Kay Meek Centre presents a Play Reading Series, Jan. 9 to 17, curated and hosted by Nicola Cavendish featuring all local playwrights and professional actors. Jan. 9: Ocean Blue View by David King; Jan. 10: Two Part Invention by Dorothy Dittrich; Jan. 11: The Shoplifters by Morris Panych; Jan. 12: Seabird Is in a Happy Place by James Gordon King and Poor by Suzanne Ristic; Jan. 17: A Fortunate Son by Jay Brazeau. All readings at 7 p.m. Pay-what-you-can. Reserve at [email protected] or call 604-981-6335.
In the cosy studio theatre of the Kay Meek Centre, a table sits on the stage with bright lighting, perfect for reading.
The presentation of a play reading is all about being raw, says Nicola Cavendish, curator of the centre’s first Play Reading Series. As the actors surround the table, scripts in hand, she describes them embodying the emotion of the characters they play, but not much else.
“The nice thing about it is the audience gets to use their imagination for everything else around the story,” says Cavendish.
The plays presented in the series are all written by artists from around the Lower Mainland, who are at various stages in their careers.
With the format of the readings, each show will end with a question and answer period to allow the audience and playwrights to interact and discuss the stripped down production of the show.
“The playwrights themselves will take away from it what they need to take away from it, but they will perhaps look again at something that four people in the audience might have said, ‘yes, that lost me there too,’ ... or ‘I found myself drifting,’” explains Cavendish.
“That kind of feedback is really constructive, some of them might go away and find something much more positive about their actual ability as new playwrights as well.”
In addition to curating the show, Cavendish will be reading in Morris Panych’s play The Shoplifters, which examines the difference between society’s have and have-nots.
Panych was very strict in having the play read as a drama, according to Cavendish, who says the concept of a “wise street broad” training a younger shoplifter on the tricks of the trade had a lot of potential for comedy.
“He shut me down real quick and said, ‘No, I don’t want anything that plays into anything other than true terror.’
To me, to be able to bootleg a steak because you need some good food, against the risk of getting caught and what that actually does to the course of your life ... Morris wants to play it very hardcore and real.”
The series is designed to be an intimate and accessible way for those who might not know about the Kay Meek Centre and a chance to experience an evening of storytelling.
Play readings are a way for new content to be introduced to the public and offers an environment for acting students and local directors and producers to listen to a play that’s in gestation, according to Cavendish.
“This is my attempt to at least keep theatre alive in (Kay Meek), a kind of professional theatre that a lot of people don’t see, and that is the play reading,” she says.
“There’s something really beautiful about the community of it all.”
Feeling inspired and looking forward to this inaugural year of play readings leading to more in the future, Cavendish says she’s interested in creating themes for future reading nights to feature newly graduating playwrights or to provide a space for culturally inspired work.
]The events take place Jan. 9-12 and 17 at 7 p.m. with admission by donation.
