More Short Play Goodness Coming Your Way!
With 300 entries submitted to the Actors' Theatre annual short play contest, from playwrights all across the country, you can imagine the challenging task faced by our reading committee! Each year we receive many fine scripts, but only 16 can be cast and directed as full productions in the 8 Tens @ 8 Festival each January/February. So, we've created a chance to see staged readings of 8 more great short plays that were chosen by the committee as finalists, but which weren't selected by one of the 16 directors. The Best of the Rest opens this Friday, February 28, and plays for two weekends through Sunday, March 9.
Directors Rebecca Haley Clark and Cathy D. Warner take the helm again, directing an ensemble cast, for this year's Best of the Rest. In a blog post last year they shared some thoughts about this unique "Part 3" of the 8 Tens @ 8, that we felt were worth summarizing again.
Rebecca notes that there’s a certain freedom in working on a staged reading versus of a full production. "You are basically building the bare bones so that the audience can understand what is going on plot-wise without all of the costumes, sets, lighting, sound that might come with a production and aid in that process. It is really stripped down so you can focus on the acting and storytelling, in the same way that you would do in full production, before you take the scripts away."
Cathy believes this format allows and challenges the actors to go deep and focus on the layers of their characters and relationships without the pressure of memorizing lines. Using only the most essential set pieces and props allows much of the setting and story to be conjured by the imaginations of the performers and audience.
The rehearsal time is much shorter for these readings, and Cathy and Rebecca believe that the limited nature of the rehearsal process pushes all involved to work intensely and dive into the essence of the story, with a strong focus on to how make it real and believable for both performers and viewers.
Both directors also share how much fun it has been to co-direct this series of short plays--learning from and complementing each other as they guide their actors through these varied and interesting scripts to create a unique and different theater experience for the audience. They, and all of us at Actors' Theatre, hope you'll come drink from the cup of short play magic yet again, or come experience part of the 8 Tens for the first time, in Best of the Rest!
This year’s Best of the Rest features work by Sydney Green, Marc Littman, Donald Loftus, Gwen Mansfield, Jerry Metzker, Serena Norr, Jenny Boyle Penney, and Marjorie Williamson.
Tickets are only $15, and can be purchased HERE.
[Photographs from the 2023 Best of the Rest rehearsal process by Johathan Carter Schall.]
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