Threshold Theater Opens 2023 Reading Series With Sci-Fi Romance at Midway Soccer Bar

Threshold Theater will begin its 2023 new play reading series on Monday, March 13, with a staged reading of "Zero State," a play billed as "an unexpectedly pansexual sci-fi romance." The event takes place at The Black Hart of Saint Paul, a soccer bar in the Midway neighborhood at 1415 W. University Ave.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the reading starts at 7 p.m. Matthew Everett, the company's literary director, said audiences should expect about 90 minutes of performance followed by a half-hour conversation to debrief. Tickets cost $10 and are sold at the door. Because the venue is a bar, attendees are encouraged to buy a drink and take it to their seats. The company also asks that guests wear masks.

"Zero State" was written by Allison Moon, who formerly worked as a sex educator and trained as a neuroscientist. Its protagonist is also a neuroscientist, who comes to inhabit the body of her late husband. In doing so, she discovers more about him than she knew while he was alive, including his memories and hallucinations. Kim Hines, a local actor, playwright and theater coach, directs the reading.

Everett described the play as "very funny" and "very sexy," and said it raises "strange, thorny ethical issues." In his words, it explores how people let go of one another, how they mourn and connect, and how differently each person experiences the world, "and what it's like to literally walk around in someone else's skin."

That kind of exploration runs through much of the company's programming, Everett said. Threshold Theater was founded in 2019 and began presenting in-person readings last year. It concentrates on work by contemporary LGBTQ playwrights, and it looks for plays in which queer characters meet the world in authentic ways.

Everett said the mission carries added weight at present. "Particularly now in this climate, it's very important to be reminding people that people in the queer community are humans, and that we're not political footballs or punching bags," he said. He added that the company wants to center queer joy, saying there is already "enough homosexual suffering-as-entertainment out there."

The readings are intentionally modest. Everett said the company must raise more money before it can afford a full theatrical production. Playwrights may keep revising their scripts in response to audience feedback, and the post-show discussions are meant to work in both directions. Moon cannot attend the March 13 reading, but she has given Everett several questions to put to the audience.

Though small, the company is growing, according to Everett. It is hiring two literary associates to help sort through what he called an "overwhelming" volume of script submissions. He said all actors, writers, directors and playwrights are paid.

"This is our way of testing things out," Everett said.