October through April, 2023 - 2024
Out of the Hat! Readers' Theatre Series
What’s "Out of the Hat!?” It’s a fresh, compact production with a rehearsal time of one day, 7 hours, performed that same night. The play, the director, the cast are all picked "out of the hat" so to speak -- this makes it fresh and exciting.
It goes like so ... we gather at noon to read the chosen play -- many of us for the first time. After a first read, the director for the play retires to cast the show. Once done, the group works to put the play on its feet with the result being an outstanding and very fresh performance at 6 or 7pm.
Come to read and play at noon or come to watch it that evening. Admission is free, although donations are gratefully accepted.
Interested in reading? We would love to have you! To read, you will need yourself, writing utensils, dark clothes, a potluck, energy and a penchant for fun.
Please message Meetinghouse Theatre Lab on Facebook or e-mail Cathy at cathyjohnson2012@hotmail.com if you would like to be a part of the day's production.
Better Off Dead? is Nikolai Erdman’s witty satire of lobbyists seeking political control. Semyon is just an ordinary man who, when arguing with his wife about a sausage, accuses her of wishing he was dead. This sets in motion a disastrous chain of misunderstandings in which Moscow’s shadiest characters try to recruit him for various causes. Semyon survives their lottery of death only by means of a tuba, a drinking error, and a love for life so effervescent that he rebels against duty. Better Off Dead? was written in 1928 but its performance was forbidden during the Stalinist era and was only produced in Russia several years after Erdman's death. Today it is regarded as one of the finest plays to have come out of Communist Russia.