"Bill" by Roger Q. Mason (Philadelphia Reading with Post-Show Social)

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Join us after the reading for a conversation with the playwright and an informal social in the lobby of the theatre.

Bill by Roger Q. Mason

Directed by Danilo Gambini
Dramaturg: Amrita Ramanan

Featuring David Ingram, Nick Jonczak, Anthony Martinez-Briggs, Roger Q. Mason, and Charlie Thurston

This play is supported by a generous grant from The Linda and David Glickstein Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation. 

In the not-too-distant future, democracy is dead, and the American experiment has come to an end. In the barren remains of what was once Philadelphia, Taffeta, living in the ruins of America, arrives to give the nation a proper burial, appointing herself freedom’s only mourner.

But before she can lay it to rest, the ghosts of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Paine return in disbelief, unwilling to accept that their republic is dead. They do not come to grieve it, but to deny its loss, and to demand it continue.

When a man named Bill, stumbles upon the gravesite, he confronts Taffeta as the living consequence of what America has left behind.

Caught between the Founders’ refusal to accept endings and Bill’s demand for a life beyond survival, Taffeta is forced to choose what can still be carried forward, and what must be let go.

Bill, a sequel to Roger's Lavender Men, excavates the contradictions at the heart of the American experiment and asks what it means to belong, what home is, and where else we go when there is no home.

About the Playwright

Roger Q. Mason is an award-winning writer, performer, and thought leader whose work uses history as a lens to challenge systems of exclusion. Roger’s plays are theatrical mythologies for the marginalized, especially those who are Queer, Black, Filipinx, TGNC, plus-sized, and previously erased from the classical canon.

Their plays include The Duat (Barrymore Award Winner), Lavender Men, The Pride of Lions, Califas Trilogy (California Story, Hide & Hide, and Juana Maria), The Pink, Waiting for a Wake, and Night Cities: A Bayard Rustin Ritual. The award-winning cinematic adaptation of their play, Lavender Men, directed by Lovell Holder, continues to resonate with audiences and is available to stream online on AppleTV+.

A fierce advocate for artist development and collective uplift, Roger mentors with the Marsha P. Johnson Institute’s Starship Fellowship, the New Visions Fellowship, and the Shay Foundation Fellowship. They are also the creator and co-host of the acclaimed podcast Sister Roger’s Gayborhood and former host of Queerly Yours: Portraits in Courage on This Way Out Radio.

About the 2026 New Play Development Conference

PlayPenn’s nationally recognized New Play Development Conference brings together readings of new plays alongside a citywide series of civic gatherings, workshops, artist exchanges, and public conversations focusing on art, democracy, historical memory, belonging, and collective imagination. This community-focused approach to new play development reflects a broader vision of theatre in a shared civic life that illuminates what theatre can do, who participates in it, how it unfolds, and why it matters. 

The 19-event Conference brings together 22 playwrights participating across workshops, conversations, and five new work presentations while expanding its scope to include an interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Eboni Booth (Primary Trust), free playwriting workshops for adults, teens, and women over 50, and a public conversation examining constitutional history and civic identity.

Additional programming includes a community workshop for queer theatre makers; a convening on innovation in theatre-making with leaders from Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Cannonball Festival, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Lemonade Stand, and Tiny Dynamite; and an acting lab focused on approaches to new play development and cross-community exchanges among theatre artists.