Date(s): SUNDAY, June 7, 2026 AND SUNDAY July 5, 2026
Type of Show: Staged Theatrical Reading
Showtime(s): 3:30PM
Tickets: $0-$15 sliding scale
RedBird Theater Company proudly presents FIRST FLIGHT, an ongoing showcase of new works by North Carolina playwrights.
THE BRIGHT STAR GARDEN (AND PICKLEBALL) CLUB
by North Carolina playwright Lynden Harris
Sunday, June 7, 2026 at 3:30 PM – Staged Reading
The ArtsCenter, 400 Roberson St., Carrboro, NC
Tickets and information at redbirdtheatercompany.com
It’s the 100th anniversary of the Bright Star Peanut Festival and Queen’s race. Four friends, members of the Bright Star Garden Club and former candidates in the race, gather for post-pickleball refreshments. As they await the announcement of this year’s contestants, they speculate on who will raise the most money and win the coveted title of Queen Goober Pea. Meanwhile Noemí, the house cleaner, just hopes no one looks too closely at her own family. When the candidate list goes live, it upends everything the friends assumed about the Queen’s race, each other, and the culture they’ve taken for granted. Who belongs? Who decides? Over the next four weeks — through pickleball, Hot Cheetos, ball gowns, and one extraordinary pot of peanut soup — they discover that Bright Star’s heritage is built on arrivals nobody thought to count.
Director: Tamara Kissane
Cast: Serena Ebhardt, Liza Guzman, Rasool Jahan, Jeri Lynn Schulke, Edith Snow
by North Carolina Playwright Chris Canfield
Sunday, July 5, 2026 at 3:30 PM – Staged Reading
The ArtsCenter, 400 Roberson St., Carrboro, NC
Tickets and information at redbirdtheatercompany.com
When retired history professor Althus Gray impulsively leaves his Michigan home for his sister’s house in small-town Tennessee, his wife Lillian must confront a forty-five-year rivalry she thought she’d won. As Althus reconnects with his Southern roots and a former flame, both he and Lillian face hard truths about identity, belonging, and the compromises required by marriage. GRAY’S LILY is ultimately a love story—one that asks whether scared, imperfect old people deserve love, and whether it’s ever too late to finally be yourself.
Director: Jeri Lynn Schulke
Cast: Scott Campbell, Mary Beth Clark, Kevin Collins, Marcia Edmundson, Jordan Estes, Kate Finlayson, Sarah Froeber, Cooper Thornton
