"What
is Readers Theatre" (RT)? I believe that it makes music of the
spoken word. There are 8 notes in an octave (plus 5 in the cracks),
the voice can create many sounds in-between all thirteen notes because
the voice is the perfect instrument, not made by hand. Just close your
eyes and create the sets and costumes in your imagination. The greater
your imagination and imagery, the greater your enjoyment of RT.
Many labels
have been used for this way of presenting literature to an audience.
It has been called Interpreters Theatre, Concert Theatre, Chamber Theatre,
Platform Theatre, Group Reading, Staged Reading, Story Theatre or Theatre
of the Word. I like to call it Parlor Theatre, going back to the days
in America when life was simple and friends were near and the crickets
sang as good folks sat on the porch sharing stories while soft breezes
blew.
It has
the power to bring magic to literature and turn words into music. It
may bring reality to imagination and questions for the listener's ear.
It is the art of story telling, spinning a yarn, and turning a phrase.
It brings a childlike fascination to the audience who shares in the
creation. It is the theatrical cornerstone from which fantasy and dreams
are made.
RT is a
powerful form of imagery for both the actor and audience as both must
create this shared encounter. The audience must design the set, the
costumes and "trip the light fantastic" with silhouettes and
shadows dancing on the walls, as the spoken word demands your fullest
and most pleasurable concentration.
RT often
makes even the comic strips come to life like a Disney cartoon unfolding
before your very eyes. As vocal caricatures reach your ear, the narration
assists with the drawing of pictures in your mind. While thinking in
cartoon thoughts we hope to unearth vocal caricatures to fill your strips.
These exaggerations are created by means of deliberate simplification
and often distortions of a peculiar feature. Caricatures are inflated
and stereotypical personalities, which no one can deny as being who
and what they are.
Readers
Theatre also creates echo like emotions……….emotions heard
over and over and over again as the spoken word is supreme. Just as
the whispering wind bends the branches, literary allusions may stroke
the human heart. Listening across the holler, we may hear the echo repeat
the sounding joys of famous playwrights and authors who carved and etched
their works into our flesh. Lost, forgotten and stolen emotions become
free to scream through the canyons of our minds and telegraph their
meanings to tired and weary travelers. Songs of the South and Southern
humor keep coming back into view more often than a yodel crosses the
Swiss Alps. Echoes are like nursery rhymes, told over and over again
by different people in similar situations. Echoes are like hymns sung
over and over like a mantra. Although very few individuals have the
opportunity to create real canyon echoes, they are known by the masses.
RT is like
mind traveling. Homesickness was one form of time travel…. homesick
for the Past, or a Person, or a Place. I want RT to make you homesick
for something.
Vanita
Smith
is stationed at Fort Shafter Army Base in Honolulu, Hawai'i. She is
founder of the Matinee
Readers Theatre component of the base-sponsored Army Community Theatre.