Part One: READERS THEATRE DEFINED
According to the “Institute Book of Readers Theatre” by Dr. William Adams, Readers Theatre is based on four fundamental beliefs:
1. Readers Theatre is a combination of oral interpretation and conventional theatre.
2. Readers Theatre respects the literary text, and seeks to discover and transmit the author’s intentions within the context of the Times in which it was created.
3. Readers Theatre is presentational in nature. (Most performances on stage, television or in films are “representational”. That condition indicates that the audience is expected to make a “willing suspension of disbelief,” and agrees to pretend that the enacted events are actually happening to the “real people” being watched.) Readers Theatre has a different basic approach. Because the literature usually performed retains its narrative line, the audience is aware that the events are “Presentational”, recalled from the past, or described in the present. The illusion of reality is substituted by the richness of the text that lets us enter into characters’ inner as we well as outer lives, having direct access to their feelings, thoughts, motivations and philosophies as presented through the author’s controlling will.
4. Readers Theatre is a flexible medium that can meet the needs of many different applications:
*It serves as an education tool that can teach effectively any subject on any educational level.
*It is a form of theatre that can be performed on all professional and non-commercial stages.
*It is a strategy to enhance programs of all community social services.
*It is a recreational device for home entertainment and observances.
In PART TWO (hopefully posted by May 5th), we will explain the various styles of “Scripting”…
Open Book Players 