Staged Readings

Several plays, written by David Draheim, co-founder of Discovery Bay Players, were given staged readings in Port Townsend, Washington. Of these self-productions, David writes:

“Theatre is collaboration and I’m the founder of a tribe of performers, though sometimes I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to temporarily join an existing tribe (theatre organization). But, as Bill Cain said, established theatre groups are ‘a series of duchies around the country ruled over by absolute monarchs. Getting your play across the drawbridge is not especially easy.’”

“So we scriptwriters have begun to self-produce (because chucking our scripts in drawers is suicide, and repeated dunkings in moats is unhealthy). We must go on. To finish our work we must test our scripts and judge them ourselves in workshops, staged readings, even full productions… Until the script has been fully produced, i.e., performed at least once, it is not finished. Through everything that leads up to the premiere, the writer must remain at the center (explaining, defending, listening, rewriting). Then he can leave it for another. A script is not a play; a play is a performance of an interpretation of a script. I write the script; other artists create the performance.”

“Why self-produce? If I don’t, who will? (Silence) Let it be produced by the one who cares the most.”

Reviews and Mentions

The Guard” (19 Jan 2013, Quimper Grange, Port Townsend, WA):

A new play comprising four brief stories of inglorious war, “The Guard” follows the arc of war from Spain (1939) to its inevitable, logical absurdity. Written by David Draheim, directed by Patricia Earnest, and coproduced by Discovery Bay Players, “The Guard” was performed by Steve Treacy, Henry Feldman, Paul Richmond, and Judith Glass Collins.

“The Rehearsal” (10-11 Sep 2011, Jefferson County Library, Port Hadlock, WA):

An original work by local playwright David Draheim, “The Rehearsal” is a seriously comedic, postmodern, metadrama about four actors – two couples, one straight, one gay – who have been creating through improvisation a play about a gay professor, his homophobic colleague, a pregnant lesbian bookseller, and a tango-dancing gigolo janitor from Harlem. This latter quartet of characters, in turn, is rehearsing an adaptation of a story by Jorge Luis Borges. The Rehearsal is a play within a play within a play about trust, commitment, and the possibility of love. Directed by Patricia Earnest, stage-managed by Heather Tillman, actors were Steve Treacy, Michelle Hensel, Lawrason Driscoll, and Freeman Luoma.