The Glass Half Empty - reading for the playwrite

Hey, all.

I've been lurking the last few days, enjoying the vitality of this blog - really cool! Seems to be taking on more notes than just performance, too... Nice.

I've been contacted by Shari Frost, a playwrite who is organizing a reading of her latest piece, "The Glass Half Empty" on December 12th. She's still looking for 3 of the 7 roles to be filled - 2 men, 1 woman. I'll let her words describe the piece and the reading:

I've been working on a play, "The Glass Half Empty", for the past few years, and the Salem Theatre Company has kindly agreed to do a staged reading of it in February. Before I tackle another set of revisions, I'd really like to hear the play out loud.

On Wednesday, December 12, I'm gathering a group of actors together to do a read-through (with pizza and wine...).

The play, a full-length with 2 acts, has 7 characters -- 4 women and 3 men. Loosely, it's a look at the biblical origins of the Arab/Israeli conflict, and mother/son and father/son relationships, all juxtaposed against a suicide bombing that actually occurred in 2002. The setting for the first act is a bar/restaurant in New York City. The second act travels to the Palestinian city of Tulkarm and the living room of the suicide bomber.

The characters include biblical icons Isaac, Ishmael, Sarah and Hagar (no hokey biblical talk, I promise!) along with Abdel Basset-Odeh, a suicide bomber, his mother and a female bartender.

The play we're going to read is my second full-length play and one I've been working on (and off...) for about five years. Last June I had the opportunity to take it down to a Playwrighting Intensive at Sarah Lawrence College where I developed it further with the guidance of faculty members, actors and writing groups. Now it's scheduled for a reading with STC in February, the next in their series following "BOYS OF WINTER."

I am not an actor myself, so I greatly value input from actors and try to work collaboratively. My goal for Wednesday is to collect thoughts and suggestions from all of you to polish the script for February.

We'll be meeting at 7:30, I'm still working on a location. FYI, I still have 3 roles (there are 7 in all) I'm trying to fill -- 2 men and 1 woman. I have 2 definite maybes, but they won't be able to confirm until next week. So... if you have any friends who might be interested in joining us, that would be great! Casting for February is open and we can talk more about that on Wednesday.

Anyone interested? Shari can be reached at shariandalan@msn.com.

Cave Dog out!