Cold War Choir Practice (thesis production)

by Ro Reddick '24 MFA
directed by Aileen Wen McGroddy '22 MFA

Wednesday, May 1: 8:00 PM
Friday, May 3: 8:00 PM
Saturday, May 4: 1:00 PM
Sunday, May 5: 8:00 PM

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Leeds Theatre
83 Waterman Street
Providence RI 02912

It’s twilight in Ronald Reagan’s America and the specter of nuclear war hangs over the country – but rent is still due on the 1st. When a prominent Black conservative brings his mysteriously ill wife home to the family roller rink in Upstate New York for Christmas, everyone is thrown into a bizarre maze of Reaganomics, Cold War espionage, capitalist cult predation, and... choir practice. A dark comedic thriller with original music.

Ro Reddick (she/her) is a queer Black MFA playwright at Brown University. Her plays have been read/developed at The Ground Floor, Bushwick Starr Reading Series, and Williamstown Theatre Festival (NYC Reading). They include: Throwback Island (O’ Neill Finalist), ROBAMA (O’ Neill Semifinalist), Cold War Choir Practice, and Miss Black Syracuse, and The History of Black People…  Fellowships + fun stuff: Venturous Fellowship Nomination, Lambda Literary Playwriting Fellow, La Mama Umbria Playwright Retreat, Miranda Theatre Company Grant, BAI Songwriting Workshop. Degrees: BFA in Acting from Ithaca College, MBA from NYU (which she has no intention of using).

Aileen Wen McGroddy is a Chinese- and Irish-American theatre director, educator, and producer of live events. Currently, she is a co-artistic director of  TUTA Theatre Chicago and Creative Producer for the Writing is Live Festival. She is in the Roundabout Directors Group, has been a 2050 Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, and the BOLD Resident Director at Northern Stage.  MFA Directing from Brown-Trinity. Previously in Writing is Live: Throwback Island by Ronica Reddick, On The Y-Axis by Lucas Baisch, Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt by Julia Izumi. Past work includes: A Christmas Carol (Trinity Rep); The Late Wedding, The Dumb Waiter, Summer and Smoke, and The Tempest (Brown-Trinity); The Chinese Lady (Kitchen Theatre and Geva Theatre Center); Sense and Sensibility (Northern Stage); Airness (Breckenridge Backstage Theatre); Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play (Adelphi); The Glass Menagerie, Or,,  Dani Girl (Winnipesaukee Playhouse); Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical and The Snowy Day (Emerald City Theatre); Montauciel Takes Flight (Lifeline Theatre); Ulysses (The Plagiarists); A Hero’s Journey, The Hunting of the Snark, Robin Hood, and The Pied Piper (The Forks & Hope Ensemble); The Whiskey Radio Hour, Wake: A Folk Opera, Kodachrome Telephone and Sign of Rain (The Whiskey Rebellion). She has directed readings for New York Theatre Workshop, The Bushwick Starr, Clubbed Thumb, NY Classical Theatre, The Yale Drama Prize, Northern Stage, and Babes with Blades.