We had a ton of fun last night putting on our third annual readers’ theatre – this time our rendition of the famous 4077th in South Korea!

If you’ve never attended a Readers’ Theatre, it’s a fun and unique event. We like to go all out – unique staging (our stage was 40 feet long and 8 feet wide with seats on both sides of it) – relaxed atmosphere (the actors mingle in character with the audience before the show and at intermission) – full costumes and props – PLUS scripts in their hands. That’s the most unique part of a readers’ theatre – the actors don’t memorize the lines. They read them, but in character as best as possible.

It may seem strange at first to have an actor walk around with a script. But actually, once the story gets rolling the audience doesn’t even realize it anymore. The flow is great and the script just becomes another tool in the hands of the actors.

We had a wonderful time re-creating the wacky 4077th. The audience loved it and my theatre arts students got some great hands-on experience in producing a show. They directed, promoted, and produced the entire production with little feedback and input from me – whom I self-appointed as executive producer. (basically does nothing, just receives a check – which of course I never received).

I love the readers’ theatre format.  A relaxed and fun way to put on a show and get some great experiences.