We are excited to announce this season’s playwriting residency with Ryan Bernsten whose new satire “Reduction in Force” will be developed through KCPublic’s 2025-26 season and will receive it’s first production in May 2026 at our 5th Annual Theatre Lab FEST.
STAGED READING
Sunday, September, 14 @ 7:30pm
The Black Box
1060 Union Ave, Kansas City, MO 64101
FREE ADMISSION AT THE DOOR
Synopsis:
Leadership at S.L.A.Y., a struggling youth suicide prevention nonprofit, is planning mass layoffs in the name of “sustainability.” Employees scramble to keep their jobs in a workplace where loyalty trumps impact, performative virtue masks ambition, and gaslighting is policy. Reduction in Force is a blistering comedy about power, performative politics, and the human cost of a mission-driven machine.
Content Advisory: Strong language, mature themes and humor regarding suicide and race.
About Ryan Bernsten:
Ryan studied playwriting at Northwestern University and received his master’s degree from the University of Oxford. His plays have been performed internationally: onstage, ATLANTIC – a collaboration with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and his alma mater Northwestern University – won critical acclaim at Edinburgh Fringe and DREAM TICKET (Players Theatre, off-Broadway) won the NY Fringe Excellence Award and was recommended by The Huffington Post and TimeOut. Other credits include WE ARE BLOOD (William Jewell College, Olathe Civic Theatre, Kansas City Public Theatre, Angels Theatre Company, ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition Finalist; Jewish Theatre Project Play Competition Semifinalist); BAD PRESS (Cherry Lane Theatre); THE NEW ORDER (William Jewell College, Kansas City Horror Play Festival, Corkscrew Theatre Festival, Oxford University Dramatic Society Best Play for Voices); NOVEL (The Arts Asylum, Kansas City Public Theatre, Charlotte Street Foundation). At Oxford, he received a distinction for his narrative nonfiction account of his American travels to all 50 states, which was published as 50 States of Mind: A Journey to Rediscover American Democracy. Leveraging this experience, Ryan is an international keynote speaker, exploring how we can have more effective conversations and use community involvement to make change. Ryan is a contributor for The Infatuation and has been published in Newsweek, The Kansas City Star, USA Today, The Fulcrum, The St. Louis Dispatch, and The Oxford Political Review, and worked with CONAN and The Onion. You may have seen him chatting with Helen Mirren as a Slytherin contestant on the quiz show HARRY POTTER: TOURNAMENT OF HOUSES on HBO. Ryan has won Webby and Gold Telly Awards with the creative team at The Trevor Project in the roles of Senior Managing Editor and Director of Campaign Strategy and Editorial. Ryan is the Director of Brand & Partnerships at American Public Square and the playwright in residence at Kansas City Public Theatre. His playwriting work is represented by Victoria Morris of Lexikat Artists and is also represented as a speaker by the London Speaker Bureau.
Website: https://www.ryanbernsten.com/
Kansas City Public Theatre 