Attending an Industry Reading
I found myself at a stage reading for a musical called "Glory Ride". It was called an "industry reading" (though I am not "Industry"). This was my first time attending a reading.
I loved the experience. And I am eager to attend more readings in the future.
About the experience
I was part of an audience of about thirty people. A handful of those were people involved in the production itself -- director, stage managers, and similar. The rest were people in the "industry" (whatever that means) and others like me.
I sat in the front row (of three rows of chairs) so I was about 5 feet from where the rows of actors' chairs started.
The work is under development. One scene of the second act was not included in the reading.
The performance consisted of the actors reading dialogue and singing songs, with only piano accompaniment. There were some scenic cues read by (stage managers?) to make up for lack of a set to establish scenery or introduce what would have been acted out in the scene.
What draws me to this
- Being close to the magic, being behind the scenes, in a way. Nothing beats the ultra high resolution experience of sitting five feet away from such talented individuals.
- Seeing something when it's still a little rough around the edges and subject to change over time. Enhances my experience, adds depth to it, makes me feel like I'm seeing part of the journey.
- At least in this case, I had the opportunity to give feedback on the performance via a form, and I had a few comments about parts I found confusing. It's fun to watch a performance with a critical eye, and to be able to use my experience to inform the show's development. This feels very meaningful to me.
- Gives me a feel for seeing how things work in the theater industry, what the progression from idea to polished show looks like.
- Opportunity to meet interesting people, have conversations, learn new things. Maybe a chance to chat with actors or members of the production. Possibly even a chance to network in a way to help my far future self with his goal of maybe possible eventually getting involved with a community theater in a tech/crew role.
How can I have more of this?
- Keep going to small shows and chat with people who go to them
- Sign up for mailing lists by production companies or theater spaces?
- Leverage existing connections
Resources
Article about staged readings: https://www.tdf.org/on-stage/tdf-stages/the-joys-of-staged-readings/