By Carol Davis
CARDIFF BY THE SEA, California — Write Out Loud has a unique mission: to read literature aloud to live audiences – short stories, poems, and other short subjects come to life – as talented actors bring the stories “off the page” to the delight of the audience. Theatre critic Pat Launer called it “Theatre of the mind.” Others have called it “story-time for grown-ups”. It is theatre at an elemental level: an actor, a story and an audience. For many delighted audience members, it is a surprisingly complete and satisfying experience.
Write Out Loud performs a season of 6 two-hour programs – each one focused on a particular subject such as Danse Macabre (stories that go “Boo” in the night) and Hearts Afire (stories about love and passion) – between August and June. Each program is given twice – once at the Old Town Theatre and once in the Schulman Auditorium of the Carlsbad Library. The company is also presenting three programs titled Orpheus Speaks at the La Jolla Athenaeum Music and Arts Library between November and April.
Write Out Loud has announced its collaboration with Temple Solel in Cardiff-by-the Sea. According to Walter Ritter a new set of comparatively casual story readings featuring Jewish content will be included in the series. The program will include a social period with food, drink and a discussion period. The series will be presented on a monthly basis and each month a new selection of presentations will be made.
The first program will take place on Thursday, October 27 @ 1:30pm and will include:
$7/member and $10/non-member
A Question for Vera by Lara Vapnyar – read by Jill Drexler
Brother Beetle by Isaac Beshevis Singer – read by Walter Ritter
Thursday, November 17 @ 7:00pm
$12/member and $15/non-member: Program To Be Announced.
Information about the writers:
Lara Vapnyar emigrated from Russia to New York, speaking virtually no English, in 1994 at the age of 23. She began publishing short stories in English in 2002. She lives on Staten Island with her husband and is pursuing a Ph.D. in comparative literature at CUNY Graduate Center. Her work has appeared in Open City and The New Yorker.
Isaac Bashevis Singer is so well known to readers, Jewish and gentile, that he requires no introduction beyond the barest facts. He was born in near Warsaw in 1902 to a rabbi father and a mother who came from a family of rabbis. His earliest fictional works were not big novels, but short stories and novellas, a genre in which he has perhaps given his very best. Singer emigrated to America in 1935. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978. He died in 1991.
Actor information:
Walter Ritter is a busy actor on San Diego area stages. Recently he played Donnie in Martin McDonough’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore and Jekyll in Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde both for Ion Theatre of which he is a Company Member. In addition to acting, Walter is an accomplished bass-baritone singer. He is co-founder with his partner, Veronica Murphy, of Write Out Loud.
Jill Drexler is a sought-after actor on stages throughout our region. Most recently she appeared as Julia in Ken Ludwig’s remarkable farce, Lend Me a Tenor, at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. Prior to that she was in the cast of Foxfire at Moonlight Productions in Vista. In addition to her much admired work on-stage, she is also very busy behind the scene as Artistic Director of Scripps Ranch Theatre.
Write Out Loud was recently awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to produce a “Big Read” project called Shades of Poe which is unfolding right now and will continue through April 2012 in libraries, schools, and community centers all over the region.
Organization: Temple Solel/ Write Out Loud
Phone: 760.436.0654
Where: 3575 Manchester Avenue, Cardiff by the Sea, CA 92007
Ticket Prices: $7/member and $10/non-member
Web: wwwtemplesolel.net www.WriteOutLoudsd.com.
Dates: Thursday, October 27 @ 1:30pm
Thursday, November 17 @ 7:00pm
$12/member and $15/non-member
Venue: Social Hall
Contact: Judy Bricker jbricker@templesolel.net to RSVP.
Tickets can be pre-purchased a Temple Solel, or at the door (cash only).
See you at the theatre.
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Davis is a San Diego based theatre critic. She may be contacted at carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com