LETTERS READ

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In their own words

LETTERS READ is a series of readings in which local performers interpret letters and documents written by culturally vital individuals from various times and Louisiana communities presented by stationer, Nancy Sharon Collins, and Antenna. 2025 is the ninth consecutive season.Productions are free, open to the public, and presented live and as podcasts.

Why you'd press play

A birthday card with 'Happy birthday' crossed out might be your kind of love letter.

Press play if you want

  • the human details behind New Orleans reproductive rights organizing, including a friendship begun on a balcony
  • to follow Josephine Louise Newcomb's family letters as grief and money enter the same story
Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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Best episodes of LETTERS READ

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

Vision, Voice & ValorOct 30, 2025

A staged account of Planned Parenthood Louisville shaped by archives, friendship, and awkward lived memory.

Letters Read's "Vision, Voice & Valor" finds a personal way into sex and gender politics, tying a friendship and a fertility struggle to the founding of Planned Parenthood Louisville.

Sex, Love, Gender, and TrustJun 1, 2025

A marriage comes into focus through an edited greeting card, private language, and the stories people build around sex.

Letters Read's "Sex, Love, Gender, and Trust" stays close to the domestic evidence of a marriage, beginning with Ted reading a Valentine's card that still shows its birthday-card beginnings.

LETTERS READ: The Josephine Louise Newcomb StoryNov 8, 2024

A family tragedy takes shape through letters, testimony, and the unresolved question of one carriage ride.

Josephine Louise Newcomb's story unfolds as a gothic family drama built from letters, legal papers, and testimony, with money, duty, illness, and grief all pressing into the same frame.

Podcasts like LETTERS READ

Episodes

  1. 1

    An Interview with the Director

    Apr 5, 2026·16m
  2. 2

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR XIX: How Activism Activates

    Feb 18, 2026·8m
  3. 3

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR XIX: How Activism Activates

    Feb 9, 2026·4m
  4. 4

    Vision, Voice & Valor

    Hidden gem

    Terry Bartlett's theatrical testimony traces Planned Parenthood of Louisiana from a Magazine Street shotgun double to international reproductive-rights advocacy through Population Action International.

    Oct 30, 2025·32m·2 clips
  5. 5

    Sex, Love, Gender, and Trust

    Letters Read presents Angela Breckenridge and Ted Wally’s relationship through post-it notes, greeting cards, and spoken memories from Delgado Community College in New Orleans.

    Jun 1, 2025·20m·1 clip
  6. 6

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR XVIII: Lust vs Love

    May 11, 2025·8m
  7. 7

    LETTERS READ: 2025 The Sex Cycle Introduction

    Apr 8, 2025·4m
  8. 8

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR XVIII - AIDS Hospice with Hywel Sims

    Dec 11, 2024·17m
  9. 9

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR XVII: Peter DeLancey

    Dec 4, 2024·7m
  10. 10

    LETTERS READ: The Josephine Louise Newcomb Story

    Hidden gem

    Josephine Newcomb writes, "I scarcely do anything but cry," while decorating her family's graves for Christmas.

    Nov 8, 2024·29m·2 clips
  11. 11

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR XVI: Brad Ott, Activism & Independent Publishing

    Oct 18, 2024·7m
  12. 12

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR XV: NO/AIDS, Crescent Care, & Noel Twilbeck

    Aug 8, 2024·10m
  13. 13

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR XIV: ACT UP New Orleans

    Aug 8, 2024·11m
  14. 14

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR XIII: Introduction to HIV|AIDS in the Early Days

    Jun 5, 2024·5m
  15. 15

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR XII: Josephine Louise Newcomb Notes

    Jun 2, 2024·4m
  16. 16

    LETTERS READ: The Letters of Josephine Louise Newcomb

    Hidden gem

    Letters Read stages a live reading of about 130 letters and court records from Susan Tucker and Beth Willinger's online project, The Letters of Josephine Louise Newcomb.

