Reading Theater Project presents Proud
Reading Theater Project presents Proud
Reading Theater Project presents Proud Play about peacock and humanity opens our 25/26 season of live and local theater
October 29, 2025, Reading, Pa. — The Reading Theater Project is pleased to announce the first play of the 25/26 season, Proud by Judd Lear Silverman. The production opens Friday, November 7, 2025, 7:30 P.M., and performs over two weekends at the WCR Center for the Arts, located at 140 N. 5th Street, Reading. Tickets are available online or by calling 484-706-9719. More information can be found at: ReadingTheaterProject.org/Proud/
About the play: In May 2018, a three-day traffic jam persisted on the Schuylkill Expressway—a pride of peacocks, escapees from the nearby Philadelphia Zoo, were purposefully marching down the side of the highway on a top-secret mission. This is their story, from their POV.
The cast features four actors playing peacocks: Kevin Wade plays Tom, the heroic leader; Patrick O'Neill plays Dick, the intellectual/ historian; José Alejandro Román plays Harry, the beloved showman; and Molly Carl plays Pat, the youngest peacock. Another for actors play humans: Erick Goldsmith plays the vain TV Anchor Jim; Rebeca Dunn plays popular TV news reporter Andrea; Alison N. Lines plays the Zoo Official, a zoologist and Philly Zoo spokesperson; and Xiomara Linda Guerrero plays the State Policeman, a tired traffic cop.
The production team includes: Kimberly Patterson, director; Sophia Stopper, stage manager; Jody Reppert, set construction; Mak Sherrid, costume designer; Jewell A. Brown, production manager and sound designer. Chris Heslop composed and arranged music to be performed by a saxophone ensemble conducted by Mike Eben. Saxophonists include Kaden Baluta, Sophia Moyer, Carlos Manuel Alvarez-Mejia Jr., Aidan Kidd, Rocky Rochlin.
Playwright Judd Lear Silverman has recently planted roots in the Reading area after having directed and designed here in the 1980s. His short and long plays have been seen across the country and internationally, with locations as far flung as Nova Scotia, Edinburgh, and Anchorage Alaska. He has been published in numerous books and anthologies (with PROUD recently published by Next Stage Press). After years of working for various producers, agents, and managers, he began teaching Theater and English, most recently at Pace University in NYC.
All productions this season will follow the Pay What You Will ticket pricing model: an audience member can choose their own price for a ticket, including $0. We recommend $25 for this production, and encourage those who are able to pay the $50 Pay It Forward price. This ticket pricing model is part of our Theater for All initiative to make theater more accessible to all audiences.
This production is the first in Reading Theater Project’s current season, Embracing Our Humanity. Audiences can look forward to the annual 5-Minute Fringe Festival in February/March 2025 at the Yocum Institute for Arts Education in West Lawn, and the world premiere of Banshee by Adam Richter in May 2026 at the WCR Center for the Arts in Reading.
Reading Theater Project receives funding from EnerSys, the Reading Musical Foundation, and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, administered through Berks Arts. The Reading Theater Project is a locally-focused theater company, based in Reading/Berks County, PA. We value collaboration and creative challenges and believe theater is an inclusive experience that can reveal our shared human condition. For more information, visit readingtheaterproject.org or call 484-706-9719.