BlackShirtReads is a screenplay table read series based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Performances are held primarily at the historic Jean Cocteau Cinema in the city’s Railyard District.

With multiple performances each year, BlackShirtReads aims to provide both a workshop opportunity for screenwriters and an entertainment opportunity for industry professionals and the general public.

The series launched in 2014 and will host its third and fourth performances in the latter half of 2015.  Periodic CALLS FOR ENTRIES are issued through this web site and through the BlackShirtReads Facebook page, at which time entries are welcome from all interested screenwriters.

BlackShirtReads is born of the efforts of screenwriters Kathleen Dexter and Joanna Smith-Thole, both former students of award-winning screenwriter Kirk Ellis.

Kathleen’s fiction and screenplays have won or been finalists in the Page International Screenwriting Awards, Writer’s Digest National Self-Publishing Award and ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award.  In addition to writing for film and fiction, Kathleen worked in radio as production editor for The Magic Library, a children’s radio show produced at KUNM-FM in Albuquerque, and was producer/director for Partners in Production, a short promotional film highlighting New Mexico’s film crew talent.

Joanna is an alumna of the Scottsdale Motion Picture and Television program and is currently owner of CornerToCorner Productions (CTC), a historical and documentary film production company.  After attending the Sundance producer’s conference, she went on to write, edit and produce public service announcements, non-profit and interpretive museum orientation projects and commercial ventures.  After several years of splitting her time between Phoenix and New Mexico, she moved to Santa Fe to write for the Santa Fe Film Festival and pursue her screenwriting passion.  Joanna’s screenwriting projects include an Oprah book-to-screen adaptation and a neo-noir film.  She is currently writing a biographical thriller.

While the names may seem similar, BlackShirtReads is not in any way affiliated with The Black List.

Inquiries may be made at bsrsubmit@gmail.com.