[Capdist-announce] Schenectady Civic Potluck Play reading

[Robin Hackett]

As the holiday time draws nigh, we have one last Pot-luck Play reading night for 2008.  Please come down to Schenectady Civic Playhouse and join us in "dinner theater" that puts YOU in the action!

The time is Monday, December 8th and the place is SCP, 12 South Church St. in Schenectady's historic Stockade district.  Dinner will start around 6:30 so that we can do our best to start the play at 7pm.  

This month, the play we will be reading is a little different.  It is Canadian playwright, Peter Anderson's, Nativity - Part II of his three part "Mystery Cycle".  It is a modern adaptation and expansion of The Wakefield Master's, Second Shepherd's Play.  Originally written sometime in late 14th century, The Wakefield cycle is a series of "passion plays" written by learned men (many times in the clergy) to bring biblical stories to the common man.  Guilds staged the plays in local towns, and the plays were often revised depending on the fluxuating fortunes of the producers and the temperament of the town leaders and church.  

As with the original, Peter Anderson's adaptation is in verse.  Like the Wakefield Cycle, it is a series of vigniettes, moving from the shepherds, to Herod's palace, to the nativity, and so on.  We may not finish all of the pieces, it will depend on how well we move through the verse.  There are plenty of parts, and we can also switch around, as we have in the past.  The object is to have some fun with a different kind of play.

You can come for dinner, the reading only, or both!  An audience is as important, and dinner should quiet any grumbling stomachs.  

Copies of the play will be provided, but if you have one at home, bring it along.

If you have any questions, please contact Robin Hackett at 377-0449 or rhackett at nycap.rr.com