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The Creation of a New Musical - Part 7: Preproduction: Readings


Cold Readings. Falling somewhere between an informal reading and a public reading, often a group of actors will be invited to read through a script in a rehearsal space--possibly at the behest of a theatre company and either off or on their premises--without having seen the material beforehand. (Cold reading is also the term used when an auditioning actor is given sides (excerpts from a script) to read on the spot without preparation).
Public Readings. Once you start bringing in an audience, there will be be some "sufficient" preparation put in, so there will be very little "cold" reading going on. Although the stated intention of a public reading may be to gauge how an audience responds to the show, many times the audience will contain backers, producers, commissioning bodies, potential creative staff, etc., and the line between this type of reading and a backers audition becomes kind of fuzzy.
Staged Readings. These are usually done under the auspices of a theatre company or other backer and involve more preparation and rehearsal. The actors will be singing the score and there may be some limited staging to help clarify the material and the relationships between the characters. (Or there may be too much staging, sometimes defeating the purpose of the reading.)
Backers Auditions may involve elements of any of the above. Their primary purpose is to convince members of the audience to invest in the show.

Many theatre companies will do readings of all sorts on a regular basis, and often for their subscribers and the public. In fact, many of these theatres may receive grant monies specifically for that purpose. Out of the many, many theatre company pages that are springing up right and left, here are links to a few that are known for doing readings. (For links to specific theatres, try Jogle's Favorite Resources - Theatres or Theatre-Central's Theatre Resources.)

The copyright of the article The Creation of a New Musical - Part 7: Preproduction: Readings in Theatre is owned by Steven M. Alper. Permission to republish The Creation of a New Musical - Part 7: Preproduction: Readings in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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