Playwright-director Jeff Talbott and the reading company of “Joseph Cook” from Ground UP’s winter 2024 New Works series.
Ground UP Productions, the independent Off-Broadway company, announced plays by Shelley McPherson, Alex Webb, Jordan Reeves and Kenneth Jones for its Winter 2025 New Works Reading Series, running consecutive Mondays Feb. 17, Feb. 24, March 3 and March 10.
Performers will be announced, said Ground UP artistic director Kate Middleton. The series is free and open to the public. The script-in-hand presentations will be at A.R.T. New York (Alliance of Resident Theatres) studios in midtown Manhattan.
Learn more and RSVP at GroundUpProductions.org.
Here’s the 2025 lineup of plays and playwrights:
Monday, February 17, 7 PM
Knifeplay
By Shelley McPherson
“In this darkly comic thriller-within-a-thriller, Liz’s dream acting job spirals into a Broadway nightmare onstage and off as her sinister, gaslighting co-star and an enabling director and colleagues force her to defend her life during rehearsals of a Cold War-era spy classic. Is that a dagger she sees before her?”
Shelley McPherson
Shelley McPherson/Playwright is a New York-based Canadian actor and writer, and the librettist for Seeing Stars, first performed in a concert reading featuring Kelli O’Hara and Jesse Tyler Ferguson at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater. Seeing Stars, with music and lyrics by the award-winning Breithaupt Brothers, was a finalist at NAMT and the O’Neill, and received a developmental workshop at York Theatre Company and a production at NYMF (direction, Jenn Thompson; choreography, Liza Gennaro; music direction, Mark Berman; fight direction, BH Barry). Shelley’s play Exit Zero has had readings at Boomerang Theatre Company and Classical Theatre of Harlem and was a finalist for Ashland New Play Festival and Campfire Theatre Festival. Her play Mommy Baby was chosen for Boomerang’s First Flight Developmental Reading Series (direction, Martha Banta; featuring Keira Naughton, Laurie Wells, Todd Gearhart, and Molly Carden). Knifeplay received a reading at Boomerang’s First Flight with direction by Jerry Ruiz and a cast including Mary Bacon and Noah Racey. Her one-act plays include Tender Is The Night, The Show Must Go On and Be Mine, and her play Lady Doc about Emily Stowe, a pioneering Canadian doctor, is included in “365 Women a Year.” She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, AEA, SAG-AFTRA. M.A.: Northwestern University.
Monday, February 24, 7 PM
Focus
Written and directed by Alex Webb
“A, B and C wanted to make a little extra cash. They got so much more.
Focus is about a focus group collaborating on an unidentified subject for an unidentified reason. It launches buoyantly, pulling a diverse set of people together for a talk, and then seriously and quite coherently turns into a world we don’t want to know. We could be in a Handmaid’s Tale environment or any number of places our politics and society never thought it would be living through.”
Alex Webb
Alex Webb/Playwright’s first play, Amelia, was published by Samuel French in 2017. Amelia was an Editor’s pick of the Washington Post, Helen Hayes recommended and received enthusiastic critical response in Washington, DC and New York. His play Beautiful Monster, about George Bernard Shaw, had a developmental reading by Washington Stage Guild in 2022. Alex was commissioned to write the book for a new Broadway musical about the battle of Gettysburg, which is in development. His play, blackandblue, was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference.
Monday, March 3, 7 PM
Tennessee Williams Drank Here
By Kenneth Jones
Directed by Christa Scott-Reed
“In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, members of the Hardy family gather to fix the damage to their world-famous Mississippi restaurant. When progressive niece Samantha blows into town with audacious ideas about the future, she further shakes the foundation of the beloved institution. Buried secrets, dubious family mythology and bad behavior are all on the table, threatening the status quo of three generations of Deep South restaurateurs. A toothsome, booze-soaked, three-act drama about heritage, legacy, community and responsibility.”
Kenneth Jones
Kenneth Jones/Playwright is best known for his breakout play Alabama Story (published by Dramatists Play Service), seen in more than seventy cities around the nation. He is a Ground UP Reading Series alumnus for his 2024 vignette comedy Ten Minutes On a Bench, also developed by Florida Rep. (It has already enjoyed three licensed productions since spring 2024.) His comedy Hollywood, Nebraska had a three-state rolling world premiere in 2022-23 and is published by Dramatists Play Service. He is a two-time O’Neill NPC semi-finalist for his play Two Henrys. Naughty/Nice, his musical with Gerald Stockstill, is published by StageRights.com, an imprint of Broadway Licensing. His work has been produced or developed at Pioneer Theatre Company, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Clarence Brown Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Peninsula Players, Florida Studio Theatre and beyond. He advocates for other playwrights and shares news about his work at ByKennethJones.com. His work is also at New Play Exchange.
Monday, March 10, 7 PM
Front Row to Murder
By Jordan Reeves
In association with The Barnstormers Theatre, Tamworth, NH
Directed by Jordan Ahnquist
“Big city detective Jo Marshall has come to the small town of Worthingtam to watch her aunt perform in the local theater’s cozy whodunnit. However, the play takes a deadly turn, and Jo has a Front Row To Murder, when someone is killed onstage during the performance. Now pulled into a very real murder mystery, the detective must sort through a cast of quirky characters and confusing clues to get to the bottom of the deadly drama before the killer can act again.”
Jordan Reeves
Jordan Reeves/Playwright is an American actor, director, and writer currently based out of London. Before moving to England, he was the artistic director of the Guerrilla Shakespeare Project in New York City for over a decade. During his tenure with GSP Jordan was nominated twice for Outstanding Director by the Innovative Theater Awards, for his productions of Pericles: Born in a Tempest and The Tragedy of King Arthur, both of which he also wrote. As a writer, Jordan has penned three novels: “She Blinked,” “The Brothers Wallhart” and “Adventures in Dog Walking.” His first feature film, “Joni & the Whale,” which he co-wrote and directed, is set to be released at the end of 2025.
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The mission of Ground UP Productions is to “create honest, intimate theatre. We believe in telling character driven stories with heart, bringing to life The New Classics — new works as well as old favorites produced in unique ways. We take pride in the aesthetic: design, attention to detail and clever use of space. Theatre should be approachable and fun. We want our audiences to feel included, impressed, and inspired.”
