WHAT IS READERS THEATRE?

[Excerpted from READERS THEATRE, WHAT IT IS, HOW TO STAGE IT by Marvin Kaye, published in 1995 by The Stage & Screen Book Club; available from Wildside Press via amazon.com]

One afternoon last August, Beverly Fite, a charter member of The Open Book, was riding the subway on her way to a rehearsal of Caroline E. Wood's play in the form of letters, The Immigrant Garden, when she noticed that one of her fellow passengers was reading the script over her shoulder and had tears in her eyes. B ("My friends call me B. Not Beverly, just B") introduced herself and discovered her travel companion was another theatre person, Bobbie Hellard, of Ramona, California. Bobbie started to apologize for peeking at B's mail, and was surprised to find out that the passage she'd read was actually part of a new playscript.

"How fortunate you are to be working on such a touching script," Ms. Hellard later wrote. "In this day where words assault and offend, your lines are like the lavender-scented breeze. It never ceases to amaze me that all of the high-tech special effects people hunger for these days cannot measure up to the power of well-chosen words."

That phrase embodies the essence of readers theatre. Critic Walter Kerr once observed in a review of a production of Bűchner's Danton's Death that, despite the milling throngs and undeniably exciting spectacle, the drama -- and by extension, all drama -- does not get under way till the crowds exit and Danton confronts Robespierre. Which is another way of saying that mise en scene is a poor substitute for the power of language. Elaborate costumes, lighting effects, settings, even mime and dance are the baggage of Hellmouth, stuff designed to keep lowbrows amused while the players hammer home the playwright's true purpose.

Bill Bonham, cofounder and president of The Open Book, defines readers theatre as "a creative, fluid art form that presents all styles of literature, focusing on the experience found in the writer's text and encouraging the active imagination and intellectual participation of the audience. It is a presentational form, suggesting rather than representing the literature's physical elements. Thus, one reader may assume multiple roles, two or more readers may play one character, and minimal settings, costumes and lighting are fleshed out in the minds of the spectators. It is often referred to as `theatre of the mind.' One member of our audience calls it `visual radio.' "

In John Gassner's Producing the Play, Mordecai Gorelik defines presentationalism as "staging which emphasizes ... a direct relationship between the performers and the audiences. Presentational staging removes that invisible `fourth wall' which remains in (representational) staging even after the curtain is lifted." In traditional theatre, presentationalism is generally associated with those asides and soliloquies commonly found in Shakespeare, Marlowe, Goldoni, Moliere, commedia dell'arte, Restoration comedy, etc. In readers theatre, however, direct eye contact is often made with audience members and actors who appear with The Open Book are told that when there is an invisible "fourth wall," it is only waist-high and must be peeped over from time to time.

Most actors admit the necessity of illuminating the author's text, but too often that only implies the motivational study of "beats" and "actions" associated with Stanislavski's method of physical objectives. In readers theatre, texts must be analyzed with a thoroughness analogous to the scrutiny a professional violinist would afford a Beethoven quartet. (By now, it should be evident that readers theatre has nothing in common with "staged readings." The word "readers" is probably responsible for the error, similar to how Physician Assistants are sometimes confused with nurses instead of being recognized as the case-managing medical professionals they actually are.)

The physical scripts sometimes seen onstage in readers theatre productions are purely symbolic. At The Open Book, performers are required to memorize their lines, and often the books are only seen at the beginning and end of a performance. (The final curtain call is always reserved for the script itself).

In America, the origin of readers theatre is generally attributed to developments in the speech and oral interpretation curriculum at Northwestern University and other schools. Directors, educators and writers like Bll Bonham, Leslie Irene Coger, Marvin Kaye, Harriet Nesbit, Shirlee Sloyer, Melvin R. White, Judy E. Yordon and many others explored techniques and forms of analysis and interpretation ..

In a broader sense, however, readers theatre shares a common heritage with traditional theatre. In an article in the June 1932 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Eugene Bahn traces the beginnings of interpretive reading (from which readers theatre derives) to that moment in the early Greek drama when the actor playing Thespis stepped forward to tell the audience a narrative myth. This is the same moment of choral delineation that theatrical scholars point to when asked to trace the rise of the modern stage.
... this common origin suggests that readers theatre is not a new art form, but an old one which speech and oral interpretation professors have rescued and refurbished.

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THE OPEN BOOK

BILL BONHAM DIES

Bill, who cofounded The Open Book, and performed, directed and wrote many TOB shows in the company's earlier years, has been retired because of health problems.

The following e-mail arrived Tuesday, March 17, 2009:

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Dear Marvin Kaye:

You probably don’t remember me, but we met in the 1970s when I was a neighbor of Bill Bonham’s, in Brooklyn Heights. I went to some of your reader’s theatre performances.

I don’t know if you kept in touch with Bill Bonham, but I’m sorry to tell you that he died about 3 weeks ago. The details are rather fuzzy, but I can say that he was homebound for the past few years after suffering a broken hip and various other maladies. I thought you would want to know, in case you hadn’t already heard. Perhaps you’ll want to place a remembrance on the web site?

Ellen Shaw
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NEW YORK'S OLDEST PROFESSIONAL READERS THEATRE COMPANY

The Open Book was founded by Bill Bonham and Marvin Kaye in 1975, and has been continuously operating ever since. The company was formed to develop a streamlined alternative to America's overproduced traditional theatre. Our mission is to present the best of all worlds of literature -- prose, poetry, drama, even nonfiction -- to our culturally diverse tri-state audience, with emphasis on new under-appreciated literature of excellence that is likely to be bypassed by traditional theatre companies.