    Apr 18, 2024·27m·1 clip
  17. 17

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR XI: Water & Salt

    Nov 5, 2023·12m
  18. 18

    LETTERS READ: DRUGS, SEX, ROCK & ROLL. A Year of Magic and Wonder

    Oct 20, 2023·18m
  19. 19

    LETTERS READ: Robert Moses & The Riverfront Expressway

    Jul 16, 2023·18m
  20. 20

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR X: Introducing the 2023 Season, Director’s Note

    Mar 20, 2023·6m
  21. 21

    LETTERS READ: Lady Louisiana Artist Magen Raine Gladden

    Hidden gem

    Letters Read profiles Louisiana graphic designer Megan Raine Gladden through childhood memories, medical history, and career experiences.

    Jan 1, 2023·23m·1 clip
  22. 22

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR IX: Takin' it from the Street

    Nov 24, 2022·7m
  23. 23

    LETTERS READ: Lady Louisiana Artist Angela Gregory

    Sep 28, 2022·20m
  24. 24

    LETTERS READ: Lady Louisiana Artist Michel Varisco

    Jun 23, 2022·19m
  25. 25

    LETTERS READ: The Only Person Brought to Trial for Conspiracy to Assassinate President John F. Kennedy

    Apr 1, 2022·26m
  26. 26

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR VIII: Mid-20th Century Foreign Intrigue & the Almighty American Dollar

    Jan 1, 2022·12m
  27. 27

    LETTERS READ: Mad Men New Orleans-style!

    Nov 26, 2021·20m
  28. 28

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR VIII: The Power of a Personal Letter

    Nov 7, 2021·5m
  29. 29

    LETTERS READ: Bananas Anyone?

    Jul 15, 2021·29m
  30. 30

    LETTERS READ: The Letters of Edgar Degas

    Mar 25, 2021·30m
  31. 31

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR VI: Michel Musson, 1849

    Mar 19, 2021·12m
  32. 32

    LETTERS READ: A Conversation with Two Actors

    A podcast series where performers read letters from historically significant individuals, with this episode featuring a conversation about Tennessee Williams.

    Jan 1, 2021·32m
  33. 33

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR IV: Baron Joseph-Xavier Delfau de Pontalba & the Yellow Fever Epidemic in New Orleans

    Dec 15, 2020·12m
  34. 34

    LETTERS READ: The Letters of Robert W. Stuart

    Nov 30, 2020·34m
  35. 35

    LETTERS READ: The Letters of Skip Ward

    Aug 20, 2020·48m
  36. 36

    LETTERS READ: The Letters of Stewart Butler

    Apr 26, 2020·31m
  37. 37

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR III: A Preliminary Reading of Personal Letters to Stewart Butler

    Jan 10, 2020·17m
  38. 38

    LETTERS READ: A Narrative of Baroness de Pontalba

    A live reading event featuring historical letters about the Baroness de Pontalba and her influence on New Orleans.

    Oct 15, 2019·59m
  39. 39

    LETTERS READ: Codex II

    Aug 17, 2019·4m
  40. 40

    LETTERS READ: The Nature of Property Ownership, and the Origins of Felicity Redevelopment

    A live reading of historically important letters from New Orleans, focusing on the origin story of Felicity Redevelopment.

    May 5, 2019·39m
  41. 41

    LETTERS READ: The Desegregation of New Orleans Public Libraries

    This episode explores the desegregation of New Orleans public libraries in the 1950s through archival letters and documents.

    Feb 19, 2019·37m
  42. 42

    LETTERS READ: Janet Mary Riley

    Jun 29, 2018·44m
  43. 43

    LETTERS READ: Text Dating Part II

    Mar 30, 2018·25m
  44. 44

    LETTERS READ: Text Dating Part I

    Mar 30, 2018·50m
  45. 45

    LETTERS READ: The Luck of Friendship

    Mar 30, 2018·1h
  46. 46

    LETTERS READ INCUBATOR I: Peter Rogers Meets Tennessee Williams & Vivien Leigh

    Feb 23, 2018·3m