"Nightbird" by R. Eric Thomas - a reading at Motor House

What goes in the place of a Confederate monument in a black Baltimore neighborhood? Chelle, an artist, has recently purchased her childhood home in Upton; her brother Willard is working on refurbishing it. The place is stunning, honey, but the neighborhood is more weed than flower. The windows let in the sounds of a city street teeming with kids and sirens and the footsteps of white joggers and firecrackers and the chop of the police helicopters. And out of those windows you can see an abandoned lot on one side--an opportunity and an eyesore--and on the other, an empty pedestal that until recently was home to a statue of Robert E. Lee. An eyesore. And an opportunity. Willard is determined to focus on the present, preparing for a Juneteenth festival in the park that used to house the monument, as Chelle starts building a new monument to take the old one's place.

This is a play about liminal spaces, about the in-between, the tenuous, the fragile and the things on the cusp of exploding. Will a reckoning come? And after that, well, what then?

Rapid Lemon Productions is delighted to present this script reading, directed by Noah Silas, for one night only. The reading will be followed by a brief talkback with the playwright and director. All tickets are for in-person attendance; no streaming will be available. Attendees must be masked while inside the theater.