More authenticity. More creative risk taking. Less perfection. The Jungle's new Public Play Reading Series.
The Jungle Theater is excited to announce our Public Play Reading Series, a collection of four new works by new playwrights, available for free to our community!
Complimenting our 2022 - 2023 Season, this series gives us the opportunity to showcase exciting writers that the Jungle wants to support. One of the realities of producing theater is that there are limited spots in a season and there will always be more plays worthy of production than there are time and resources. Our Play Reading Series addresses the desire to share more plays and playwrights by eliminating the technical design elements and giving you the opportunity to experience a script before it has been produced:
“Hearing a script read aloud is experiencing a play in its purest form - just the words and actors. The Jungle’s play reading series gives audiences a chance to see one of the most critical stages of a play’s development. Before a play becomes a fully realized production with lights, sound, costume, and scenic design, it exists solely on the page. At the root of the word “audience” is the Latin audire - “to hear.” A play needs listeners – not readers, or even viewers, to move from page to stage.
The play reading series also gives the Jungle the opportunity to give our audience more stories. Plays are chosen for full productions based on many criteria. Some reasons for selection are exciting and energizing – the play speaks to the present moment, it’s begging to be put on its feet, it tells a compelling story. And some reasons are less fun - our specific space won’t accommodate what is required of this story, we don’t have the budget for an essential set piece, or, simply, we don’t have enough slots in our season to do all the plays we love. Season programming is a balance of many competing elements. And sometimes this means that stories that don’t “fit” don’t get told. We want to give voice to these plays. We want these scripts to enrich your world.
We hope you join us this season for our play reading series. Witness the charge of creativity as a play begins its life in front of an audience and be part of its journey from the playwright’s first howl of inspiration to a final honed and polished text.”
— Alison Ruth, Advancement & Artistic Associate (BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership Circle)
The series kicks off October 3 with STAINS by Sarah Cho and directed by the Jungle’s very own Advancement & Artistic Associate (BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership Circle), Alison Ruth and tells the story of an impoverished Korean-American teenager struggling through her first period, with the help of an imaginary friend… who happens to resemble a wisecracking witch from a popular ‘90s sitcom.
Remaining titles will be announces later this season.