Surflight Theatre will host the reading of a play called “One Great Song” at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24.
Tickets are $15 and may be purchased online at surflight.org or at the door.
“One Great Song” is one of three plays featured in a inaugural statewide play reading series titled “All Exits!” It’s the brainchild of an organization called The New Jersey Play Lab, whose mission is to serve playwrights who are outside the major urban areas of New York City or Philadelphia by providing these playwrights with professional support for their play-writing pursuits.
Play readings are an integral part of the development of a play. There’s no set, no costumes, no props, no lighting, no – or minimal – movement, just actors reading from scripts. A playwright can hand potential producers a copy of a script but, unlike a novel or short story, the words need to be heard. A play reading can result in a producer taking the next step and committing to further development or, in many cases, the audience, usually made up of theater professionals, can suggest changes that could be made to strengthen a script, sometimes leading to another staged reading or a workshop.
“One Great Song” was written by Hope Kobus, an actress and writer based in Toms River. It’s a coming-of-age story about the struggle of being true to one’s family while trying to be true to oneself at the same time. At the height of the rock music era, 20-year-old Missy dreams of being a musician. She and her childhood best friend Jimmy form a musical partnership, but when disaster strikes the family, Missy feels she must choose between her dreams and her responsibilities.
“All Exits” is a series of three readings. The first took place on Monday, Oct. 12 when Ocean City’s Brandon Monokian’s “honeysuckle, brutal & breaking” had a reading at Cape May Stage. “Dubai Chocolate” by Sarah Congress will have its reading on Nov. 7 at the River Union Stage in Milford.
The name “All Exits” comes from the common question asked when people say they’re from New Jersey: “What exit?,” referring to the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike.
