Before there was BCT, there was the 5X5. Actually, the 3X3 came first, which makes sense numerically. Anywho. Decades later, this reading series is still one of the highlights of our theater! We love the immediacy and intimacy of our 5X5 Reading Series. Join us this year to celebrate brave new stories by fierce new writers served up straight off the page by some of the finest actors from Boise and around the USA. Many future BCT productions are road-tested as a 5X5, making it a unique opportunity for theater lovers to experience how a new play goes from page to our BCT MainStage.
5X5 Reading Series
23|24 Readings:
- Monday, Oct 16, 2023, 7:00 PM
- Monday, Dec 4, 2023, 7:00 PM
- Monday, Feb 5, 2024, 7:00 PM
- Monday, Mar 11, 2024, 7:00 PM
- Monday, Apr 22, 2024, 7:00 PM
5X5 Reviews
Next 5X5 Reading:
WIFE OF A SALESMAN
by Eleanor Burgess
Cast & Crew
Joe Conley Golden
(Director)
Jennifer Stockwell-Fortner
(The Wife)
Lex Gonzalez
(The Mistress)
Emily Mahon
(Radio)
Benjamin Burdick
(Radio)
Jeanna Vickery
(Radio)
“Wife of a Salesman” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.
- Seating is General Admission
-
- Single Ticket – $15.00 | Students – $10.00
- 5X5 Reading Series Pass: $50 | Students – $30
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5X5 Reading Series Sponsors
Past Performances:
Martyna Majok was born in Bytom, Poland, and raised in Jersey and Chicago. She was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, Cost of Living. Other plays include Sanctuary City, Queens, and Ironbound, which have been produced across American and international stages. Awards include The Academy of Arts and Letters’ Benjamin Hadley Danks Award for Exceptional Playwriting, The Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Play, The Greenfield Prize as the first female recipient in drama, The Champions of Change Award from the NYC Mayor’s Office, The Francesca Primus Prize, two Jane Chambers Playwriting Awards, The Lanford Wilson Prize, The Lilly Award’s Stacey Mindich Prize, Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play from The Helen Hayes Awards, Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, ANPF Women’s Invitational Prize, David Calicchio Prize, Global Age Project Prize, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, and Merage Foundation Fellowship for The American Dream.
Martyna studied at Yale School of Drama, Juilliard, University of Chicago, and Jersey public schools. She was a 2012-2013 NNPN playwright-in-residence, the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center, and a 2018-2019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University.
Martyna is currently writing a musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby, with music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett, and developing TV and film for HBO, Plan B, and Pastel.
Sanctuary City
by Martyna Majok
Full-length Drama
In post-9/11 Newark, NJ, two teenagers who were brought to America as children become one another’s sanctuaries from harsh circumstances. When G becomes naturalized, she and B hatch a plan to marry so that he may legally remain in the country and pursue the future he imagines for his life. But as time hurtles on and complications mount, the young friends find that this act challenges and fractures the closest relationship either has ever had.
Only $15 ($10 Students)
Reviews
“A work of majestic beauty that rips your heart out...” —TheaterMania
“Trenchant, gleeful, disorienting, Sanctuary City snaps with surprises, incandescence and rage.”
— NEW YORK TIMES
“Even amid poignant moments, [Majok] is able to find humor. She doesn’t shy away from showing people at their messiest.” —Forbes
SANCTUARY CITY is presented through special arrangement with TRW PLAYS 1180 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 640, New York, NY 10036. www.trwplays.com
Cast
Black Bear Island |
Feb. 5, 2024 Runs ~90 mins When her estranged childhood sweetheart mysteriously dies, Amitra returns home after a sixteen year absence to Black Bear Island, which legend says is haunted by a monstrous man-killing bear. As she searches for the truth, the forest begins to engulf the house and her past begins to collide with the present as her memory starts to unfog. This gothic magical-realism suspense thriller explores regret, the unreliableness of our own memories, and the paths we choose to become who we are. |
CAST
Amela Karadza (AMITRA)
Jovani Zambrano (WARREN)
Zoe Kelly (RUBY)
Patti O’Hara (MARJORIE)
Alyssa Stadtlander (GIRL)
Keenan Roark (BOY)
Bennett Huhn (FINN)
John Wicks (DENNIS THE UPS GUY/THE MAN)
CHARACTERS
AMITRA – early 30’s, she/her. Always on the run. Has a deep scar from temple to jaw.
