Stage Reading and A New Name

Joyland; And What Happened in the Whacky Shack

The most recent stage reading of Joyland was held on Sunday night in a Cedar-bordered studio at the Second City Training Center. A warm, vocal audience and a talented cast of actors made for a memorable evening of spooky drama

Joyland takes place in a real abandoned amusement park in Wichita, Kansas, where four teens break inside the rusted gates for a night of adventurous mischief and hopefully the rekindling of a friendship. Yet, innocent adventure turns swiftly to emanate danger, and the secrets of the past become secrets no more. Joyland is an interactive theatre of the Macabre experience taking the audience deep into the darkness of decrepit loss.

Following the reading, a hot topic in the discussion was the immersive staging in the play. Some audience members had questions about the logistics of the blocking and how they were going to be achieved. Others wanted to share experiences of their own involving immersive theatre. Moving forward, the physical challenges in Joyland are going to be very exciting to further explore.

Thank you to The Open Concept for sponsoring the event and to Daniella Wheelock specially for hosting the post-reading discussion. Thanks too for Dane Eissler and A Dead Whale Productions for their counsel and support.

And thanks to all that made it over to the Second City on Sunday to read or listen and provide their honest and intelligent feedback. These readings are immeasurably beneficial to the writing process. We couldn't do it without you.

Photograph: (Left) Nati via holding the lovable Louie the Clown

Photographed: (Below) Daniel Westheimer as Louie the Clown, Jordan Tragash as Doug, Nati Via as Sam, Sofia Tew as Jenna, Anthony Santiago as Avery, and John Denny reading the stage directions.