Amateurs produce plays for broadcast

THEATER BUFFS-Readers Theater Television tapes a play at the Westlake Village Adelphia television studio recently. The program offers actors, writers and production crew the opportunity to hone their skills in a professional studio while they create a program that will air on Adelphia community access TV. Ever wanted to work a television camera, sharpen your acting skills or write an original play and see it come to life? This group is for you.

Readers Theater Television is in its third season producing original plays and helping writers, actors and people who like to work behind the scenes to gain handson experience. There's always room for talented people, said Regina Mocey, who founded the group with Oak Park resident Tim Gallagher.

The creative volunteers produce taped readings of new screenplays, teleplays and stage plays for public access TV.

The newest teleplay, "Pleasure and Grief," written by British playwright Colin Pink, is airing on Adelphia's Channel 25 at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

This reading features Helene Cohen of Camarillo, Terry Fishman of Thousand Oaks, Tim Gallagher of Oak Park, Peter Hayes of Agoura Hills, Francine Markow of Westlake Village and Melanie Maynard of Thousand Oaks.

"Readers Theater performs a valuable service in getting new works produced," said Cohen, an actress and playwright whose script "50/50" was recently produced by the group.

"They're willing to try out new work and that helps the writers who can look at their work with a critical eye and evaluate it in a way that's different from just reading it in a bedroom," she said.

Cohen also said she connected with Mocey as a person and as an artist, and was confident the Readers Theater group would represent her work well.

Although the Readers Theater format isn't new in theater, it's not usually done for television. The simple productions leave room for the viewer's imagination to take flight as the actors read a script and bring a character to life using only their voices and facial expressions.

"Actors can be involved in a variety of projects without extended commitments," Mocey said.

The projects also aim to involve people who want to learn about camera work and editing, but participants must take a free workshop before they can handle the equipment at Adelphia studios, where the Readers Theater group produces its shows.

Through Readers Theater, writers also have a chance to hear their works performed while developing them for the big or small screen or full stage productions.

"Because we wanted to do something that was affordable, we latched on the idea of original work, enabling playwrights to get their work exposed," Mocey said.

Readers Theater Television welcomes submissions of new work to produce. Volunteer actors and videographers are also invited to join in.

For more information, call Gallagher at (818) 879-2096 or Mocey at (818) 707-6255, or visit www.Gallaware.com/ ReadersTheater.

"Pleasure and Grief" will continue through Aug. 31 on Readers Theater Television.