Professor’s New Play to Receive Staged Reading

A new play by Professor of Theatre Lynne Conner will receive a staged reading by the Dramatic Repertory Company (DRC) in Portland, Maine, on November 18. The event, which will take place at Mayo Street Arts in Portland, is part of the DRC’s Patron’s Club Reading Series.

Conner’s Seven Sisters is loosely based on her mother’s family—seven sisters brought up on a subsidence farm in rural Western New York during the Depression and World War II eras—and is described as “a hymn to the beauty and magnitude of ordinary women.”

“I’m thrilled about this opportunity to present the play to the public,” Conner said. “The staged reading features seven of Portland’s finest professional actresses. After the reading I’ll host a discussion with the audience to get audience feedback. That will guide me as I write the final draft of the play in the winter/spring of 2025.”

In addition to Dramatic Repertory Company, Conner’s plays, dance-theatre works, and adaptations have been produced at Chautauqua Institution Amphitheatre, Theatre Project (Brunswick, Maine), Main Street Theatre (Houston), First Flight Theatre (New Jersey), Theatre-Hikes (Chicago), the Actors’ Guild of Lexington (Kentucky), Gemini Theatre (Pittsburgh), Prime Stage (Pittsburgh), Carnegie Mellon University, Smith College, William and Mary College, Loyola Marymount, Slippery Rock University, Point Park University and the University of Pittsburgh Repertory Theatre (among others). 

Her recent play, The Mother, received its world premiere at Dramatic Repertory Theatre in Portland in March 2020 and was subsequently produced as an audio play by Dagaz Media (directed by Conner).  The Mother was 2023 Bay Area National Playwright’s Festival semi-finalist and a 2019 and 2018 Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center National Playwright’s Conference semi-finalist.