Garbo’s and Chickspeare are collaborating on a play reading series. Our first offering will be Stop Kiss, by playwright Diana Son. We will read the play at Garbo's for 3 consecutive nights: June 18, 19, and 20 at 7:30 p.m.

Stop Kiss had its New York premiere at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre, where it was extended three times, making it the longest running play at the Public under the George C. Wolfe administration. The play earned nominations for both the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Drama League Award, and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. In this poignant and funny play, two young women slowly discover that they might be falling in love. When their tentative first kiss provokes an act of violence, their lives are transformed in ways they couldn’t have predicted.

Son says the play is "political [only] in the sense that politics is a way of looking at events that happen to people. I would never personally say, ‘This is a play about homophobia. This is a play about gay-bashing. This is a play about the civil rights of gays and lesbians in America.’ I would describe the play as a love story."

Son's plays have been produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville, La Jolla Playhouse, and the Mark Taper Forum. She writes for The West Wing and is currently developing a movie for Meg Ryan. The mechanics of Stop Kiss challenge audiences with an exciting narrative structure, intercutting past and present scenes. A powerhouse group of Charlotte actors will read this innovative new work. Different actors will read each night. They include Joanna Gerdy, Nicia Feldman, Margret Anich, Meredith McBride, Kim Watson, Vera Jo Greene, Alan McClintock, Mark Sutton, Josh Gaffga, Aaron Moore, and Peter Smeal.