Tickets: Free (suggested donation $5)
Location: In the Silk Room
An intimate script-in-hand play reading that’s open to the public!
This series, featuring established plays, musicals, and new works, enables local talent to grow in their craft by performing for live audiences in a casual atmosphere with minimal production elements.
ABOUT THE PLAY
THE ART OF DINING
By Tina Howe
Directed by Julie Carvalho & Billy Winter
Cal and Ellen are the owners and sole staff of a small, elegant gourmet restaurant. Cal’s main preoccupation is paying back the $75,000 it costs to start it up, which means packing in the customers. Chef Ellen is preoccupied with the food’s quality and stopping Cal from sampling the ingredients. The diners act out their private dramas over dinner, and their conversations are exquisite burlesques of contemporary attitudes.
There’s a sensual middle-aged couple who go into paroxysms of ecstasy just reading the menu, and then there are three crass chic young career women. Finally, Elizabeth is a maladroit, shy, and neurotic writer dining with her prospective publisher. Her actions and conversation are unintentionally hilarious and a delicious example of how not to act and what not to talk about while dining.