By Elmer Ploetz

Have you heard any good plays lately? 

While theatrical plays are meant to be seen as well as heard, one of the early steps in the development of a script is the staged reading. That’s where playwrights get a chance to hear their script read aloud in front of a live audience so they can see what works and what doesn’t. 

That’s what is being offered in spades with First Look Buffalo’s New Play Reading Festival at the Canterbury Woods theater. 

The festival starts Friday (Dec. 6) and runs through Dec. 15, with nine new plays being read by professional actors. Then, based on audience reactions and the opinions of a a group of judges, three of the plays will be brought back next year to provide the fully fleshed out productions of First Look Buffalo’s 2025-2026 season. 

Admission is $10, although theatergoers can get a pass for the entire festival for $20.

First Look Buffalo, a nonprofit founded by Bob Rusch, staged its first play in 2020. This is its second season of producing only new plays. The company functions by taking on playwrights and directors as members and working exclusively with them for the season. The group’s membership includes both local writers and directors and some from across the country (Jeff Goode, whose “The Blue Parrot” will be read Saturday at 2 p.m., is based out of Los Angeles  and has written dozens of produced plays as well as writing for TV (he created the “American Dragon” animated series for the Disney Channel, for instance).

Goode is traveling to Buffalo for the reading, Rusch said. Likewise, Michelle Tyrene Johnson, a playwright from Louisville, Ky., will be attending for the reading of her play, “The Long Layover.” 

Local playwrights such as Bella Poynton, Mark Humphrey and Donna Hoke are represented as well. 

Rusch said, “We have an exclusive deal with our playwrights that they turn in a new play a year for this Reading Festival, and we will only produce their plays,” said Rusch. “That’s how we get the players to this caliber to work with us.” 

“I mean, there’s a reason why a Jeff Goode from Los Angeles or a Michelle Terry Johnson from Louisville, who’s been produced everywhere, wants to work with First Look Buffalo Theater Company … because they get a guaranteed staged, rehearsed reading of their play, which is a big part of their development. It’s not easy to get these,” Rusch said. “And we choose from those, and they like working with us. They know that we’re going to put up a show for them if we do choose their show.”

So what can the audience expect in staged readings? 

“The scripts will be in hands and on music stands,” Rusch said. “Obviously will be no sets except for chairs. Some people get a little creative. They stack chairs or make a table or something.”

“But it’s just an open, well-lit stage, and sometimes they’ll be sitting down most of it. Sometimes they get up and are reading and have some blocking going on,” Rusch said. “Someone does read all the stage directions out loud to make sure that the story is being told correctly, and the audience can follow along that way. Normally, in a real play, you would just see it.”

 After the play, there is a talkback with the audience about it. For some of the plays, the playwrights will be there. The shows are recorded for the playwrights and for First Look’s literary committee (which will decide which plays are picked for production, since not every member can make every show). 

Rusch said the level of rehearsals varies. 

“I think the least amount I’ve heard is two rehearsals, plus a get together an hour or two before the show, just to tie you things up,” he said. “And I think the most I’ve heard is five. … They have the scripts ahead of time, too, to go over them and work them out before they come in.”

The Reading Festival and First Look Buffalo build on what Rusch did over 20 years of working in Chicago and Los Angeles, particularly as founder of the SkyPilot Theatre Company in L.A., which is still running today. Rusch returned to Buffalo in 2015 and started teaching scene study and audition technique through his Acting Studio 716. 

Eventually, he was drawn back to producing new plays and the creation of First Look  Buffalo Theatre Company, which describes itself as a “Buffalo’s home for new play development.”

This year’s First Look full-play season has included “Tea Party,” by Sean Abley, and will feature Wendy-Marie Martin’s “The Day I Learned to Fly” next month. Both came out of previous Reading Festivals. First Look’s “Fauci and Kramer,” by Drew Fornarola, also won the Emanuel Fried Award for Outstanding New Play at last June’s Artie Awards.

This year’s staged readings: 

• “Long Layover,” by Michelle Tyrene Johnson; directed by Davida Evette Tolbert.  Friday, Dec. 6, at 7 p.m. 
• “The Blue Parrot,” by Jeff Goode; directed by Drew Fornarola. Saturday, Dec. 7, at 2 p.m. 
• “TERF,” by Drew Fornarola & Scott Elmegreen; directed by Drew Fornarola. Saturday, Dec. 7, at 7 p.m. 
• “Christmas 2.0,” by Donna Hoke; directed by Alexandria Watts. Sunday, Dec. 8, at 2 p.m.
• “A Visit from the Hometown,” by Mark Humphrey; directed by Jeffrey Coyle. Sunday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m.
• “Training Set,” by Adam Hahn; directed by Mike Ooben. Friday, Dec. 13, at 7 p.m. 
• “And So-She Did,” by Wendy-Marie Martin; directed by Jason Francey. Saturday, Dec. 14, at 2 p.m.
• “The Girl in the Washroom,” by Bella Poynton; directed by Mike Ooben. Saturday, Dec. 14, at 7p.m. 
• “Preservation,” by Deborah Yarchun; directed by Lara 0. Haberberger. Sunday, Dec. 15, at 2 p.m.

All readings are at the Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center, 705 Renaissance Dr., Williamsville.