Christine Rose

At the end of May, my play Sanctuary will have a “rehearsed reading” at the Seven Dials Playhouse! It’s tentatively scheduled for 22 May at 2pm, but that’s subject to change depending on the cast and director.

Before I started delving into the world of playwriting, I never heard of a rehearsed reading. Had no idea what it was. I first read about it in the awesome book Being a Playwright. It’s not quite a table read, which is when the cast collectively meet with the director for the first time, script in hand, and read through it together. Basically, a cold read. A rehearsed reading is a table read plus 2 or 3 rehearsals before the performance, which is also seated with script in hand. The actors don’t memorize their lines. There is no set, no blocking—just a group of actors reading a play they’ve rehearsed.

The purpose of this is usually to spark interest in the play, as plays are meant to be seen, not read. The interpretation and skill of the director and actors bring it to life. Industry professionals are invited to attend, like agents, theatre schedulers, funders, producers, etc. Ideally, they will think it’s worthy of a full production and represent it, produce it, or fund it.

If nothing else, it’s good for the playwright (me) to hear it performed and see how the audience reacts. I even designed a fancy new square business card for myself:

This is the first time I’ve produced a rehearsed reading, but so far it’s much like the countless other events I organized as an author, save finding participants. Thankfully, I’ve met a few industry professionals—a couple of independent producers/performers—who’ve helped me navigate the beginnings of this process, like tell me what venues hire rooms for these sorts of things, etc. If I’m lucky, I’ll get an official co-producer to help me put this together.

I’m currently auditioning actors and trying to secure a director. There have been lots of great applicants, so I’m confident we’ll have a nice cast in the next week. Once that’s set, I can send out invitations to industry professionals and cross my fingers some come!

This is exciting and definitely out of my comfort zone. We’ll see how it goes!