In the cramped corners of the receiving department, friendship is complicated. Is the staff truly looking out for each other, or just watching each other’s backs until it’s their turn to clock out? As quotas tighten and corporate metrics loom like an invisible manager breathing down their necks, a trio navigates the unspoken truth of retail: you can laugh with someone every day and still not know if they’d cover your shift — or have your back — when it really matters. RECEIVING is a slice-of-life dramedy that asks: Can you live honestly in a system built on selling things you don’t own, for money you can barely live on, with people you may — or may not — call friends? It’s about capitalism’s strange dance, the soft poetry in cardboard dust, and the stubborn, almost foolish hope that it’s not the work that matters — but the ones you do it with.

The Studio's FIRST LOOK program is an opportunity for our audiences to participate in the development of new, imaginative theater — to interact with our playwrights, directors and actors to help us perfect a story before it is brought to the stage for a paying audience. This series of live play readings is a standout favorite of our members and their friends from the general public. Participation is absolutely free to all who would like to join us. Be sure to stick around after the reading for a discussion with the playwright, director, actors and the audience. Your feedback is an important part of the play development process and will be greatly appreciated.