Pleasantville-Briarcliff Manor|Featured Event
Axial Theatre SAFEHOUSE Series Presents a Reading of a New Play by Rita Anderson
Event Details
Westchester, NY – On Saturday, May 30th at 5PM, SAFEHOUSE: The Axial Playwrights series of workshopped readings of original plays by metro area playwrights featuring Axial Ensemble actors, will present The Widow Underwood by Rita Anderson, winner of the Ken Ludwig Award - the top national prize from the Kennedy Center for “Best Body of Work.”
The reading be directed by John Hickok (Pleasantville), and will star three-time Emmy Award winning actress Cady McClain (Manhattan) and Axial Honorary Ensemble member Susan Ward (Tarrytown). Reverand Julia Macy Offinger will participate in the post reading moderation.
The reading will take place at St. John's Episcopal Church, 8 Sunnyside Ave, Pleasantville, NY. Suggested donations are $15 adults; $10 students.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Rita Anderson is a neurodivergent playwright from the LGBTQIA community. She has an MFA Creative Writing and an MA Playwriting. Rita served as a Dramatists Guild Regional Representative and as Faculty for Interlochen. She went on scholarship to The O’Neill, and her play, Frantic is the Carousel, was the National Partners of American Theatre nominee. Rita won the Ken Ludwig Playwriting Award, the top national prize from The Kennedy Center for “Best Body of Work,” and she is a 2024 Louise Wigglesworth Excellence in Playwriting Award Finalist. Rita won a PlayPenn Play Development Scholarship (Fall 2026), and she is presenting two workshops at the Green Mountain Playwright Retreat in Vermont this summer. She has had over 100 productions and literary publications to include Smith & Kraus’s BEST NEW 10-MINUTE PLAYS, BEST MEN’S MONOLOGUES, and BEST WOMEN’S MONOLOGUES (2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026). Rita was a pilot playwright for Hyde Park Theatre Writers’ Group, but the highlight of her emerging career so far was sitting on a playwriting panel with Christopher Durang, and sharing a playbill with Caridad Svich. Rita is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee for her books: The Entropy of Rocketman, and Watched Pots (A Lovesong to Motherhood). Rita is a Moderator of HONOR ROLL!, an advocacy group for womxn playwrights 40+ whose goal is our equal representation in theatre.
ABOUT THE SAFEHOUSE PLAYWRIGHTS SERIES
The SAFEHOUSE program was created and developed by Axial Artistic Director Cady McClain, playwright and Artistic Director of Shades Repertory Theater Samuel Harps, Axial Associate Artistic Director/director Nate Flower, and playwright Evelyn Mertens.
ABOUT AXIAL THEATRE
Axial Theater is an ensemble-based not-for-profit theater company currently in its 24th season. We are dedicated to supporting the professional development of playwrights and actors through presenting staged workshops, development readings, and full productions.