The Trench: 2008 Season

(W)hole: by Tracy Shaffer Witherspoon; March 10, 2008 at 7pm; The Crossroads Theater; When a painter hires a seductive model, her life is shattered. As she struggles to pick up the pieces, she discovers what makes life, in all its uncertainty, truly whole.; Tracy Shaffer Witherspoon's Saints & Hysterics was read during The Trench's inaugural season and went on to be produced by Paragon in 2004. (W)hole began in the Denver Center Theatre Company's 2001 Playwright's Unit and was further developed by Curious Theatre Company. Tracy is a graduate of the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting, works in the Denver Center Theatre's Acting Company, and is a long-standing member of Actor's Equity Association.

Home By Dark: by Terry Dodd; May 19, 2008 at 7pm; The Crossroads Theater; 1986. March. The dead of winter. Saturday morning. The hour before dawn. Darkness. The sound of a clock ticking. A young man and his father grapple to turn fear and resentment into truth and acceptance.; Terry Dodd won the Denver Post Ovation Award for Best Season for a Director 2006 and has been directing and writing shows for over 25 years. As a playwright his scripts include: Goodnight, Texas (Denver Center), Amateur Night at the Big Heart (Arvada Center), and Vaughn, New Mexico, Christmas Eve, 1956 (Denver Civic).

Holy Couch, God's Religion and Hoping to See God: by Edith Weiss; August 4, 2008 at 7pm; The Crossroads Theater; A hilarious meditation on theology and absurdity, Edith Weiss' trilogy conjures up a living room where Jesus is both the Son of God and the Mexican Gardener, a fearless, tenacious Patron Saint of Comedians and Victor Frankenstein and his Monster coming to terms with the afterlife.; This past year, Edith Weiss' one acts have been seen in Boston, Chicago, and New York. Her Cinderella Cinderella was produced at the Littleton Town Hall in January, and Two Dumb Dogs premieres as the summer show for kids at the Backstage Theater in Breckenridge. She also acts, directs, and is a stand up comic.

12 Gauge: by Martin McGovern; November 3, 2008 at 7pm; The Crossroads Theater; Houston, Texas. 1995. Early summer. An apartment. A church. A lawyer's office. A Preacher. A boy. A girl. The girl's father. Faith, sex and loyalty all vie for attention in this gripping tale of one woman's struggle to come to terms with her existence.; Martin McGovern co-founded the Urban Theatre in Houston, Texas, and became Associate Artistic Director of Ad Hoc Theatre. A member of the 2001 Playwrights Unit at the Denver Center for Performing Arts, McGovern's Joseph K was produced in Houston; a previous incarnation of 12 Gauge was given a staged reading with Denver's The Other Theatre Company in 2003. He currently teaches with the Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State College of Denver, and the graduate program at Regis University.

All Trench readings are free and open to the public and are followed by a mediated talk back and refreshments.