IN RESPONSE 2025: RISE UP!

In Response takes the news of our times straight from our streets and our screens, and builds awareness and promotes activism so that people feel empowered to make change. That is the power of the performing arts in 2025. This year’s theme is RISE UP! And the production includes spoken word pieces, short plays, monologues and musical performances. Thursdays will be film nights and Fridays-Sundays will be show nights!

A GENTILE MENSCH By Anita Yellin Simons

In 1950 La Jolla, California, three scientists and professors at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography discuss academic and religious freedom during the height of the Red Scare in America. All characters are real people and the story is based in truth.

A NEW AMERICA by Reginald Edmund

A Black man, haunted by a family curse of entrepreneurial sorrow, finds his American Dream shattered by racial hatred during a pandemic, only to discover renewed hope and a "New America" through the unexpected kindness of his community.

FOR THE LOVE OF D’ARTAGNAN  by Roland Ponce Rusinek 

In a near-future America, a desperate queer writer must plead for mercy when a government worker arrives to cut his internet, only to discover that survival, rebellion, and maybe even love can come from unexpected places.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS  – UNEXPECTED 1884 by STEPHEN BLACKBURN

In the twilight of Reconstruction, civil rights icon Frederick Douglass— widower recently married to a much younger white woman—grapples with memories of betrayal when a letter from estranged ally Elizabeth Cady Stanton reopens old wounds and rekindles a bond forged in justice, broken by history, and tested by love across color and cause.

HOLD THE LINE spoken word piece by Sharon Langley

A spoken word poem which highlights the long overdue promise of voter equality in the face of voter suppression and intimidation.  Resistance will help us hold the line and rise up.

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN By Rich Rubin

A priest and his immigrant parishioner confront the new American reality.

RUMBLINGS by Kimba Henerson

On the day of his second inauguration, President Donald J. Trump pardoned 1500 perpetrators of the January 6th Capitol attack and called them patriots. True patriots buried in the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery would like a word. 

THE RIGHT TO LIFE by Shanelle Darlene 

Time: A dystopian present. Place: America’s hottest game show. The prize? The Right to Life. 

nOTHINGS a spoken word piece by e talley ii

the Way & the Truth will set you Free in the 2020s to be

Blood Bank A short film by: S. Pearl Sharp

A poem that speaks to how women’s labor, local resources and bodies are used without permission or compensation for the profit of corporations, governments, and criminals.

The Plea A short film by: RCB

A reflection to make us aware of a simple truth – we are all one.

 Stand! A short film by: Marlene McCurtis

Written by incarcerated men at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in Lancaster, CA through the Theatre Workers Project. Formerly incarcerated men perform in this story that examines the personal struggle to stand up for justice and hope – even in the most challenging situations.

Look What You Made Me Do A short film by: Destiny Nelson

A music video that follows a young black woman who is killed by police, and then rises from the dead to seek revenge.

Anatomy of a King A short film by: Jaimyon Parker and Malika Blessing

A spoken word piece put to film examining what is happening in America.

Plus a display of fine artwork by Laura Brody, Susan Lee and Cathy Weiss

Host or Publisher Towne Street Theatre