BHCT’s Reading & Discussion Series pairs readings of plays with an open discussion led by a local humanities scholar. The 2022-2023 series features three plays on a variety of topics. Audiences are invited to stay after each reading to engage in an open discussion with a local humanities scholar, share their experience of the play and explore the ideas raised. Discussions will focus on the fields of theatre history, literature, linguistics, and sociology.

The reading and discussion series is 'pay what you can'

Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage
Friday, January 6th, 2023 at 7:30pm 
The time is 1905, the place New York City, where Esther, a black seamstress, lives in a boarding house for women and sews intimate apparel for clients who range from wealthy white patrons to black prostitutes. Her skills and discretion are much in demand, and her interest and appreciation of fine fabrics has spilled over into a tentative friendship with the man who sells her cloth. One by one, the other denizens of the boarding house marry and move away, but Esther remains, lonely and longing for a husband and a future. When a letter arrives from a mysterious man named George Armstrong, Esther cautiously begins a long distance romance. When George finally arrives in New York, reality may not live up to the dreams his letters conjured.
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Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison
​Friday, March 10th, 2023 at 7:30pm 
It’s the age of artificial intelligence, and 85-year-old Marjorie — a jumble of disparate, fading memories — has a handsome new companion, Walter, who’s programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. Her daughter and son-in law have mixed feelings about this new relationship, yet as time passes they begin to understand the strange and complicated comfort Walter offers. What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance? What is ineffably human and what can technology replace?
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Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Friday, June 2nd, 2023 at 7:30pm 
Before they die Everybody has a chance to find others who will go with them as they cross over from life to after-life. As they journey closer to death they realize that those they valued most, those that paid the most lip-service to loyalty, are not willing to make the journey. What can they hold onto as they face their ultimate fear and what does it mean to live as a flawed and vulnerable human being? Based on the 15th century morality play Everyman, Everybody deftly illustrates that six centuries later humanity is still grappling with the biggest mysteries.
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Look Back at 2021-2022 Reading Series

The Reading and Discussion Series is sponsored by Todd and Julie Brink and in part by the South Dakota Humanities Council.