HOST YOUR OWN READING OF THE PLAY
This play is not just for professional actors.
It's intended to find all sorts of homes and be spoken out loud by all sorts of voices.
With a little preparation, any group can pick it up and read it for an audience.
This is a guide.
Anyone can perform this play
A WORD FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT
When I was working on the final draft of the script, there was a point where I needed to step back and just hear it. So we moved the furniture, packed out the room with friends, family & neighbours, and eight women sat down around the kitchen table and read the play out loud.
One of my old school mates read Julie Bates, my neighbour read Julia Gillard, my 85 year old mum read Marion Blackwell.
It went off bang!
After that, I knew: this play does not just dream of a life in theatres. It dreams of being picked up by all sorts of groups of women & girls and read around kitchen tables, in libraries, and bars, and book clubs, in aged-care homes and prisons, in universities and schools and bush communities. Wherever women & girls are, and will come together to listen.
Victoria Midwinter Pitt, writer
SPECIAL OFFER FOR GROUPS FROM CURRENCY PRESS
GROUP DEAL ON SCRIPTS
Currency Press is offering a special deal on orders of 8 or more scripts: 20% discount & free postage.
Use the code IMWITHHER20 at the checkout.
10 TIPS FOR READERS
1. Read your part a few times at home to get ready. Don't just read it - read it out loud.
2. Make sure you know which number woman you are and mark up all the pages where your character has lines in the play (including as part of the ensemble), not just your main monologue.
3. Slow down. Don’t rush through it at a million miles an hour
4. Make good use of the numbered breaks inside your monologue – they mark a new chapter or story within the story. Before you start a new part, take a breath, look at someone new in the audience and feel that you’re taking us into a different moment.
5. As you’re reading, feel like you’re having a conversation with the audience – that’s where this play comes from, hours of conversation. So talk to the audience, (not at them).
6. Trust that the story makes sense – don’t feel like you’ve got to do a big acting performance. You don’t – these women’s words will really carry you.
7. Look at the audience – make sure that from time to time, you take a breath and actually look at the people who’ve come to listen. Don’t be afraid of looking up – be curious– what’s going on for your audience?
8. Really listen to the other readers. And, without drawing focus away, feel free to quietly watch the audience too.
9. Have fun – when it’s funny, enjoy it!
10. Go nice and quiet and soft on the Epilogue. Get closer to each other. Talk right to the audience.
Image of Nikki Keating by Lucie McGough
POST READING CONVERSATION
The play is over, but the story is just getting started ....
You’ll probably find that the conversation just starts at the end of the play.
Get ready to field some of that, and send some of the questions or comments around the room, making good use of the readers too.
Here's a Taste
Watch the fabulous women of Currency Press read their favourite lines from the play ...