Staged Reading

Director of MFA Playwriting Sheri Wilner invites you to the 2024 Actors Studio Staged Reading Series where the work of graduating MFA playwrights is brought to life by graduating MFA directors and actors.

Saturday February 10, 2024
2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.

For reservations, email ASDSReservations@pace.edu.

What in the F*ck is Pauly Doin’ at the Meat Raffle?
by Jake Mierva
Directed by P. David Hughes
2:00 p.m.

A small-town bar in Pine City, Minnesota, is hosting its seasonal meat raffle, and everyone has turned out to win the top prize: a filet mignon dinner. No one wants to win more than the bartender, Pauly, who inexplicably shows up on his day off. It’s a significant one for him and his wife, and his co-workers have re-arranged their schedules so they could spend it together. His avoidance of home, plus his fierce desperation to win, is a mystery even to his closest friends, leading everyone to ask, what in the f*ck is Pauly doin’ at the meat raffle?

What Killed the Dinosaurs
by Grayson May
Directed by Lindsey Alterman
5:00 p.m.

When her abusive father Sam is given a terminal diagnosis, Lilah—a 28-year-old, dinosaur-obsessed woman on the spectrum—struggles to convince her estranged and drug-addicted brother Caleb to come back home and celebrate Sam’s last birthday. Though they are now adults, the children inside Lilah and Caleb are very much alive and at odds about whether to forgive Sam and their neglectful mother, Tara. What Killed the Dinosaurs is a surreal exploration of generational trauma, the eternal bond between siblings, and how growing up in an abusive home can feel like living through an apocalypse.