Dark Nights in Billtown is our opportunity to explore interesting plays, topics and conversation with our audience members. Join us for staged readings of three plays in the 2024-2025 season, read by professional actors under the guidance of professional directors. These scaled down evenings let us bring more theatrical experiences to you. Reading held at the Williamston Theatre. No reservations necessary. Suggested donation of $10 at the door.

Dark Night in Billtown: 
Special Election-Year Play Festival
October 7 – 9, 2024

Animal Farm
Adapted by Ian Wooldridge from the book by George Orwell
Monday, October 7 at 7:30
The animals on a farm drive out their master and take over and run the farm for themselves. The experiment is successful, except that someone must take the deposed farmer's place. Leadership devolves upon the pigs, which are cleverer than the rest of the animals. Unfortunately, their character is not equal to their intelligence. George Orwell's satire on the perils of Stalinism has proved magnificently long-lived as a parable about totalitarianism anywhere and has given the world at least one immortal phrase: "Some are more equal than others."

Bad Books
by Sharyn Rothstein
Tuesday, October 8 at 7:30
A worried mother comes to the library for what she thinks will be a reasonable, polite discussion about which books are appropriate for her teenage son. But her confrontation with the town librarian, a woman who cares deeply about her job and her community, sparks a chain reaction of consequences no one expected. Equal parts heartbreakingly poignant and absurdly funny, Bad Books leaves audiences wondering what it truly means to care for our children. A raucous and brash debate in the quietest place in America... the library. Williamston Theatre will also present a reading of Bad Books as a part of the Lansing Lit Festival on Saturday, September 21 at 1:30pm at Hooked Bookstore in Lansing. Featuring Alysia Kolascz and Sandra Birch.

The Election
by Don Zolidis
Wednesday, October 9 at 7:30
After an embattled student body president resigns in disgrace, Mark Davenport figures he will cruise to victory in the special election. After all, his only opponent is nerdy Christy Martin, who wants to eliminate football. But when a mysterious Super PAC gives her an unlimited budget, things start to get very ugly. Mark must face total annihilation or accept the services of a slick professional campaign manager with questionable ethics and a million-dollar Super PAC of his own. A hilarious and timely satire on the contemporary political scene.

More Dark Nights in Billtown:
Monday, March 3, 2025 at 7:30pm
Monday, May 19, 2025 at 7:30pm