Unless you’re an actor – or actress – there’s a good chance you haven’t been privy to the reading of many screen plays.
But we’re pretty sure you know what it is. If not, it’s basically what happens once all the parts have been cast for a movie and the actors/actresses get together in a room and read the script.
What if we told you you could go and watch a live reading of a screen play, would you be interested? And what if that screen play reading was actually a play about a fake movie? That’s what you’ll find over the next three weekends at Hatbox Theatre.
Screen Play, written in 2005 by A.R. Gurney, is what he calls “a homage to, and reworking of, the movie Casablanca,” staged in Buffalo, N.Y.
It’s set in 2015, which was the future back then, and in a nut shell, Screen Play is a political satire about a Republican run country, written by disgruntled democrats.
“It was written right in the heart of the Bush era,” said Kevin Bartlett, the play’s director. “It’s very funny.”
There will be six actors standing at music stands, literally reading from the screen play.
“It was one of the reasons I liked it, it was different,” Bartlett said.
So none of the four men and two women had to spend much time learning their lines for this one – that’s why there were only a few scheduled readings before Friday’s opening night.
“It’s part of why I picked it,” Bartlett said.
There is a back drop that changes during the hour and a half production (no intermissions) to give the audience something other to look at than people standing at music stands. Although they will be dressed in costume as if they were actually auditioning for the part in the movie, which again is not a real movie, but rather concocted for this play.
“The idea was that the screen play was too dangerous to produce,” Bartlett said.
Screen Play will run for three weeks at Hatbox Theatre, located at Steeplegate Mall, beginning Friday at 7:30 p.m. There will also be shows Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. It will also be performed May 6-8 and May 13-15.
As one of three proprietors in Hatbox and having worked with many acting companies in New Hampshire, including the Concord Community Players, Bartlett knew he’d be added to the schedule.
“We knew when we started this place up, we’d have to fill some spots in the schedule,” Bartlett said. “But it’s something I wanted to do anyways.”
Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students, seniors and members.
Visit hatboxnh.com to for more info or to order tickets, or call the box office at 715-2315.
Insider staff
