Chapter 12Development and Presentation

Process versus Product

At any stage of development for a new play or musical, the artistic team may be faced with a challenging question: To what degree is the future of the piece determined by the quality of the presentation?

While Play Readings are developmental steps, the process of working on them is not, in and of itself, developmental. There is not enough time for rewrites. The creative team examines the current draft of the material and focuses on the performance.

At many organizations, unless the piece has already been slated for production, a Reading is, in effect, an audition—for the actors, for the writers, for the director, and for the piece itself. That Readings often serve as auditions is ...

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