Play Reading SIG |
Do you love reading plays? Our SIG gives participants a chance to read aloud and analyze scenes and characters from prize-winning plays. We meet once or twice per month for two hours, usually on a Friday afternoon, so as not to conflict with other OLLI courses. During the year we are open to suggestions as to which plays to read, while in the summer, when hopefully theatres will resume performances, we choose plays that we can both read and view. We encourage our members to prepare and lead discussions on plays that interest them. Thriving on group participation, we allow two sessions to cover each one. Particular editions are selected that can be ordered online or from the Lenox Bookstore. In the past our meetings have been in person but this year our group has been very successful on Zoom. We hope to see you there! Please contact Alice Roth, Barbara Waldinger or Karel Fisher for more details or additional information about the Play Reading SIG. |
Schedule of Forthcoming Play Reading Events June 16 & 23 (at 3pm): Fences by August Wilson (Facilitator: Will Singleton) Fences won the Pulitzer Prize and the 1987 Tony Award for Best Play. The play will be performed at Shakespeare & Company in July, directed by Christopher Edwards. From the theater website: The play is set in the 1950s and "follows the story of Troy Maxson – a working-class Black man struggling to provide for his family. His past includes the high of a promising career with the Negro Baseball League and the low of a prison sentence, while his present is complicated by resentment, regret, and the walls we build around ourselves.” July 14 & 21 (at 3pm): Faith Healer by Brien Friel (Facilitator: John Trainor). This drama by a leading Irish playwright will be shown at Barrington Stage Company in August, directed by Julianne Boyd. From the theater website: "The mysterious and charismatic Frank Hardy travels as a faith healer across the Welsh and Scottish countryside. A three-person play in four monologues, Frank, his wife, Grace, and his manager, Teddy, recount the same events from different perspectives.” Aug. (19th at 10.30am and 25th at 11am): Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker (Facilitator: TBD). This play won a New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play. It will be performed at Chester Theatre in August and directed by Daniel Elihu-Kramer. From the theater website: "Five very different people come together in a Vermont community center for an amateur acting class. They are there to learn about performing, but their games and exercises teach them more about themselves and each other than they do about theatre.” Please note that our August meetings are in person. If you are interested in attending, send an email to Alice Roth or Barbara Waldinger and we will provide more information. Getting the Scripts Fences by August Wilson (Plume, June 1986). See Amazon here for copies of the paperback at $11.99. Includes introduction by Lloyd Richards. Faith Healer by Brian Friel (Faber & Faber, 2019). See Amazon here for copies of the paperback at $9.24 Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker (Faber & Faber). See Amazon here for copies of the paperback at $13.08. |
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Berkshires OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College |
