Cast of Agnes Under the Big Top by Aditi Kapil. Photo by Pin Lim
As a small theatre ensemble, Next Iteration found itself caught between wanting to produce several amazing playwrights, the endless work of securing funding, and a desire to pay our actors a living wage. We found that we could get a bigger bang for the buck, so to speak, by producing staged readings of new diverse works and deliver more amazing voices to our audiences with less funding, stay true to our pay-what-you-can ticket prices and pay our actors for their time. To this end, in 2016 we introduced theAnnual Intercultural Play Reading Series.
The READFEST
Photo by Pin Lim.
The Bi-Annual ReadFest was introduced to bring several small theater companies together at one venue over three days and celebrate the joys of Houston’s expanding theatre scene. Each theatre selected its own production, the ReadFest contracted the venue, organized the marketing, and coordinated the event. Houston showed up and the ReadFest was born!
Participating theaters:
Luciole, Ensemble Theater, Mildred’s Umbrella, Next Iteration and Landing Theatre Company.
Turquoise by Deb Margolin
The Baby by Lisa Boss Omlie
The Who and the What by Ayad Akhtar
In the Continuum by Dania Gurira & Nikkole Salter