Last night, we had one of our best meetings yet. We had an enthusiastic fourteen participants, including one new writer and three new actors. And the newbies hit the ground running, with each of them taking part in at least one of the readings.
And talk about an inclusive group. We had people from their teens to their 50's.
We read three pieces: part 3 of my full-length mystery-comedy, "The Butler Did It!", a rewrite of Tim Phillips' short comedy "King Solomon Gets Horny" and Paula Buist's short comedy "Cherry Blossoms in the Rain".
Our experiment worked reasonably well. Even though I got the scripts out late (writers never stop tinkering), nearly all of the cast members were able to read them ahead of time. And the reading went much smoother. There was less stumbling over lines and nearly everyone seemed to have a solid grasp of their characters.
The one thing I missed was laughter from the cast. Normally, I know a joke works if the cast cracks up when they first come to it in the script. In this case, the cast was already familiar with the jokes, so there were fewer laughs to begin with.
On the other hand, it could be my script. Maybe it just wasn't that funny.
Anyway, I think the experiment worked well enough that I'd like to try it again. And this time I promise to get the scripts out a full week before.
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