The Open Book's mission encompasses three primary communities we are committed to serve: 1) new and/or underutilized writing talent throughout the nation; 2) a tri-state general theatre audience with substantial discounts for the elderly and for students, and 3) economically disadvantaged Manhattan schools.

For nine years, The Open Book recognized and promoted writing talent nationally through the annual theatre playwrighting competition it cosponsored with The Stage & Screen division of Doubleday Book and Music Clubs. A series of winning scripts were produced in New York by The Open Book, and published and distributed by Doubleday. A strong response was realized during the competition's first four years, with approximately 450 entries submitted by playwrights in 40 states.

The Open Book serves audiences throughout the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut region, and manifests a special responsibility to residents of New York's West Side, where our company is based, by making our growing repertoire of new and worthwhile literature available, accessible and affordable. We offer better than 50% discounts to senior citizens, students and teachers.
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THIRTY YEARS OF UNIQUE THEATRE

1975: THE OPEN BOOK -- New York's oldest readers theatre ensemble is created by a team of professional actors, educators and writers.

1976: A series of biannual performances at Lincoln Center begin with THE OPEN BOOK's "signature piece," Poetry in Motion.

1980: THE OPEN BOOK becomes a tax-free nonprofit charitable institution and begins an authors reading series, "Writers On Stage," funded by Poets & Writers, Inc. In the same year, THE OPEN BOOK performs at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D. C., and also at Symphony Space.

1990: THE OPEN BOOK moves to the Amsterdam Room, 171 West 85th Street, and receives New York State Arts Council funding for Six Women in Search of Liberation. In the same year, the company establishes the Jean Paiva Memorial Fund for new writers, in memory of its late PR director. The company remains at the Amsterdam Room for eight years, producing approximately fifty Equity showcases in that time.

1994: THE OPEN BOOK establishes a separate educational outreach division and curriculum, Growing A Story: A Theatrical Exploration of Imagination for Literacy Enrichment at P. S. 128, Manhattan, with funding from The Astor Foundation, the J&L Dreyfus Foundation, and the NYC Board of Education.

1994: THE OPEN BOOK begins an annual national playwrighting competition cosponsored by Doubleday's Stage & Screen Book Club. The Stage & Screen Book Club publishes the winning scripts in anthologies edited by Marvin Kaye. THE OPEN BOOK produces the first winning scripts at the Amsterdam Room and at The Miranda Theatre, by invitation of sponsor Mario Fratti, playwright. Contest judges include Carol Higgins Clark, Prof. Louis Fantasia, John Jakes, Marvin Kaye, Rex Robbins, Mary Stuart and Prof. Judy E. Yordon.

1996: THE OPEN BOOK begins a series of national readers theatre workshop/conferences at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, with the sponsorship of George C. White, founder and President of the O'Neill Center.

1998: THE OPEN BOOK appears for seventeen weeks at the Jan Hus Playhouse, producing two off-Broadway shows, CHARLATAN, A Memoir of Sergei Diaghilev written by and starring 4-time Tony nominee Tony Tanner and The Hoboken Chicken Emergency,an a cappella musical based on the book by author and National Public Radio personality Daniel Pinkwater.

1999: THE OPEN BOOK produces new plays at The Producers Club and the 78th Street Theatre Lab, as well as a staged reading of a new Sherlock Holmes musical.

2001: THE OPEN BOOK continues producing national competition winners at the 78th Street Theatre Lab.

2004: THE OPEN BOOK produces an eight-week series celebrating Charles Dickens, two weeks of “Ghosts, Cads & Murderers,” two weeks of Dickens’s own theatre adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” and four weeks of THE LAST CHRISTMAS OF EBENEZER SCROOGE, a sequel to “A Christmas Carol,” which received a New York Times recommendation by critic Lawrence Van Gelder.

2005: THE OPEN BOOK celebrated its 30th anniversary and produced Clifford Lee Johnson's "Reconstruction" as well as its annual reprise of the critically acclaimed "The Last Christmas of Ebenezer Scrooge."

2006: THE OPEN BOOK premiered "STRINGS" by Carole Bugge at the 78th Street Theatre Lab, NYC. It starred KEIR DULLEA ("2001"), MIA DILLON and WARREN KELLEY, plus DREW DIX, ANDREA GALLO, and KURT ELFTMANN.

For further information concerning future development of this superb script, query this Web site or write directly to the playwright, cbugge@aol.com.

2008: THE OPEN BOOK coproduced "Oh, Whistle .. " and "A Pleasing Terror" with Nunkie Productions (UK) starring Robert Lloyd Parry, who did his popular London shows for three weeks at our New York venue.

Our tenth annual production of "The Last Christmas of Ebenezer Scrooge" was be performed at the 78th Street Theatre Lab on Sunday, December 21, 2008. As part of the anniversary, an afternoon presentation was included of Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol."
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FUTURE PRODUCTIONS

THE OPEN BOOK is planning to produce Marvin Kaye's interactive Don Juan comedy, "Mr. Jack" in 2009, dates and venue to be announced.
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PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization registered with the New York State Charities Commission, THE OPEN BOOK has frequently acted as a streamlined public partner to various companies developing new plays. For less than the price of the average staged reading, THE OPEN BOOK can mount an AEA-approved showcase for a four or five week run -- an excellent way to audience-test a new script and earn back part of the modest investment required. For details, write to theopenbook@juno.com