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Let me tell you a little bit about the CPCT Play Reading Committee . . . The Play Reading Committee tries to host play-reading evenings at least once a month, and everyone’s invited – to read and/or to listen.
As an offshoot of the Crown Point Community Theatre, we look at plays and musicals that are under consideration for performance at CPCT - for instance, two readings we did this summer helped us choose "The Baker's Wife" as our February production - but we also simply try to expand our knowledge of the huge library of theatrical work that is out there. We read plays (and listen to cast albums) of shows many of us have never heard of, and it can be very educational, as well as fun.
*If someone would like to propose a play or musical to direct at Crown Point, this is a great way to let people see and hear it, and fall in love with it themselves. Local playwrights, too, can use readings like this to let people hear their new play, or even to give a draft a "shakedown" so the playwright can hear what works and what doesn't, for his own editing.
*For some actors, it may be good practice in "cold" reading, as we often have to do for auditions. For some actors, it can be a chance to read a part they would never get to actually play.
*It's also just a lot of fun. So we invite anyone who's interested to come and listen to some talented people read a play, or to read a part (or more than one part) in a good play in an informal setting.

The idea kind of grew out of something I've done with friends a few times over the last few years, at my house. As an excuse to have people over, and as a way to listen to a play that I couldn't quite "get" just reading it to myself, and as a way to introduce a story I liked to some others who might also like it - I held "reading parties" for comedies and murder mysteries, and we had a ball. Once I was getting people excited about a play I was going to direct, once I was trying to interest someone else in directing it so I could do it - and other times, like I say, it was just good for some laughs.
Now that we're doing it somewhat more formally through CPCT, I've been able to have others recommend THEIR favorite plays - so I can be as surprised as the others are, as I'm introduced to something new.

At this time, we have our readings/meetings in two places. In general, we cover musicals on Sunday evenings in the lounge at the Hall of Justice (Sunday evenings), and read plays on Saturday afternoons in the back room of ice cream parlor What's the Scoop.

Remember, usually when we're reading a play, it doesn't mean we're actually planning to perform it in the future. But you never know! All are invited, to read or listen, so stop on by. And you can write or call me with any questions - 708.951.0223 - grant@grantfitch.com Coming Up!
Death of a Salesman
A giant of modern theatre, and of literature

The 1949 play put playwright Arthur Miller on the map, and Willy Loman has been played on stage and screen by superstars like Fredric March, Lee J. Cobb, George C. Scott, Dustin Hoffman, and Brian Dennehy.

I've never read it and never seen it, so I know very little about it myself. It's one of several classics I've been curious about reading, and now that Sarah Laurinas is going to be directing it next year at 4th Street Theater (Feb-Mar 2008), it seems like a great time. If you're curious about it too, or you love it and want to read a part with some theatre friends, come on by, won't you?

12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22
at WHAT'S THE SCOOP, southeast corner of the courthouse square -
204 SOUTH MAIN STREET
CROWN POINT, IN 46307




Here are most of the shows we've read over the last couple years. If you're curious about reading (or re-reading) one of these plays, or listening to the CD of one of these musicals, let me know - I should still have several copies of each of the scripts to lend out. And if I don't have the music, I know who does.

Musicals
"My Favorite Year"
"Company"
"Avenue Q"
"Ragtime"
"The Baker's Wife"
"She Loves Me"

Plays
"Witness for the Prosecution" by Agatha Christie
"Torch Song Trilogy" by Harvey Fierstein
"A Murder is Announced" by Leslie Darbon,
(adapted from an Agatha Christie mystery)
"Ghost Story"
"Rehearsal for Murder"
"Proof"
"You Can't Take It With You"

One-Acts & Short-Shorts
"The Ugly Duckling" by A. A. Milne
"Foreplay, or the Art of the Fugue" by David Ives
"The Philadelphia" by David Ives
"Seven Menus" by David Ives
"Sorry, Wrong Number"
"Hold for Three"
"The Apollo of Bellac"
"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
and at least 2/3 of the ten-minute plays in the collections
Take Ten and Laugh Lines - both edited by Eric Lane and Nina Shengold