The Play's the Thing . . . that I Need from You

This afternoon I attended a meeting of the organizers of Sneak Pique, a new community theatre group in Dickinson (remember my having written about them recently?). Susan and I had been invited to participate from the outset, but we declined to add one more thing to our weekly schedules this semester, instead supporting Sneak Pique in spirit . . . and, of course, by attending their premiere performance a couple weeks ago.

Well, last week I decided to show up at one of the group's meetings to remind them of the Mobergs' support and continued interest and to become informed of the group's current and future projects. I kept my mouth shut throughout the meeting lest anyone should discover that the Mobergs have not only an interest in theatre but also experience in it, because that would be a sure way to get pressured into directing a play or auditioning for one--and again, free time does not exist for us as it is.

One member, Karen, seems to be the de facto leader of the group and asked, at last week's meeting, if anyone was interested in being in a play reading group. I immediately pictured a gathering of a few people to read and discuss plays--like a book group, but for dramatic literature instead--and thought, "Why not?" That wouldn't take much time, and it would be fun, so I raised my hand.

Well, I later found out that Karen's intent was for that group to read plays and then return to the large group with recommendations for which plays Sneak Pique should produce/perform in the future! And she was hoping for us to bring some recommendations to today's meeting so that a play could be selected for this upcoming spring! Yikes!!

Another person in the play reading group, Suzanne, had had the same understanding as I of what the group would entail (i.e., we were both wrong), and we confessed as much by way of explaining why, at today's meeting, we had no play recommendations to offer. However, Karen liked our idea, too, and asked if we'd be willing to organize a play reading get-together for January. So I did end up getting wrangled into something, but at least it's not committing to several weeks of nightly blocks of time spent directing or acting in a play. This is low-key enough that I can probably handle it amongst my other obligations.

So, Faithful Readers, any recommendations for the first play to be read by our play reading group?