Theatre in the X presents
The OG Reading Series: A Salt Water Oasis by Ed Shockley, Directed by Carlo Campbell
Theatre Exile (1340 South 13th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147)
Food from Atiya Ola's Spirit First Foods
Theatre in the X is excited to bring back its Staged Reading series in 2024! This year all of our featured playwrights are OG members of the Philadelphia theater community and we’re excited to showcase their stories. Each reading will showcase a staged reading performance of a play, a talk-back with the playwright, and food!
About the play:
What is perception and how is it that we come to view life as we do? Explore this idea with a musician facing a personal crisis.
About the playwright:
Ed Shockley attended high school at the prestigious St. Paul's School, followed by Columbia University and MFA studies as a Future Faculty Fellow at Temple University. He is the author of more than fifty plays, which have enjoyed both commercial and critical success. He is best known for the record-setting musicals Bessie Smith: Empress of the Blues and Bobos (co-authored with James McBride). Other notable works include The Liars' Contest (winner of the HBO New Writers Competition) and the stage adaptation of Mildred D. Taylor's Newbery Award-winning novel Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. He is the recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Award for Outstanding Contributions to American Musical Theatre, the Richard Rodgers Award (presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters), the New Professional Theatre Writers Festival prize, the American Minority Playwrights contest prize, two Pennsylvania State Arts Council fellowships, the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Production Fellowship, Pew Fellowship and the Barrymore Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Shockley has taught at many universities and schools, including New York University, Nassau Community College, St. Paul's School, Temple University (Future Faculty Fellow), University of the Arts, and Rutgers University (Camden Campus) (senior lecturer). He has coached thousands of authors through the Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival and Young Writers Day lecture tours as well as through the writers' organization the Philadelphia Dramatists Center which he founded and served as president for many years. In 2013 Ed survived a major stroke. While the stroke has slowed the writing there’s not anything that will keep him from it.
Other Upcoming Readings:
Monday, February 12th | 6pm
Ordinary People by Richard Lamont Pierce
Directed by Walter DeShields
Location: Painted Bride - 5212 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19139
Monday, March 11th | 6pm
57 by Karen Smith
Directed by: Eric Carter
Location: Atiya Ola’s Spirit First Foods - 1435 North 52nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19139
Food From: Atiya Ola’s
Monday, April 15th | 6pm
Will Write for Food by Renee Lucas Wayne
Directed by LaNeshe Miller-White
Painted Bride - 5212 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19139
Monday, May 13th | 6pm
The Bookstore by Nancy Marie
Directed by Richard Bradford
Painted Bride - 5212 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19139