Transported Man, by Russell Nichols, follows an escape artist as he recounts his world-renowned magic act: breaking from the chains of slavery by mailing himself from Virginia to Pennsylvania in a box. This play is based on the memoir, Narrative of the Life of Henry “Box” Brown, written by Brown himself. 

Saturday, June 15th at 2 p.m.

Dry Bones, by Jim McManus, tells the tale of four childhood friends’ fight to get by in a dying town. When the last factory closes, the bonds of friendship and love are put to the test as they struggle with their own demons and the price of living in an America where the jobs leave but the people remain. This play contains adult language and mature content. 

Saturday, June 15th at 7:30 p.m.

Whirlwind by Cris Eli Blak follows a high school tennis player with a chip on his shoulder who travels to Lynchburg, Virginia, to be trained and coached by Dr. Robert Walter “Whirlwind” Johnson, a medical doctor, coach, former college athlete, activist, and respected community member. Johnson seems to have it all, but is trying to fight the past and forge into the future of tennis being an integrated sport. 

Sunday, June 16th at 2 p.m.

The Motive of Fannie Braun by Makaila Henderson is a mystery about the title character, a housekeeper, and her daughter, who have lived with and worked for Robert Miller and his children for more than half a decade. Frannie’s world is shaken when she is accused of poisoning Miller’s son and put on trial.