Paperless Play Readings
The Burgess Hill Theatre Club is introducing some new initiatives to help grow and broaden our members' knowledge of and passion for plays.
Here at BHTC our play readings are very informal and relaxed. Please feel free to bring snacks and drinks. We’ll gather around some tables in the theatre. There will be some paper scripts available as well as digital copies,
Throughout the evening (normally between scenes) we will re-assign characters so anyone who wants to has an opportunity to read. There is no obligation to read and you are welcome to simply sit back and listen. The evening will close with a general discussion of the play where you are encouraged to share your thoughts on the script we have read.
If anyone has suggestions or requests for future play readings, please do let me know.
2025
Curtain Up! by Peter Quilter (5 f)
Date: 15th Jan at 7.30pm (Change of Date)
Based on the author’s earlier Respecting Your Piers, Curtain Up! is the hilarious story of five women who inherit equal share sin a dilapidated theatre and plan to bring it back to life again. They try various fund-raising schemes but their most ambitious is to hold a concert featuring local talent and a world-famous star who agrees to appear for no fee! However, their plans go awry and it’s a race to keep their audience from guessing the truth of the matter. A fast-paced and very funny comedy with five great roles for women.
Anne Boleyn by Howard Brenton (13 m, 4 f)
Date: 10th Feb at 7.30pm
A celebration of a great English heroine, Anne Boleyn dramatizes the life and legacy of Henry VIII’s notorious second wife, who helped change the course of the nation’s history.
Traditionally see as either the pawn of an ambitious family manoeuvred into the King’s bed or as a predator manipulating her way to power, Anne – and her ghost – are seen in a very different light in Howard Brenton’s epic play.
Rummaging through the dead Queen Elizabeth’s possessions upon coming to the throne in 1602, King James I finds alarming evidence that Anne was a religious conspirator, in love with Henry VIII but also with the most dangerous ideas of her day. She comes alive for him, a brilliant but reckless young woman confident in her sexuality, whose marriage and death transformed England for ever.
The History Boys by Alan Bennett
Date: 14th Mar at 7.30pm
An unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a place at university. A maverick English teacher at odds with the young and shrewd supply teacher. A headmaster obsessed with results; a history teacher who thinks he’s a fool.
In Alan Bennett’s play, staff-room rivalry and the anarchy of adolescence provoke insistent questions about history and how you teach it; about education and its purpose.
Please note: the plays are not vetted in advance. Some may contain strong language or scenes of an adult nature.
Free for members. Non-members are welcome and encouraged to give a small donation to the Club.
Venue
Burgess Hill Theatre
98 Church Walk
Burgess Hill
RH15 9AS
