More About the Readings ... Trestle at Pope Lick Creek This Weekend!

We're resuming our public readings this Saturday, February 7, with Naomi Wallace's The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek. Again, we'll be in the Thrust Theatre at the University of Louisville at 2:00 p.m. Please come and bring friends! Click here for an earlier post with a map.

And if you're coming, please let me know in advance what kind of snacks you like.

Our first reading, of Slaughter City, was really productive in terms of starting our discussion of these plays, although it was very sparsely attended (one person not in the class, who happened to be my aunt!) I'm afraid that the messed up schedule because of the weather will keep people away again. But also, it occurs to me that since this is a kind of unusual process, it's unclear what we're doing. And most people are busy and tired and spending a Saturday afternoon reading and discussing a play may not be first on the priority list.

So I thought I might explain a bit what I expect to happen at/after these readings, and why we're doing them.

First, if you think about it, every time you go to a play you're part of a new community. For some people, it's rare anymore to sit together with a large group of people in the same place at the same time for a couple of hours. It seems a shame to let these groups just form and dissolve so quickly without talking to each other. I would like to be able to harness the potential of the community that is made when actors and audiences get together by starting the process earlier and extending it longer than just the performance itself.

This is an acting class, but acting class is normally done behind closed doors. Usually, students don't take part in choosing plays or scenes, and sometimes don't even have to read an entire play or think about how their work might affect or be affected by the world outside the classroom. This course is supposed to work differently in a lot of ways. The students imagine themselves as an ensemble theatre company who is preparing to put on a play in the community. But before they begin working on scenes, we are asking the community to help us choose a play that moves them and speaks directly to issues that are relevant to their lives.

We're asking people in Louisville to join us even before the rehearsal process even begins to help us choose a play and to start a dialogue that will continue throughout our work. At these readings, we spend some time just reading the play all the way through. And then we spend some time talking about what seems important about it, what we don't understand, what is familiar, etc.

Then, after the audience and actors choose a play, the community can be involved however they would like. As the students are rehearsing, they will also be putting together community based character studies based on interviews, so audience members might want to volunteer to be interviewed. Or you might know people who would like to help us by sharing their stories. Or you might just join our conversations here on the blog, or via email. You will be invited to attend rehearsals and offer feedback as we work. Or you could just come to the final showcase of all the work we've done this semester. Or you might choose not to participate any more at all. Basically, it's up to you how much time and effort you put into helping us learn about how to best develop this new process here.

So that, in a nutshell, is what these readings are all about. They are even before the beginning of a lot more work, and what we hope will be rich and productive discussions that bring us all closer together as a community. Through the process, I'm hoping audience members will also have a new perspective on how actors work, and can help us find out how best to involve the community in our processes so everybody benefits as much as possible.

So, I hope you'll join us! And snacks ... remember to tell me what kind of food to bring.