Sequim Gazette staff
Budding thespians and dramaphiles take note: Roundabout Theatre Arts is gathering the troops for monthly play readings in Sequim. The performances are open to anyone interested in meeting to read plays aloud — no stage experience necessary.
Roger and Sharon Briggs, co-founders of Roundabout Theatre Arts, organized and sponsored play readings when they lived in the Tri-Cities, their home for 18 years. After moving to Sequim about a year ago, they decided to establish a new group here.
“Our plans are to meet monthly in member homes or other public venues — churches, schools, libraries,” Briggs said.
The focus of each monthly meeting is a play read by those in attendance.
A different play is chosen each month and a group leader selects readers to read parts in the play.
“Readers don’t need to be familiar with the play,” Briggs said. “It can be read without preparation. This isn’t a performance. It is simply a reading to hear the words and the story of the author.”
Short discussions are held after the reading.
Simply theater
Briggs said most of the plays they perform are dramatic, serious pieces, though the group every so often will enjoy something lighter, including the occasional Neil Simon offering.
He recalled that Ibsen’s “Enemy of the People” — the Arthur Miller work-up — provided “quite a discussion.”
Briggs said, “Play readings offer a chance for people interested in the same activity to meet, get to know each other and possibly work together on theater productions or other activities in the community.”
The Briggses are accomplished thespians, with a repertoire that includes “Diary of Adam and Eve,” a dramatization of a Mark Twain short story. They also have performed A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters.”
The two have been working in community theater since 1980, many of those years with the Whidbey Playhouse (1984-1992) in Oak Harbor. In 1992, they moved to the Tri-Cities where they continued their work together with Roundabout Theatre Arts and the Richland Players.
Anyone interested in participating in a play reading should contact Roger or Sharon Briggs at 681-3198 for more information.
