Adult themes, frequent coarse language, great writing and great comedy… Welcome to Play Reading 101.

Plays are meant to be performed, right? You can’t just read them on your own, right? So come along to Courthouse ARTS and get involved!

Courthouse ARTS is proud to present the first season of Play Reading 101, an open age group to bring the written word to life.

This first season of work includes cutting edge plays by Ross Mueller, Ben Ellis, Jane Bodie, Kit Lazaroo and Melissa Bubnic. It is an exciting collection of emerging Australian voices and you are invited to participate in readings of these plays at the new Courthouse building from 20th September 2011.

Courthouse ARTS Artistic Director describes the project like this:

“All of these plays are international quality, award winning writing that has never been seen in Geelong. WE want you to be involved in the process, we want you to come and talk about new writing in Australia.

You may be an actor who wants to read. You may be a writer who wants to listen. Or you may be just be somebody who wants to stretch your imagination beyond the Broadway musical and a little bit further past David Williamson. If you are one of these people, then Play Reading 101 is the place for you.

We want you to come and be part of this new gang of theatre adventurers”

Play Reading 101 isn’t just about performance; it’s about reading the words out loud and hearing a play come to life. The aim is to understand more about new plays, the process of writing and the purpose of reading and performing them. The playwright, or someone who has worked closely with them, will also give an insight into why that play was a breakthrough, how they did it and the experience of emerging into the writing scene.

All are welcome to listen or to read, but please be advised that plays will contain strong language, adult themes, some violence, some sex scenes and some sexual references and are recommended for audiences over the age of 18.

PLAY READING 101 - Season 1:

September: Concussion by Ross Mueller
The last good cop in a city wakes up to find that he’s been assaulted in the middle of the night and has no memory. Violent and darkly funny, Mueller’s breakthrough is brave and more than a little bit filthy. Winner of the 2009 New York New Dramatists’ Award, shortlisted for the Griffin Prize and Patrick White Award, Concussion is a rollercoaster of sex, rock’n’roll, internet porn and amnesia.

October: Falling Petals by Ben Ellis
An award-winning playwright from Gippsland, now based in London, Ben Ellis’ works include Post Felicity, Poet No. 7 and The Final Shot and have received local and international acclaim. His 2002 play Falling Petals received the Wal Cherry Award for Play of the Year, and is an unsettling part-satire, part-science fiction about a mysterious illness afflicting the young residents of the town of Hollow…

November: Still be Jane Bodie
(featuring a writing workshop with the playwright!)
Jane Bodie is one of Australia’s most exciting playwrights. Currently head of playwriting at NIDA, Bodie has been nominated for countless awards, and in 2003 won a Green Room Award for Outstanding Writing in the Melbourne Fringe Festival with her series of monologues, Still. From humiliation to denial, Jane’s eight witty monologues expose harsh, intimate truths about the nature of want and relationships. Failed sexual conquests, ex-lovers and all... Jane will conduct a workshop at Courthouse ARTS as part of this reading!

December: Letters from Animals by Kit Lazaroo
Set in an imagined future where animals no longer exist, and in the midst of pollution and global warming humans seem to be the only survivors. Letters from Animals is a complex parable in which earth’s few remaining animals form a resistance movement and haunt humans with messages pleading for remembrance. Short-listed for the 2004 Max Afford Memorial Award, Letters from Animals is just one of Kit’s many plays (including Asylum, winner of the 2006 Wal Cherry Play of the Year Award) to receive local acclaim.

January 2012: Stop. Rewind by Melissa Bubnic
This hilarious comedy by award-winning Melissa Bubnic has wit, momentum and an original approach. A product of Melbourne’s Red Stitch Writer’s Program and the most recent in the ‘Play Reading 101’ collection, Stop. Rewind exposes the private thoughts of people who usually bite their tongue in delicate situations as a group of co-workers are forced to re-asses their lives and choices after the death of a colleague.

To join the cast or for more information email Courthouse