“If you're wondering if Play Club is for you, the answer's yes. Even if you've never read a play before, yes. Even if Netflix is the closest you've ever come to seeing a play, still yes. Reading and discussing plays is for everyone. Your experience as a human being is the only training you need.” - Molly Smith Metzler, playwright

Play Club is for people who:

- like to read and discuss ideas in a community of curious folks

- enjoy going to theatre and seeing plays - or want to learn more about experiencing theatre

- are interested in conversations with Playwrights

- are curious to learn how to read and talk about plays

- are studying or teaching theatre (high school, college & beyond)

- are theatre-makers and producers

- work with theatres seeking new plays and engaging experiences for audiences

- are Book club enthusiasts, eager to learn a new literary art form

Theatre-making is a unique art form. A play first takes shape in to the playwright’s mind, then they bring their vision onto the page, and then collaborators - directors, designers and actors - bring it to life onstage.

So a play can be appreciated as both a literary work and a performance experience.

Like a book club, members read plays and join dynamic interactive group discussions facilitated by professional theatre artists. Then members have the rare opportunity to actually meet and be in conversation with the featured playwrights and theatre-makers of the highest calibre.

Plays are fun to read! They leap off the page with dialogue and action, with less narrative than novels. Like poetry, each play has a unique structure and form. Plays employ all the languages of the stage — words, light, sound, music, movement, gesture — to tell a story.

You’ll discover how each script becomes a roadmap the Playwright creates for their collaborators — director, designers and actors — to bring to life.

Play Club is $15 a month, if you would like to pay one month at a time. A yearly membership is $150, which comes to $12.50 a month (or 2 months free.)

To learn more, go to JOIN.

No. Play Club members purchase or find their own copies of the plays. We make it super easy. You’ll receive a monthly email with links to purchase them. Plays generally cost $5-$20. Some are available at libraries or as e-books.

Play Club is a fan of Bookshop.org, a company that donates a percentage of every book to a local indy bookstore of your choosing. We’ve created a Play Club page on Bookshop.org to make it easy to find all of the plays in one place. You’re welcome to purchase from Bookshop (allow up to 10 days for delivery), search on your own for your copies, or borrow from your local library. Totally up to you.

We offer three small group discussion sessions each month (via Zoom), each one discussing the themes, ideas, story, characters of the featured play. Choose the one(s) that fit your schedule. Discussions are guided by founder and playwright Amy Wheeler (and guest theatre artists), who offer questions to prompt conversation. Feel free to listen or chime in.

Play Club features work by professional playwrights whose plays are being seen on and off-Broadway, and at theatres across the country. Some are award winning established artists, some are exciting new voices.

Featured Playwrights select their play that will be read and discussed, then join the live Zoom session at the end of the month for a conversation with Play Club founder and playwright Amy Wheeler, and a Q&A with members.

We know that not everyone loves group discussions. There are no rules or expectations about joining the ones we host. You may wish to join the Zoom discussion as a fly-on-the-wall. Or you may wish to skip the group discussions and join for the live online conversation with the Playwright (recorded and available for members to view for 1 year). You choose how you engage.

Starting in 2023, we’re taking Play Club on the road, and hosting meet-ups in different cities. We’ll see a play together, then head to a local watering hole for conversation. Sometimes we’ll be joined by members of the cast, or the playwright or director.

Theatres are partnering with us to offer Play Club group discounts. When you become a member, you’ll receive weekly emails with dates and links to buy your ticket(s), and join us when we come to a theatre near you.

Playwrights are the creative engine of the theatre. Simply put: playwrights generate work that employs all other theatre artists, and sells tickets.

By purchasing plays and becoming fans of new work, Play Club’s cross-generational community is supporting the livelihood of artists, and contributing to a thriving theatre ecology.

Play Club is powered by playwrights, so memberships directly support theatre artists.