Welcome to the Arden Theatre Company blog, where we share behind-the-scenes stories and current happenings with you. You will hear from the Arden staff as well as actors and other visiting artists, and we hope to hear from you, too. If you have an idea for a topic, please post a comment about it. We can't wait to hear what you think!
By Rebecca Wright, producer for The Writers’ Room
37 Inside the Writers’ Room pass-holders joined the cast and Wendy for the first Table Read of Women in Jep. Because of the logistics of making sure the reading could be heard in a room full of people, we opted to do it at music stands instead of around an actual table. It was a roaring success! Lots of laughs, interesting ideas, and much good will all around. Everyone agreed that the cast is compelling and hilarious, and that the writing is funny and thought-provoking.
The reading was followed by a brief conversation between Ed and Wendy and the actors, after which they retired to the Arden’s offices to continue discussing the script, while I stayed behind with the passholders to talk with them about what we’d all just seen. Our conversation included questions about double-casting, scene changes, and certain of the play’s unsolved mysteries. Several pass-holders also stayed after the group conversation to ask more about some of the nuts-and-bolts theatre terms that came up in Wendy’s discussion with Ed. One of the terms that needed defining was “beat”—which is the smallest unit of action in a play; a beat shifts when a character’s emotion or intention shifts.
Here are some photos of the evening:
Update: you can view a short video from the evening here!
Rehearsals start next week and we’ll have more updates then!
[...] For The Writers’ Room, our table read of Wendy MacLeod’s new play was attended by our Inside the Writers’ Room passholders. [Read the blog from producer Becky Wright here] [...]