Kia ora, a couple of years ago, two friends and I began presenting play readings in St Peter’s Hall, Paekakariki. We were sitting at dinner one night and we talked about some of the really good scripts we’d loved and decided that we wanted to hear them again and we could. So we chose a play, Chicken Soup with Barley, an Arnold Wesker script which is a particular favourite of mine and off we went.
We contacted professional directors and actors and they gave their time free, we only charge a minimal fee and the proceeds go to St Peter’s Hall Restoration Fund.
We present the play reading then serve a cup of tea or coffee and some food and then we have a discussion which is always lively and fun.
What has warmed my heart has been the response of locals and also others from up the coast and from Wellington – it seems there are lots of people who enjoy hearing plays read aloud. The same kind of response happens for poetry readings.
There is something about the pleasure of listening that we all respond to whether its music or the spoken voice and if there’s a story involved we love it even more. There is also the pleasure of hearing something again – we see it in the way children respond to the repetition of a loved story, poem or song, and there’s the same kind of response to a play we’ve enjoyed.
Alternatively there’s the opportunity to hear a script we didn’t know which is always an exciting prospect.
The Playreadings for 2013 begin next weekend on Sunday 18th August with a reading of another Wesker play, Roots – directed by Vivien Bell, 2pm St Peter’s Hall, Paekakariki. $10 door sales only.
