Round the Bend Theatre is kicking off another season of local theater this month, with performances planned throughout the spring and summer. Play readings will take place all over the Hudson Valley, including at Kingston's The Voice Theatre and Upstate Films' Orpheum Theatre in Saugerties.

RTB held a contest to choose this year's featured plays, sending out the call to all Hudson Valley playwrights. They received 120 submissions and spent all winter narrowing them down to the final 12. It's an eclectic mix, thematically diverse and representative of the range of talent we have here in our area.

The season will kick off with two staged readings at the Byrdcliffe Theatre (380 Upper Byrdcliffe Road, Woodstock) - March 22, 23, 29 & 30 at 3 p.m. These plays - Greenville Tomorrow and Un Hombre: A Golem Story - have shown at RTB in previous seasons and will be lightly staged this time around.

Then, the new plays will take center stage. Each will be performed as a reading with professional actors, with a Q&A to follow. In Kingston, there will be readings throughout April at The Voice Theatre (272 Wall St., Kingston). See Edgar Wilson by Katherine Ambrosio on Friday, April 4; Garden of Memories by Jessica Bashline on Friday, April 11; or The Hardest Cut by Catherine Berg on Friday, April 18. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m.

Later in the season, Upstate Films' Orpheum Theatre (156 Main St, Saugerties) will host two readings: What We Will Be by Joe Thristino on Thursday, May 15, and I for an I by Lewis Arlt on Monday, July 28, both at 7:30 p.m.

Further readings will take place at the Byrdcliffe Theatre, The Mountain Top Arboretum in Tannersville, Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill and The Phoenicia Playhouse in Phoenicia.

For the full lineup, visit roundthebendtheatre.org.