On Feb. 8, Asylum Theatre will host a staged reading of Reckoning, a drama by Chicago playwright Jenny Seidelman. Afterward, the audience will offer feedback — it’s a chance for theater-goers to perhaps help shape a play’s final version. We asked Seidelman what she hoped to gain from the process:
For this reading specifically, I’m especially interested in responses to the world of the play and to the characters. Reckoning is set in a community of travellers (Irish gypsies) living in England. As outsiders looking in, I’d love to know if audiences find the world accessible enough. Are the cultural norms and constructs clear? Are the characters’ motivations and actions justified by their backstory and their relationship to one another? Essentially, I’m asking the audience and the artists to help me see what I can’t — to help me be objective and make discoveries that I wouldn’t be able to make on my own. The world and the conflict are well-defined in my own mind. Whether that’s true on the page and stage is what I hope to learn. 7p.m., Art Square Theatre, 1025 S. First St., $12, asylumtheatre.org