I didn’t know what to expect for the play reading I was about to see at the Drake Theater in Philadelphia on a Sunday afternoon. But as I sat down and the lights dimmed, the atmosphere became electric and a preemptive grin spread across my face.
The play reading was a part of AzukaFest, a three day festival held at the Drake in Center City, and attended by me and other students from Haverford’s Playwriting I class. From Feb. 28 – March 3, the theater showed 12 unique plays from 12 different playwrights.
Haverford’s AZ Espinoza, professor for Playwriting I and a member of the Azuka cohort, suggested the students attend the festival because “a reading is the first step towards a production” and it is a step that isn’t seen often, later adding that hearing your own play read out loud “with skill… with intention… with an organizing principle that a director is offering” is “a crucial step in understanding your own play.”
The play reading I attended was Marjorie is Dead, written by Priyanka Shetty, which is a British farcical comedy that follows an outbreak of the “coroner’s virus” and how it affects the Tilbury family. Although only read aloud, this play had a brilliant blend of tight, comedic writing and clever, committed actors that caused tremendous amounts of laughter at every word spoken. During a talkback with the playwright and dramaturge where they asked the audience how they would describe the play, some audience members described it as “a jack-in-a-box,” “whack-a-mole,” and “a big sneeze that builds and builds.”
Professor Espinoza said that watching the reading for their play, Homeridae, at AzukaFest “made [them] love the play again” because it allowed them to “feel excited about who was going to want to come see the play.”
At the heart of AzukaFest is a unique connection between the audience and the playwrights that creates room for a deeper understanding of playwriting and theatre as a whole to occur. Allowing for new and old plays to be given new life through being read and watched is what brings humanity joy, and in the case of Marjorie is Dead, laughter.
