The lights off Campbell Avenue in the Village at Shirlington are a long way from Broadway, but above them in the lobby of Signature Theatre, five playwrights are taking steps toward seeing their work go from the page to the stage.
Starting in October 2015, local playwrights have had the opportunity to hear their unpublished works read and discussed with a live audience as part of Signature Theatre’s Monday Night New Play Readings series. A new addition to the SigWorks program, which focuses on the development of new plays, the series takes place on one Monday every other month with the next on April 11 at 7 p.m. The goal is to offer a platform for writers to hear their work in a different environment.
“There’s a difference between sitting at home in front of the computer, as opposed to hearing actors read it out loud,” explains Joe Calarco, the director of new works and resident director at Signature. “To hear it from other people, you yourself hear it differently.”
Calarco offers a new spin to the traditional idea of play readings. “We do it in the lobby; people order drinks and food at the bar,” he says. “We want it to be a very communal atmosphere, not laid back, but a place where people can come and gather and hear a new play.”
In some cases, the playwright is hearing it for the first time like the audience. Such was the case for Heather McDonald, a professor of theater at George Mason University, whose play Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was February’s reading.
“That’s always kind of a lovely and cringeworthy experience,” McDonald says. “You hear something, and you are kind of relieved it worked, and then you hear where you still need some work.”
Three of the five plays for this first season have been performed so far. Calarco says that the readings have been a big success. In fact, one of the plays, The Gulf by Audrey Cefaly, has just been announced as one of the shows for Signature’s next season.
Calarco knows not every play read will be something they can produce, but he wants this series to serve as an opportunity for local playwrights to be recognized and to continue developing their work. “I’m hoping eventually we have a real chain or conduit of something that can really see all the stages of development.”
