How does this work?
Every Sunday afternoon in July 2023 you are invited to join with the cast, crew, and fellow Community Producers of Therapy for an enlightening and entertaining session that pulls back the curtains of theatre development and illuminates how a stageplay goes from page to stage. Your first session will offer you a private viewing of the first step in play production, the Table Reading – the first time the cast of Therapy reads their parts together for their director, Elena Martinez-Vidal.
Subsequent sessions will focus on essential ingredients in the production of a successful staged reading, such as the stage manager’s job; props, lighting, blocking, and sound; unique insights from the director; how the actors prepare for their parts; playwright perceptions from this year and past projects; and an invitation to the dress rehearsal. In addition to your invitation to gather with the cast and crew every Sunday in July, each session will also feature exciting snacks and beverages. And many more surprises each week!
Finally, you’ll take your reserved, best-in-the-house seats to a ticketed staged reading of Lonetta Thompson’s Therapy on Sunday, August 6th.
But there’s more.
Your name will be included as a Community Producer on programs, posters, press releases, and other promotional materials as well as in the perfect bound book, Therapy by Lonetta Thompson, published by Muddy Ford Press and registered with the Library of Congress, and you will take home your own copies of Therapy as a souvenir of your experience.
What is expected of Community Producers?
We hope you can make it to every exciting Sunday afternoon meeting, but we understand if you have to miss some. Each session will last from 90 – 120 minutes.
The financial commitment for a Community Producer is a minimum of $250 per person, but institutional sponsorships are also available and appreciated. You can also sponsor a student for $250 if you are unable to participate yourself.
Our hope is that you will be so enlightened and inspired by this experience that you will become a diplomat of live theatre, fresh playwrights, and the Jasper Project and encourage your friends and colleagues to participate in live theatre themselves!
Play Right Series History
The Play Right Series is an endeavor to enlighten and empower audiences with information about the process involved in creating theatrical arts, at the same time that we engineer and increase opportunities for SC theatre artists to create and perform new works for theatre.
Our first project in the Play Right Series was in 2017 when Larry Hembree led project members to produce a staged reading of Sharks and Other Lovers by SC playwright Randall David Cook. Sharks went on to win a number of awards and has been produced off-Broadway.
Our second play, community produced in the summer of 2022, Moon Swallower, was written by first time playwright Colby Quick and directed by Chad Henderson. Moon Swallower was performed as a staged reading at the Columbia Music Festival Association in August 2022 and subsequently performed in its entirety by USC Aiken. 2022’s Community Producers included James Smith, Kirkland Smith, Paul Leo, Eric Tucker, Ed Madden, Bert Easter, Bill Schmidt, Wade Sellers, and Cindi Boiter.
SC Playwright Professor Jon Tuttle of Francis Marion University was the project manager in 2022 and returns as to the position in 2023.
