Play Reading

Reading out loud exercises the mind and enhances speaking skills which makes reading plays an entertaining way of staying mentally nimble.

In setting up a Play Reading Group in a residence, all seniors will be encouraged to participate.  No acting skills are required. Also, no memory work is involved since the participants are reading directly from the scripts.

Scripts are in a larger font and each role is highlighted to make it easier to read.

Seniors with Macular Degeneration or low vision are encouraged to attend.  With some scripts, they can become ‘active listeners’ by assuming the role of chorus members.

In four years of hosting Play Reading Groups, it has been a joy to see how groups evolve organically. For example, some shy residents find their inner thespian. Others gain so much confidence, they are keen to read scripts in front of their entire residence!

Many times when a play ends, the seniors will stay to discuss the play.

Lovely anecdote:  Judi Dench can no longer read scripts because of her Macular Degeneration. Knowing she relies on her friends and family to read them to her, Kenneth Branagh, Belfast‘s writer and director, read Dame Dench the script before she agreed to do the part.  Being an autobiographical story of his childhood, Mr. Branagh got quite emotional midway through his reading.