WHAT IS READERS THEATRE?

Several years ago a production moved from London's West End to Broadway to become a hit. The fact that this production was so successful in the United States was remarkable for several reasons: First, it was not a dramatic script in the traditional sense of the word; second, it was based on a nineteenth century novel; third, the production was divided into two parts requiring an audience to leave the theatre; fourth, the entire performance of the two parts ran just slightly under eight hours and finally, good seats cost a little over one-hundred dollars apiece. Most ardent theatre goers will recognize that this production was none other than the Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation of Charles Dickens' NICHOLAS NICKELBY directed by Trevor Nunn. Nunn and the RSC fashioned the production directly from the novel. Although theatrical adaptations from novels are not by any means unusual, the way in which this production was fashioned made it unique. Normally an adaptation attempts to create a play out of another literary genre. The RSC, however, attempted to dramatize the novel without destroying its literary values. Long and beautifully written descriptive passages were woven into the production and were delivered by individual characters as narration. This technique is called Story Theatre.

Story Theatre was developed or at least made famous in the United States by the Second City Company of Chicago. The company was founded by Paul Sills in 1959. Sills, son of Viola Spolin who wrote the well respected IMPROVISATION FOR THE THEATRE, created a group of actors who improvised theatre pieces sometimes from famous works of literature. Story Theatre is aptly named because stories have long been a part of the total theatre experience.

The art of story telling is probably as old as the human race. Stories in the form of myths existed long before a methodology for transcribing them was formulated. We also know that members of various primitive groups became known as story tellers. In Greece for example, evidence shows that long before 534 B.C., the date generally respected as the beginning of dramatic literature, oral storytellers or rhapsodes were reciting the ILIAD and ODYSSEY. Later the first professional acting organization called the Artists of Dionysus (c.277 B.C.) included both poets and interpreters as well as actors among their ranks.

One of the first teachers of interpretation was playwright and inventor Steele MacKaye. Schools of expression were opened up in the United States by two of MacKaye's students, S.S. Curry and Charles Wesley Emerson, in Boston. Still another school was opened in New York by Leland Powers. Later WERNER'S MAGAZINE became the first journal devoted to articles on vocal and bodily expression. Beginning in 1915 with S. H. Clark's INTERPRETATION OF THE PRINTED PAGE, Rollo Anson Tallcott's THE ART OF ACTING AND PUBLIC READING published in 1922, the art of story telling or the public reading of literature was explored. The most important of these new works was the publication of Cornelius Carman Cunningham's monumental LITERATURE AS A FINE ART, in which a new and exciting performance art form reached full formulation. Cunningham called the new form Oral Interpretation.

Cunningham postulated a methodology, different from any previous analytical theory, by which literature could be analyzed both for its intellectual and its emotional content. He felt that the artist interpreter must first intellectually understand the text as literature before the material could be analyzed as to its connotative powers. LITERATURE AS A FINE ART(1941) and a later text book called MAKING WORDS COME ALIVE (1951) outlined his techniques. Dr. Cunningham identified ten sense stimuli appealed to through the process of association. Cunningham defined the oral interpreter as the "sentient instrument through whom words are given vividness and fullness of meaning." He wanted the interpreter to be aware of certain sensory appeals so that words could be given their full connotations. Noting that psychologists differ as to definition, classification, and relationship of the sense as perceptual mediums, Cunningham formulated a list of senses which he postulated as being important in the process of interpretation.

The key to the Cunningham methodology, then, was for the artist interpreter to understand the connotative power of words and phrases in a piece of literature being prepared for performance through a thorough analysis of the senses appealed to through the process of association. Dr. Cunningham established one of the first departments of interpretation at Northwestern University. His pupils included such leaders in the field as Charlotte Lee, Robert Breen, and William J. Adams, to name but a few.

The late Charlotte Lee is considered Cunningham's champion in the field with her excellent Oral Interpretation texts. Breen was famous for his work in readers theatre and his many texts on the subject. The most important Cunningham student to bridge the gap into Readers Theatre was William J. Adams. After Cunningham left Northwestern he taught at Stanford University before accepting his final position at San Diego State University. Cunningham, who had already retired once, wanted to provide for the continuation of his theories. He therefore insisted that he be allowed to hand-pick his successor, Professor Adams. The Department of Speech and Theatre acquiesced to this demand and Adams, who had been Cunningham's student at Stanford, was hired.

The late William J. Adams not only perpetuated the Cunningham methodology, but initiated several new contributions in the field of interpretation and Readers Theatre. Adams directed over one-hundred Readers Theatre productions in educational, community and professional levels. He adapted and directed Steinbeck's THE GRAPES OF WRATH, starring Carolyn Jones and John Carradine. After retiring from the university, Adams, director and founder of Institute for Readers Theatre, which sponsors workshops every year in cities throughout the world, continued to explore the genre. The International Institute has been highly successful and is open to all students regardless of theatrical experience. Adams brought in a distinguished faculty and guest lecturers including Ray Bradbury, Sir John Gielgud, Michael Hallifax, Mary Martin, Eva Marie Saint, Paul Sills, Tom Stoppard and John Updike. He created a board of directors which included Robert Breen, Charlotte Lee, Norman Corwin, and Joanna Maclay. He created the highly respected Readers Theatre Script Service out of his San Diego, California office. Adams died in 2005

The institute is still alive and well now run by faculty who were trained by Adams and who are dedicated in perpetuating his work.

 

WILLIAM J. ADAMS - founder of the Institute for Readers Theatre.

Trevor Nunn was called by the Cambridge Guide to World Theater "the best all-round director currently working in British theater." Not only was he responsible for bringing Nicholas Nickleby to the stage, but also brought Cats and Les Miserables to the millions of people who have enjoyed these shows.

Paul Sills has been active in improvisational theatre all his life. In addition to his accomplishments with The Second City and Story Theatre, he also co-founded other companies, including the New Actors Workshop, begun in 1987 with colleagues Mike Nichols and George Morrison, a graduate level acting program in Manhattan.

Steele MacKaye was a 19th century American dramatist and inventor in theatrical scene design. He opened the Madison Square Theatre in 1879 and later took over the Lyceum. There he established the first school of acting in New York City, which later became known as the American Academy of Dramatic Art.

C.C. Cunningham is sometimes called "the father of Oral Interpretation." He established the first Department of Oral Interpretation at Northwestern University and was its chairman for twenty-five years. His book Literature as a Fine Art: Analysis and Interpretation is still considered one of the seminal books on interpretation. Cunningham later taught at Stanford University and San Diego State University.

Charlotte Lee, a student of C.C. Cunningham's, studied at Northwestern University and later went on to publish the most popular book on interpretation, Oral Interpretation. She was Cunningham's successor at Northwestern and continued the Cunningham methodology.