There isn't a curtain to raise or intermission cocktails to serve, but when the playwrights from Pittsburgh PlayWorks gather for their casual summer play-reading series, they usually pack the house.

For five consecutive Friday nights beginning tomorrow, Wash Art's Inspiration Café will host the Friday Night "Wrights" play-reading series at the cafe at 243 S. Main St. in Washington, Pa.

The series is a joint venture of the Terra Nova Theatre Group and PlayWorks. In its second year, it features familiar faces to theatergoers in Washington and Allegheny counties -- local actors such as Nancy Bach, Tony Bingham, Ken Bolden, Allison Cahill, Susan Martinelli, Mark Stevenson and Mark Yochum.

The readings offer a stripped-down theater experience with very little to distract the audience from the carefully chosen words of some top local playwrights.

"There's something uniquely theatrical and very liberating about not having to think about costumes and props," said Bill Cameron, a professor of theater and communications at William and Jefferson College.

"The people who show up at these readings are very interested in the language itself."

Play readings also give playwrights a chance to tweak their creations.

Three of the five of the plays in this year's summer series have been read before in the Pittsburgh area and have been modified since the earlier readings.

Those who have seen the plays before might be interested in how the plays have changed since earlier readings, Mr. Cameron said.

"[A reading] gives playwrights a chance to gauge audience reactions to humor and pathos," he said. "It is a great form of feedback and very experimental."

Tomorrow's play is "Switched at Birth" by Denise Pullen. It is the story of a woman so desperate to have a family that she ultimately tries to convince the world that she was switched at birth.

All performances begin at 8 p.m. Other plays in the series include "An Evening of One-Acts featuring Mother Marian" by Ginny Cunningham and "Snaketown" by Sheila Kelly, July 17, and "Not Fade Away" by William Cameron, July 24.

For more, call Bill Cameron at 724-413-0650 or e-mail bcameron28@comcast.net.