About




Café Bohemia is a full season of play readings, jams, and ideas, featuring diverse new works from bold and inventive playwrights.  Arizona audiences are invited to enter the dramatic process at its inception, being among the first people in the world to hear these stories come to life and investing in the future of the American theatre by starting relationships with new playwrights and new audiences.

About to complete its fourth season, Café Bohemia is curated by ATC Associate Artistic Director Stephen Wrentmore and ATC Literary Associate Katherine Monberg.  Now in Tucson and Phoenix, each monthly play reading throughout ATC's season brings together some of the brightest emerging writers and artists of Arizona and beyond to provide a raw, immediate theatrical experience in the comfortable and welcoming environments of the ATC Temple Lounge in Tucson, and the KAX Stage at the Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix.  

Plays showcased in the Café Bohemia play reading series have gone on to successful productions around the country:  Lauren Yee's Samsara premiered at Victory Gardens in Chicago in February 2015 (Cafe Bohemia 2014-2015); Albatross by Matthew Spangler and Benjamin Evett opened at The Poet's Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also in February 2015 (Cafe Bohemia 2014-2015); Michael Mejias’s Ghetto Babylon went on to receive its world premiere production at Off-Broadway's 59E59 (Café Bohemia 2012-2013); Steve Holiday’s award-winning Savage Bond was produced by Beowulf Alley Theatre Company in Tucson (Café Bohemia 2012-2013); and Kill Shakespeare by Anthony del Col and Conor McCreery has since been performed in New York, Chicago, Seattle, California and Dubai (Cafe Bohemia 2012-2013).

Café Bohemia also continues in its second season of Intermezzo, the show between the shows, providing monthly evenings of prose, poetry and performance live in the Temple Lounge while the ATC mainstage is between productions.

Café Bohemia's WordUp also continues, a fresh opportunity for local playwrights, poets, writers and storytellers to stretch their creative muscles and develop new works with the support of ATC’s professional literary staff. 


“Cafe Bohemia is every playwright's dream." 

-Elaine Romero (Playwright, Wetback, Café Bohemia 2011-2012)


“Café Bohemia is a burst of color on the play development scene; a celebration of live performance that exists to serve playwrights and new plays. To that end, the staff is expert, the artists are top-shelf and alive with the spirit of collaboration, and the audiences are both engaged and engaging.  For me, Café Bohemia was a dramaturgical compass; it pointed my play in the right direction, allowing me revise with confidence.”

-Michael Mejias (Playwright, Ghetto Babylon, Café Bohemia 2012-2013)


“Cafe Bohemia was a fantastic experience for me as a writer.  Lots of developmental workshops talk about doing this, but Cafe Bohemia accomplishes that rare beast, a true artistic relationship formed between playwright, literary and artistic management in an amazingly short time.  

Cafe Bohemia is exactly what it should be; fast, creative and fun.  All of the input from the wonderful group of professionals assembled for the experience was invaluable to me in rewriting my play."

-Larissa FastHorse (Playwright, Hunka, Café Bohemia 2011-2012)



For more information contact:
KATHERINE MONBERG | LITERARY ASSOCIATE
ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY | 47 YEARS OF AWARD-WINNING THEATRE
P 520.884.8210 X7508| E kmonberg@arizonatheatre.org



Café Bohemia is made possible by the generous support of Emerson and Peggy Knowles and Providence Service Corporation.

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