Join BCS Director of Costumes, David Burdick and Director of Artistic Producing, Chiara Klein for a behind-the-scenes look into the costume design world and the role costuming plays in storytelling, using our very own BCS productions!

Join BCS for our first Bridge Series reading of the season as we dive into Tennessee Williams’ time honored classic —The Glass Menagerie. Amari Cheatom (Jitney, Django Unchained) and Nicole Ari Parker (Empire, Chicago P.D.) will play Tom and Amanda in all of their iconic scenes. These performances will be followed by a discussion amongst leading theatrical scholars moderated by Artistic Director Stephanie Ybarra about The Glass Menagerie’s lasting impact on the American Theater Canon and how memory shapes the stories we tell. This event is free for members and pay what you will starting at $10 for non members.

Join us for Caryl Churchill's Seagulls! We hope you'll join us for a Bridge Series Reading of Caryl Churchill's one act play, Seagulls, followed by a conversation about the show. One of the most influential contemporary playwrights, Caryl Churchill has been lauded for "changing the language" of theater with her unique works that disrupt the form. You may know her from her plays Cloud 9 or Top Girls, both of which received Obie Awards. You don't want to miss this reading of one of her rarely before seen masterpieces!

ABOUT SEAGULLS Valery was living an ordinary life as a wife and mother when she discovered an extraordinary gift – the ability to move objects with her mind! With the encouragement of her store manager turned business manager Di, she gains international acclaim, culminating in an invitation to Harvard for testing. They are excited to tap into her potential and she is beginning to feel the mounting pressure— what could possibly go wrong?

Join Tony Award Nominee Robert O’Hara (Slave Play, The Etiquette of Vigilance at BCS) and Tony Award Winner Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown) for a conversation about the art of directing, moderated by our very own Artistic Director Stephanie Ybarra. This is an intimate behind-the-scenes look into how a director makes theater magic. Don’t miss it!

80 years after its premiere, productions of Our Town are still frequently appearing all over the world, and with each new production, new generations and communities find themselves in Thornton Wilder’s iconic play. On March 18th, join BCS for an exploration of belonging in Wilder's enduring classic Our Town. Directed by Obie-Award winner Stevie Walker Webb, this Bridge Series will feature excerpts from the play, performed by a wide-ranging ensemble of incredible actors as well as local Baltimore residents! Following the reading, there will be a conversation between Stevie Walker Webb and Howard Sherman (author of Another Day's Begun: Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the 21st Century) about what it means to belong in Our Town, moderated by Artistic Director Stephanie Ybarra. Don't miss it!

Join Baltimore Center Stage and Two Strikes Theatre Collective for a Bridge Series reading of Alice Childress's one act play, Florence. A playwright, actress, and director, Alice Childress produced work over four decades exploring themes of empowering Black women, interracial politics, and working-class life. All of these themes are present in Florence, the play which started her career! This reading is directed by Nicole A. Watson and will be followed by a conversation contextualizing the themes of the play, such as colorism and its impacts on Black women's representation, and more. Don't miss out!

About Florence: A Black mother sits at a segregated railroad station in the South, preparing to take a train North to give her daughter Florence money and urge her to abandon her dreams of being an actress and come back home. She is joined by Mrs. Carter, a white woman who insists she's not "Southern" and therefore not racist, as far she's concerned. As Mrs. Carter urges Mama to talk to her, what starts as an innocuous conversation reveals the depths of the liberal racism of Northern white women, and pushes Mama to think differently about her journey.

About Two Strikes Theatre Collective:

Two Strikes Theatre Collective is an independent Baltimore theatre company founded in July 2019 to celebrate, promote, and encourage the intersectional voice of Black women and how it can be used for social change through art and community engagement. Created as a direct response to a lack of diversity and representation in theater spaces and propelled forward by the #SayHerName movement, our mission is to create art that is unapologetically Black femme-centric, to upset the white patriarchal status quo, and to provide creative outlets for Black women in the Baltimore community to express themselves through art. We were born with Two Strikes against us: Being a woman and being Black. We choose both. We are the match to ignite the revolution of Black women in theatre.

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