June 2026 Read and Rant

Athena Project’s Read & Rant program seeks to combine the sharing of theatrical work with the wider public and the new play development aspects of our former Plays In Progress Series while also fostering collaboration between playwrights and dramaturgs. Think book club for plays! Learn what makes a good script, discuss how it affects us, and explore the ways it links to the larger world. This monthly free offering to the community aims to raise awareness of the under-representation of women’s stories on stage. Each month, we read two new and unproduced scripts selected from a nationwide call for submissions and typically meet every third Monday online via Zoom to discuss the works. Join us to converse with invited playwrights who bring an in-depth knowledge of the works and theatrical writing at large. Guided by a dramaturg, we also invite you to share your constructive comments, thoughts, and affirmations in order to aid in the development process of the pieces. This month we will be featuring: Gaby Labotka is a Puerto Rican-American, genderfluid multi-disciplinary theatre artist who works as an actor, director, intimacy director/coordinator, fight director, movement choreographer, and playwright across the country. In 2024, they were a Nominee for the 3Arts Arts Award in Theater for their distinctive work and contributions to the creative field, and in 2026 they are a Resident Playwright at Ragdale. Their play Rare Wolves is a Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist (2025), Goodman New Stages Semifinalist (2025-2026), and its first draft emerged from the University of Chicago’s Summer 2024 Chicago Performance Lab. Another of Gaby’s plays-in-development was also a Finalist for the inaugural Trans History Project, a revolutionary national initiative led by Baltimore Center Stage and Breaking the Binary Theatre, which aims to commission, develop, and publish new plays about the real history of gender non-conformity. Victoria Baker is a performer and playwright from Boston, Massachusetts. She is currently studying at the Chicago College of Performing Arts to receive a BFA in Musical Theatre with a Dance Concentration. She’s been writing plays since her sophomore year of high school, and this past spring she was able to direct her show STAGES in The Miller Theatre at Roosevelt University. She is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work with The Athena Project this summer!