A stage reading, also known as a staged reading, is a form of
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
without
sets or
full costumes.
The actors, who read from scripts, may be seated, stand in fixed positions, or incorporate minimal
stage movement.
There is an overlap with the term play reading, One US source says that play reading incorporates little or no movement, while the latter is performed, with actions, on a stage.
Description
A stage reading of a new play in development is an intermediate phase between a cold reading, with the cast usually sitting around a table, and a full production. A narrator may read stage directions aloud. The purpose is to gauge the effectiveness of the dialogue, pacing and flow, and other dramatic elements that the playwright or director may wish to adjust. Audience feedback contributes to the process. In play-development workshopping, the stage reading is one of the forms of workshop, along with the rehearsed reading, the exploratory workshop, and the full workshop production. It is an inexpensive way to get a new play in front of an audience.
Stage readings that include members of
Actors' Equity (U.S.) in the cast are governed by that union's Stage Reading Guidelines.
Screenplays
A screenplay in development that relies to a significant degree on dialogue rather than action may sometimes be given a stage reading, as a way to attract potential investors or to rehearse. As a form of public performance, the stage reading of a film script is like performing a
radio play before a live audience, with emphasis on the use of imagination and on voice acting, which might require theatre actors and
voice-over artists.
Reader's theatre
Reader's theatre is the stage reading of a fully developed or classic play, when the reading is itself the performance.
[Ellen McIntyre, Nancy Hulan, and Vicky Layne, ''Reading Instruction for Diverse Classrooms'' (Guilford Press, 2011), p. 108.]
Notable dramatic readers
FLORENCE ADELAIDE FOWLE ADAMS.jpg, Florence Fowle Adams
Florence Adelaide Fowle Adams (October 15, 1863 – July 31, 1916) was an American dramatic reader, actor, author, and teacher.
Biography
She was born Florence Adelaide Fowle in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the only child of the artist Edward August ...
HELEN LOUISE B. BABCOCK.jpg, Helen Louise Babcock
Helen Louise B. Babcock (August 13, 1867-July 5, 1955) was an American educator, elocutionist, and dramatic reader.
Early years and education
Helen Louise Bailey was born in Galva, Illinois. August 13, 1867. She early displayed a marked talent f ...
MABELLE BIGGART.jpg, Mabelle Biggart
Mabelle Biggart (February 22, 1861 – ?) was an American educator, dramatic reader, preacher, and writer. In 1890, Biggart was in charge of the department of elocution at the Chautauqua assembly of Glen Park, Colorado, and that she was giving exer ...
Edward Brigham (Official Reg. & Dir. of Women's Clubs in America, 1913).png, Edward Brigham
Gay MacLaren LCCN2014711852.jpg, Gay MacLaren
Miss Jenniebelle Neal, dramatic reader and pianist with the Hutchinson Family LCCN2014635841.jpg, Jenniebelle Neal
Elizabeth Martina Taber (Official Reg. & Dir. of Women's Clubs in America, 1922).png, Elizabeth Martina Taber
See also
*
Table work
The read-through, table-read, or table work is a stage of film, television, radio, and theatre production when an organized reading around a table of the screenplay or script by the actors with speaking parts is conducted.
In addition to the ca ...
*
Read-through
*
Pre-production
* When the work is a musical
Concert performance
References
{{Authority control
Stage terminology
Film production