writing is live
Throwback Island by Ro Reddick '22 MFA Directed by Aileen Wen McGroddy ’22 MFA Reading Thursday, April 28, 6PM Saturday, April 30, 1PM Leeds Theatre 83 Waterman Street, Providence RI 02912 CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS Six “sexy singles” go to a secluded island for nostalgia soaked good vibes, #truelove, and a chance to win a $100K. But when a strongman bachelor enters the villa there’s a lot more at stake than a pot of money… Throwback Island is a dark satire that explores homegrown, all-American fascism through a bonkers reality dating show.
Ro Reddick (she/her) is a playwright, performer, songwriter and first year MFA Playwriting student at Brown University. Her plays include Throwback Island (Bushwick Starr Reading Series ‘22), ROBAMA (Williamstown Theater Festival NYC Reading ‘22), Miss Black Syracuse (The Duplex), and The History of Black People Making White People Better People (co-writer Daryl Lathon). Her script The Fam was a semi-finalist for the MACRO x Blacklist Episodic Lab, and her short film A Test In Stamina premiered at the Big Apple Film Festival. Ro is a recipient of the Miranda Theatre Company 2021 Playwright Grant. As an actor, Ro has performed at theaters including the McCarter, Long Wharf, KC Rep, and Hartford Stage, off-Broadway in “Silence! The Musical”, and on screen in The Americans, Louie, and SATC 2. She formerly sang with a country, rock, and blues band and has written over a dozen original songs with musician Ron Gross. She is currently in the Brown Arts Institute Songwriters Workshop. Ro has a BFA in Acting from Ithaca College and an MBA from NYU, which she has no intention of using.
Aileen Wen McGroddy (she/her) is a Chinese- and Irish-American theatre director, educator, and producer of live events. Her work is imaginative, inclusive, and playfully experimental, coming from a robust background in physical theatre and a deep commitment to hospitality. She became a person in New York; a theatre maker in Chicago; and a soon-to-be Master of Fine Arts in Directing (2021) at Brown-Trinity in Providence, RI. Credits include: On The Y-Axis by Lucas Baisch, Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams, Akira Kurosawa Explains his Movies and Yogurt by Julia Izumi, and The Tempest by William Shakespeare adapted by Aileen McGroddy (Brown-Trinity); Or, by Liz Duffy-Adams (Winnipesaukee Playhouse); Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical and The Snowy Day (Emerald City Theatre); Montauciel Takes Flight (Lifeline Theatre); Ulysses (The Plagiarists); A Hero’s Journey, The Hunting of the Snark, Robin Hood, and The Pied Piper (The Forks & Hope Ensemble); The Whiskey Radio Hour, Wake: A Folk Opera, Kodachrome Telephone and Sign of Rain (The Whiskey Rebellion); Gentle, The Edge of Our Bodies, Music Hall, The Anyway Cabaret (TUTA); The Nose and Reika and the Wolves (Mudlark Theatre); and In This Final Century (Theatre-Hikes). She has assisted at The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Trinity Rep, Court Theatre, The Actors’ Gymnasium, The Hypocrites, and The House. Before moving to Providence, she was the artistic director of The Forks & Hope Ensemble and the Whiskey Rebellion; she was a company member of TUTA, sat on the steering committee of DirectorsLabChicago, and on the producing team of Physical Festival Chicago.