Axial Theater is a twenty-three year old ensemble based not-for-profit institution dedicated to supporting the professional development of playwrights and actors mainly based in the Westchester area. We focus on presenting theatrical experiences with a social impact or work that allows our artists to expand in their craft.
Cactus Flowers 2023
Six plays will be chosen from the all the plays read online between January 2022 and March 2023 to be produced at Bethany Arts Community in Ossining, NY.
Cactus Flowers 2022
Sunday, January 23rd 2022 3-5pm ET - Online
Works by playwrights included Serena Norr (I See You), Scott Sickles (Tantarus v. Rhodadanthus), and Christopher Goutman (X, Y, & Z). Actors reading included Emmy© nominated actor Jon Lindstrom (True Detective), Darlene Tejeiro (John Patrick Shanley's Candlelight), Ingrid Rogers (Bosch), Ensemble Members Susan Ward, Mickey Pantano, Dan Walworth, Anthony Barresi Jr; Honorary Axial Ensemble Members Michael Boyle and Ryan Mallon; and Michael Howard Conservatory Student Tom Ryan.
Sunday, February 27th 2022 3-5pm ET - Online
Guest Moderator Linda Giuliano
Featuring works by playwrights Linda Giuliano (Handless), Lori Meyers (Civil Disobedience), Chima Chikazunga (Folding Danica), and Evelyn Mertens (Is Nothing Sacred?). Actors reading included Emmy@ nominated actor James Patrick Stuart and special guest Sibyl Santiago; Axial Ensemble Members Donna Svennevik, Youlim Nam, Duane Rutter, Sandy Rooney, and Marilyn Collazo.
Sunday, March 20th 2022 3-5pm ET - Online
Guest Moderator: Linda Giuliano
Featuring works by playwrights Youlim Nam (Last Birthday), Jacquelyn Reingold (Like Miriam), Karin Diann Williams (Constituent), and Linda Giuliano (Headless). Actors reading included two-time Emmy© award-winning actress Tamara Braun (Days of Our Lives), Yoshi Sudarso (Power Rangers), Inga Cadranel (General Hospital), Axial Ensemble Members Youlim Nam, Donna Svennevik, and Dan Walworth; special guest James Sweeney; and Michael Howard Conservatory Students Tom Ryan and Allegra Venturi.
Sunday, April 24th 2022 3-5pm ET - Online
Featuring works by playwrights Dominic Hoffman (NAACP Award-Winner), John Patrick Bray, Jeff Gould, and John Mabey. Actors reading included DaJuan Johnson (Bosch), Axial Ensemble Members Dan Walworth, Bruce Apar, Lori Franzese, Sandy Rooney, Duane Rutter, Marisa Lowe, and Donna Svennevik; Honorary Ensemble Members Ryan Mallon; Michael Howard Studios Conservatory Actors Tom Ryan and Michael M. Alva; and special guest James Sweeney.
Sunday, May 15th 2022 3-5pm ET - Online
Special Guest Moderator: Dominic Hoffman
Featuring a special reading of selected works from THE WISH: a manual for a last ditch effort to save abortion in the united states through theatre by Justice Hehir, Dena Igusti, Phanesia Pharel, Nia Akilah Robinson, Julia Specht, with dramaturg May Treuhaft-Ali. Read by three-time Emmy© Nominee Marci Miller, Axial Ensemble Member Marisa Lowe, Julie Griffith, and Michael Howard Conservatory Student Allegra Venturi. Other plays were by Axial Ensemble Member Evelyn Mertens (That Way), Judy Klass (Frame Within a Frame), and Pamela Kingsley (Finding Mother Courage), read by Axial Ensemble Members Youlim Nam, Sandy Rooney, Lori Franzese, and Michael Howard Conservatory Student Michael M. Alva.
Sunday, June 26th 2022 3-5pm ET - Hudson Valley Writers Center and live streaming
Plays read were by Val Stulman (Disability on Love), Carson Grace Becker (Arcana), Nayna Agrawal Punctuation Play), and Tom Coash (Flat Meat Society). Actors reading were Axial Ensemble Member Marisa Lowe, Anthony Barresi Jr, Torian Brackett, and Jeff Schlotman; Axial Board Member Lisa Hertz-Apkon, Artistic Director Cady McClain and special guest Linda Bergman.
Sunday August 28th 2022 3-5pm ET - Online
Special Guest Moderator Brad Forenza
Playwrights joining were Mark Harvey Levine (Not Like Us), Pamela Morgan (When Life Gives You Lemons), Donna Latham (Chicken Fried Catfish), and Morgan Fears (As the Dust Settles). Actors were Axial Ensemble Members Marisa Lowe, Dan Walworth, Sandy Rooney, Youlim Nam, Lori Franzese; and Michael Howard Conservatory Students Michael M. Alva, Morgan Fears, and Tom Ryan.
Sunday, December 18th 2022 3-5pm ET - Online
Features guest moderator Brad Forenza and playwrights Dana Leslie Goldstein (winner of New England New Play Competition, Harold and Mimi Steinberg Playwriting Prize, Different Voices New Play Award, ACTF New Play Award, Henry Hoyns Poetry Fellowship, AWP Intro Award, and Academy of American Poets Prize); Rita Anderson (Rita served as a Dramatists Guild Regional Representative and as Faculty for Interlochen. She went on scholarship to The O’Neill, and she won the Ken Ludwig Playwriting Award, and the top national prize from The Kennedy Center for “Best Body of Work"); and Dana Burbano (Winner: Nu Voices festival at Actors Theatre of Charlotte in 2011, Center Theatre Group’s 2018-19 Writers Workshop cohort and is in the Geffen’s Writers Lab in 20-21).
Actors included Axial Ensemble Members Bruce Apar, Anne Hammond, Gail Greenstein, Najah Imani Muhammad, Torian Bracket, and Marisa Lowe; Michael Howard Conservatory Actors Olivia Benedict and Eve Cuccaro, with special guest Robert Garcia Caberera.