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Salt Lake Acting Company
March 24th,  2010

New Play Sounding Series: Grassroots audience readings offers sounding board for playwrights' material
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by Heidi Grieser

The setting is England, 1814, and in the cloak of night some former factory workers break in to the home of a factory owner. They lost their jobs and now the workers will excact their vengence. I'm watching what might turn out to be an excellent play about the begining of the industrial revolution.

But the "New Play Sounding Series" consists of nine actors dressed in black, sitting on stage with scripts in hand to read a new play by Keith Reddin, "Prophets of Nature." These actors don't wear costumes, have props, or make any motions. But I'm easily drawn into the charaters and the drama. Perhaps even more then at a fully produced play because so much is left to the imagination.

It's a rare opportunity for any city to get this kind of access to an author, but at the Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC) it happens about every six weeks.

And it's also a great opportunity for the writer. During the question and answer portion of the night an audience member asked Reddin what he gets out of hearing his play read? He almost shouted, "No one's ever going to produce this play." The audience was shocked, but he laughed, "It's got nine actors playing, like, 30 roles and it's a story about terrorists. It's too big. I've been working on this, and now I've got to see it for the first and maybe only time."

Playwright Keith Reddin, Playwright Meg Gibson and Executive Producer Keven Myhre answer questions

Hopefully that won't be the case, but everyone involved was disappointed to hear that the cost of producing this play meant it would probably go no further than tonight's reading.

Reddin said, "I watch the audience and I can tell when people get bored...start slouching in their seats... and then I make a mental note to cut that scene shorter." But from where I was sitting no one was bored.

The audience erupted in laugher at the ridiculous facial expressions of the actor playing the Prince Regent, Nick O'Donnell, while he expressed his desire for an excess of fish at the coronation banquet. It's hard to believe from the quality of the accents and acting that they only rehearse 10 hours for the "Sounding Series."

Described by the executive producers of SLAC as very "committed" and "articulate" critics, the regulars of the "sounding series" seem drawn in by the challenges posed by the reading. One woman in attendance said, "It's often more moving to come to one of these readings than a fully produced play."

Actor, Mark Gollaher said, "I have to trust the audience's imagination; we have to create the bare essence together." Then another actor comically cut in, "and sometimes it sucks. We're reading something and it should be visual, and it's still a few rewrites away from being good. I'm sure you've all sat through one of those and we're all volunteers here so there's no paycheck to look forward to," said Michael Behrens.

This kind of grassroots workshop has proven effective for many of the playwrights. Executive producer, Keven Myhre, said many of the plays that start at SLAC go on to bigger places. "'The Overwhelming' from fall 2008 went on to London and then to Broadway."

"It's invaluable to have people who will read your work and help you with it," said Julie Jenson, Playwright in Residence at SLAC. "It depends where you are in the process, but I've done plays there that I had to rewrite three quarters of," said Jenson.

The next playwright set to premiere at SLAC, Kathleen Cahill, did a reading of her much anticipated "Charm" at the "Sounding Series" last year and said it helped her imagine the way the parts should be acted. "A play is written to be heard and a lot of plays sound good on page but don't transfer well," said Cahill, "it's exciting to be there the first time because maybe it will be good."

Cahill said "I'm impressed with SLAC for their commitment to new plays. I've worked all over, and SLAC is one of the finest theaters I've ever worked with. A lot of theaters say they are committed to new plays but when financial trouble hits it's the first thing to go." Since the "Sounding Series" began in 1994 it has staged more then 50 new play readings, according to the SLAC website.

One season ticket holder, Howard Parker said, "You see atypical plays here. It's a much different experience than seeing a play at, say, Pioneer Theater."

Kay and Jan Leonard said they have been coming for about 20 years. "It's always different, always fresh, and to a degree, it's always controversial for Salt Lake," said Jan. They both echoed, "It's nice to be able to support the local theater"

Executive producer, Cynthia Fleming said, "Because we put on new plays you can't recognize the titles. Our subscribers for the year have to trust the quality of our plays and the stories we tell."

Luckily, as Reddin said about his work, "It's been a tough year, but people still crave big stories."

Upcoming Salt Lake Acting Company Shows:

"Charm" will run April 14 thru May 9, and playwright Kathleen Cahill will be present for a reading of her new work, "The Persian Court" at the next "New Play Sounding Series" on Monday April 26th at 7pm.

Learn More:

http://www.saltlakeactingcompany.org/

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