WARREN – early 30’s, he/him. Bearded, Charming, and Dead™.
RUBY – pre-teen, she/her. Woods-wise, operates on animal instinct. Mistrusts adults. Hates you.
MARJORIE – 40’s, she/her. The Friendliest Neighbor You Never Wanted. Texan accent. Talks fast, listens less.
GIRL – 16 years old. she/her. Free-spirited, sharp, reckless, and deeply angry.
BOY – 16 years old. he/him. Anxious, logical, very “in love” and not sure what the f*ck to do about it.
FINN – 12-13 years old. he/him. BOY’s little cousin. Annoying af.
DENNIS THE UPS GUY – he/him. Not paid enough for the amount of shit he deals with.
THE MAN – 30’s, he/him. Clever, ruthless, desperate.
SNOW FEVER: A Karaoke Christmas
by Robert Caisley
Directed by Benjamin Burdick
Dec. 4, 2023. Runs ~two hours, including intermission. Join us for drinks at our lobby bar during intermission!
They’re running low on food, the toilet’s busted, and the jukebox is on the fritz. But come hell or high snowfall, a small band of co-workers and malcontents are determined to make this Christmas at The Wet Whistle (a backwater Montana bar) nothing like the last. Will everything work out? Will everything fall apart? Only determination and karaoke can save this holiday party!
Robert Caisley is chair of Theatre Arts, a professor of theatre, and head of the Dramatic Writing Program at the University of Idaho. GO VANDALS!
SNOW FEVER: A KARAOKE CHRISTMAS is currently a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. The author wishes to thank the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts for support during the writing of this play.
Cast
Monday, Oct 16, 2023, 7:00 PM
On The Other Hand We’re Happy
By Daf James
Directed by Christian Telesmar*
Run Time: ~90 minutes with NO intermission.
FEATURING the full cast of the critically acclaimed 2022 Rogue Machine Los Angeles Production:
Rori Flynn
Alexandra Hellquist
Christian Telesmar*
Directed by Christian Telesmar*
Rori Flynn
Alexandra Hellquist
Christian Telesmar*
Set in the present across multiple locations in England, this is a play about love, hope, and redemption. Award-winning Welsh playwright Daf James has crafted a story around a young couple’s dreams of adopting. When an unforeseen turn of events upends their goals, plans must be adjusted. Life is tough, but even the worst of it can be laugh-out-loud funny.
“The structure, the dialogue, the muscularity of the story, the effortless-ness, and the complexity simply staggered me.”
-Cameron Watson, director of the 2022 Rogue Machine Los Angeles Production
“Powerful storytelling from a dense and moving script …beautifully, searingly, deep. It’s a riveting and intimate 90 minutes.”
–Larchmont Buzz
“Theatre allows us to experience other lives, to know what we could otherwise never know. Art is a necessary window. …Abbie and Josh are everyday heroes who make a difference. Kelly’s heroism breaks my heart and gives me hope.”
-John Flynn, Rogue Machine Artistic Director
“…a play where love, hope, and redemption intertwine to make us think and …laugh, no matter what life throws at us.”
–Glamgical
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
- Monday, May 1, 2023 | 7PM
- TUESDAY, March 14, 2023 | 7PM
by Mara Nelson-Greenberg
Directed by Lily Yasuda
Strong language, sexual references and suggestions of physical violence. (But also SUPER FUNNY).
- February 6, 2023 | 7PM
Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau
Runs ~90 mins with no intermission
- December 19, 2022 | 7PM
Miracle on South Division Street (Holiday Version) by Tom Dudzick
Directed by Jessica Ires Morris
- November 7, 2022 | 7PM
Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery
2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Finalist
2020 Obie Award for Playwriting
Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play
New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play
Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Playwriting Award
UPCOMING SHOWS & EVENTS
