Public Readings Give Actors, Writers Instant Feedback

Think of readings-in-public as a kind of cozy living-room theater. The formula is really quite basic: Take a work-in-progress; have the actors read it (instead of memorizing it) from a bare stage and then turn members of the audience loose to offer their own off-the-cuff critiques.

Instant feedback.

Monday night in Orange County, all this happened not just once but twice. At South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, where readings have been part of the package for years, the audience heard Keith Reddin’s “PeaceKeeper,” a serio-comedy about Defense Department bureaucrats and missile-launch personnel around--and inside--our nation’s nuclear silos. It was the fourth in a series of five “NewSCRipt” readings that will conclude June 13.

The other reading was the first ever at the Alternative Repertory Theatre, which opened its tiny storefront playhouse in Santa Ana only last fall. ART’s entry: William Waxman’s “Timmons’ Retreat,” also a serio-comedy but with a more familiar theme--emotional bloodletting at a family reunion. The ART reading, which is free, will be repeated this evening at 8.

The contrasts Monday between SCR--which charged $6 admission--and ART couldn’t have been more striking.

Reddin is a proven commodity. The 31-year-old New Yorker has won plaudits on both coasts for his earlier topical satires, including “Rum and Coke” and “Highest Standard of Living,” both of which premiered at SCR.

Waxman is essentially a theatrical unknown. “Timmons’ Retreat” is the first full-length work by the 37-year-old actor-director-teacher from Laguna Beach.

Then there was the facilities gap. SCR is upscale Orange County. It is housed in a $5-million, state-of-the-art complex complete with computerized technology, a 507-seat Mainstage and 171-seat Second Stage, and a posh wet bar in the foyer.

ART is still theater-in-the-rough (the way SCR used to be back in its storefront days). Home is that $575-a-month storefront with a 61-seat black box theater, hand-me-down furnishings. Its foyer is closet-size; its (coffee) bar, makeshift.

The reading at SCR drew about 150 people. ART drew 22.

Common to both readings, though, was the artistic denominator. Staff and cast members at both theaters felt the same sweaty, edge-of-the-seat tension as they braced for the audiences’ verdicts.

“It’s weird,” Reddin said between acts at SCR, noting that waiting for a reaction “can be both thrilling--the challenge of it, you know--and downright scary.”

Although he had has been through two earlier public readings at South Coast Rep, he said, “you never quite get used to it.” A small, wiry man, he sat like a coiled spring in the back row of the Mainstage theater.

Monday evening’s reading presented an extra strain for Reddin: It was the first time that “PeaceKeeper” had been presented in any form on any stage.

If audience reactions to the first act were any indication, though, people will be entertained by this play and its deadpan jabs at massive conformity and Pentagon hacks.

At exactly the same moment, only a few miles away at the Alternative Repertory storefront, Waxman was undergoing the same ordeal.

Then, shortly after 10 o’clock, when the last lines from “Timmons’ Retreat” had been spoken, Waxman--looking the off-beat author with his long hair and purple T-shirt--was brought out to face the audience.

The defendant before the jury.

Some of those in the ART seats felt that he had under-sketched two key characters, the Timmons clan’s all-knowing matriarch and a quick-quipping daughter-in-law. People also wondered if Waxman had explained sufficiently the plot’s crucial revelation of the matriarch’s long-ago tryst.

But, to Waxman’s obvious relief, viewers generally found the characters believable, the dialogue crackling and the familial confrontations--over old hurts and occupational one-upmanship--all too recognizable.

After the audience left, Waxman had some coffee in ART’s little office and pronounced his own verdict on the evening.

“This kind of (public) test isn’t fun for a writer,” he said rather solemnly, still looking a little shellshocked. “But,” he added with a grin, “it’s gratifying. Yeah, I’m glad I did it.”

“Timmons’ Retreat” will be read tonight at 8 p.m. at Alternative Repertory Theatre, 1636 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana. Free. Information: (714) 836-7929.

South Coast Repertory’s fifth and final reading in this season’s NewSCRipts series will be held June 13 at 7:30 p.m. at SCR’s Mainstage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. The play is to be announced. Tickets: $6. Information: (714) 957-4033.