Westport, CT - Westport Country Playhouse will present a Script in Hand playreading of “Still,” a romantic story of two reunited lovers, on Monday, May 5, at 7 p.m. Written by Lia Romeo and directed by Mark Shanahan, Playhouse artistic director and Script in Hand curator, the play is nominated for a 2025 John Gassner Award, presented by the Outer Critics Circle.
“I am thrilled to present Lia Romeo’s remarkable ‘Still’ as part of our Script in Hand series,” said Shanahan. “Lia's script is heartbreakingly funny even as it is beautifully insightful, offering a poignant look at the complexities of rekindled relationships. In ‘Still,’ we meet characters who navigate their regrets, their hopes, and their personal beliefs, even as they are willing to bear their vulnerabilities and reveal their passions. This is a play that not only confronts uncomfortable truths but does so with a skillful blend of humor and heart, and I know it will get our audience talking!”
When former lovers Helen and Mark reunite after years apart, they quickly realize that the person each of them once knew—and the love they shared—might be more complicated than they remembered. What begins as an attempt to reconnect turns into a sharp, funny, and deeply emotional exploration that challenges everything the pair thought they understood about the past—and the possibilities for their future. As old wounds are reopened, secrets are revealed, and uncomfortable truths come to light, “Still” explores what happens when we confront the people from our past—and discover that we might never have truly known them at all.
Cast members are John Bedford Lloyd as Mark (Westport Country Playhouse: “The Drawer Boy”; Broadway: “Some Americans Abroad,” “The Rainmaker”; Television: “Ozark,” “The Divide,” “John Adams,” “Mohammad Ali’s Greatest Fight”; Film: “Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps,” “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Bourne Supremacy,” “Nixon,” “Philadelphia,” “The Abyss,” “Crossing Delancey,” “Trading Places”; worked with Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) since 2006, directing and developing new work with the residents of Green Haven Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in New York); and Allison Mackie as Helen (Westport Country Playhouse: “The Constant Wife,” “Dear Brutus,” “David Copperfield”; Broadway: “Cyrano de Bergerac” as Roxane, opposite Frank Langella, “Candida” with Joanne Woodward; Regional: “The Big Knife,” “La Ronde” at Williamstown, dir. Joanne Woodward; “Fallen Angels,” “The Royal Family,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Peccadillo,” “When Last We Flew”;
Film/TV: HBO’s “The Great Lillian Hall,” “Our Very Own,” “Original Sin,” “Gia,” “Rear Window,” “Friends & Family,” “Those People,” “Night Sweats,” “The Gymnast,” “Sliver”).
Stage directions will be read by Rebbekah Vega-Romero ((Westport Country Playhouse: Stage directions for Script in Hand playreadings of “True Art,” “Tenderness and Gratitude Number Four,” “Mauritius”; Theatre: “Showboat,” “West Side Story,” “The Fantasticks,” “A Christmas Carol”; founding member of the DIEZ collective; LaGuardia (“Fame”) H.S., Boston University, 2023 Doreen Montalvo Scholarship honoree; @RebbekahVR).
Ruth E. Kramer is stage manager (46 years of previous behind-the-scenes adventures include 20 seasons and 40 productions at Pittsburgh Public Theater, and a plentitude of dramas, comedies, musicals, classics, new works, dances, readings, and workshops nation-wide; serves on the National Council of Actors’ Equity Association; 2021 Stage Managers’ Association Del Hughes Honoree for Lifetime Achievement in the Art of Stage Management).
Playwright Lia Romeo is a recent graduate of the Juilliard playwriting program. Her plays have been developed at the O’Neill, La Jolla Playhouse, the Lark, and elsewhere, and have been produced in NYC by Colt Coeur, Project Y Theatre, and others, as well as regionally at venues such as Dorset Theatre Festival, Laguna Playhouse, Unicorn Theatre, and New Jersey Repertory Theatre. Four of her plays have been recognized by the Kilroys List. Her plays are published by TRW, Broadway Licensing, and Broadway Play Publishing. She is the associate artistic director with Project Y Theatre Company and the co-founder of the Parent-Caregiver Playwrights Group, and she teaches in the M.A. program in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She is a cancer survivor and the mother of a five-year-old son.
Tickets are $30. Running time is 80 minutes, no intermission. Mature language; recommended for 15 and up.
For full details, visit: https://www.westportplayhouse.org/show/script-in-hand-still/
The Script in Hand Playreading Series is supported by Joyce Hergenhan and the White Barn Program of the Lucille Lortel Foundation. 2025 Programming and Season Sponsor is Barbara Streicker. Media sponsors are Moffly Media and WSHU Public Radio. Westport Country Playhouse is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
Upcoming Script in Hand playreadings are scheduled on Mondays at 7 p.m. as follows: June 9 (“The Shark Is Broken”, behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film “Jaws”), Sept. 8, Nov. 3, and Dec. 1; titles to be announced.
Script in Hand playreadings offer intimate storytelling as professional actors use their skills to catapult the audience’s imagination without benefit of scenery or costumes. For a video on Script in Hand, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2eWDaF-JXA
A complete schedule of Playhouse events is available at westportplayhouse.org. All play titles, artists, dates, and times are subject to change.
For Westport Country Playhouse information and tickets, visit westportplayhouse.org or call the box office at (203) 227-4177, toll-free at 1-888-927-7529. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), Instagram (wcplayhouse), and YouTube (WestportPlayhouse). Westport Country Playhouse is located at 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport.