{"id":263,"date":"2012-06-27T06:30:45","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T10:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elainesmithwrites.com\/wp\/?p=263"},"modified":"2014-02-09T15:13:29","modified_gmt":"2014-02-09T20:13:29","slug":"play-readings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elainesmithwrites.com\/wp\/2012\/06\/27\/play-readings\/","title":{"rendered":"Play Readings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"color: #1c827a;\">Two ways to go<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When you get a reading of your play, and it\u2019s close enough for you to attend, there is an inherent dilemma for a playwright.\u00a0 Do you go to the rehearsals?\u00a0 Or stay away?<\/p>\n<p>The first thing to know, of course, is that the writer has the absolute right to attend rehearsals.\u00a0 If you want to go, you go.\u00a0 But should you?<\/p>\n<p>The benefits to going are pretty clear.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You can answer any questions and head off any misinterpretations.<\/li>\n<li>You can see for yourself where actors\u2019 tongues trip over your finely crafted phrases.<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;ll be prepared.\u00a0 If things aren&#8217;t going so well, it won&#8217;t be such a shock during the reading itself.<\/li>\n<li>You get to hear the play multiple times&#8211;during rehearsal as well as during the reading\u2014and that can help you enormously with an understanding of pace and plot and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thespis\">Thespis<\/a> knows what..<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the other hand, you can make the cast and the director nervous.\u00a0 When I was wearing my acting hat, there was always a little extra anxiety when the playwright showed up.\u00a0 Often, for readings, the writer hasn&#8217;t been involved in the casting process and may have been assigned a director, as well.\u00a0 So, they can, and probably will, be wondering if the playwright is happy with the choices.\u00a0 They&#8217;ve probably got enough to handle without that.<\/p>\n<p>Even if the actors are comfortable with you and eager for the writer&#8217;s input, you might be taking time that the director could more profitably spend on something else.<\/p>\n<p>And, if you aren\u2019t used to readings and the process, you can panic.\u00a0 <em>OMG, will the leading man ever get that laugh line right?\u00a0 Why does the leading lady insist on whispering during the fight scene?<\/em>\u00a0 Chances are the director sees and hears all these problems and is biding her time to deal with them.\u00a0 Good directors have an internal priority list.\u00a0 Often they know the actors and know what will right itself and what needs their intervention.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t help for you to be sitting there chewing your fingernails and tapping your foot until you get a chance to speak up.<\/p>\n<p>Staying away allows you to avoid those pitfalls and offers you one invaluable upside.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll hear the play fresh\u2014or as fresh as is ever possible when you\u2019ve written and rewritten and read and reread.\u00a0 You\u2019ll be less inclined to think the reading is going well when all that\u2019s really happening is that it is going better than it did in rehearsal.\u00a0 Your objectivity will not be compromised by familiarity with the participants.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, you&#8217;ve got to make up your own mind in every situation.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve done it both ways.\u00a0 Early in my adventures with my <a href=\"http:\/\/angelsandministers.com\">play<\/a>, it seemed so important to be there for every minute.\u00a0 And I&#8217;m glad I chose to attend rehearsals for the early readings.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m also glad I chose not to go to the rehearsals for the latest readings at the Penobscot Theatre.<\/p>\n<p>I think I was less distracted by my internal actor and my internal director, and I was better able to focus on the writing.<\/p>\n<p>I think.<\/p>\n<p>The thing about choices is that you have to choose.\u00a0 Once you&#8217;ve chosen, you can&#8217;t have the other choices.\u00a0 And you&#8217;ll never really know what would have happened if you had.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two ways to go When you get a reading of your play, and it\u2019s close enough for you to attend, there is an inherent dilemma for a playwright.\u00a0 Do you go to the rehearsals?\u00a0 Or stay away? The first thing to know, of course, is that the writer has the absolute right to attend rehearsals.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[44,299,5],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","category-theatre","tag-readings","tag-theatre","tag-playwriting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elainesmithwrites.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elainesmithwrites.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elainesmithwrites.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elainesmithwrites.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elainesmithwrites.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/elainesmithwrites.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3330,"href":"https:\/\/elainesmithwrites.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/3330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elainesmithwrites.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elainesmithwrites.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elainesmithwrites.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}