This past Friday, I had the thrilling honor of producing and directing this year’s first Actor’s Table Read.
The experience exceeded my wildest hopes, setting an exhilarating and promising tone for the rest of the sessions.
On an uncommonly warm spring evening, Chris and I welcomed the irrepressible Rebecca Colby to read through a four pages of her screenplay, Overnight Excess, an acerbic comedy with bite, exploring of beauty standards within the modeling industry. With the help of our motley crew of talented actors, Chloe J Wigmore, Ben Gardner Gray, Gareth Turkington, and Tiggy Bayley, we played with the characters’ intentions and power dynamics to bring Rebecca’s words to life.
As an emerging director within the industry, it was both challenging and exciting to play around with this script that has such a strong voice, relying on each actor’s interpretation of the work and focusing their electric energy to build upon each subsequent read-through.
From the first go-around to the final try, I watched as the actors settled into their characters, finding their footing and the confidence to bring a new perspective that Rebecca later commented was ‘revelatory’.
As it was an invaluable learning experience for me, and I wanted to share a few of my thoughts for future actors, directors, and writers when applying for to their own Table Reads!
Don’t be afraid to try new things
Reading new work is always scary, especially when the creator is in the room with you! There’s an instinct to do everything just right, but with art, there is no right or wrong.
As a director, I always bring my own perspective on the work into the room, but I make it a priority to ask the actors for their interpretation of the characters and their motivations. Going in with an open mind is valuable for everyone involved. An actor/director relationship should be symbiotic, listening to each other’s ideas and extracting the best elements to create the best performance.
By playing with different intonation, intention, and direction between reads, I was able to get a sense of what feels right and what best serves the work. For me, this experimentation is crucial to the process.
There are no small roles
In any script, there are bound to be leads and supporting roles. When playing a character with loads of lines, it’s not hard to give a nuanced performance based on the sheer quantity of content. However, the most fun roles are the ones where you can craft your own mini-narrative within the grander story!
When speaking to each actor about their roles, we were able to exercise the most creativity with the characters who popped in and out. Dissecting leading lady Elle’s insecurities and deuteragonist Roy’s confidence was a clear objective, but working with Gareth and Tiggy to find motivation for their roles as office workers allowed us to mine unique motivation that helped their characters stand out.
Just like in real life, each character on the page has a complex backstory that led them to the moment you are performing, and for those who appear less frequently, there is plenty of freedom to bring your interpretation to the page. Make the script sparkle by finding ways to bring every character to life with depth, personality and their own arc!
Bring your all… even through a screen!
There’s something very artificial, even a little bit silly, about acting in a Table Read. There’s little to no staging, stage directions are being read aloud, and, if you’re over Zoom like we were, you’re alone in your room playing off people through a screen.
It’s understandable to have trouble getting in the zone when you’re in your own home, but ALL of our actors brought the energy! This is always out goal.
Energy truly sets the tone for the entire experience– if one person isn’t feeling it, the whole room is brought down.
Choosing to have fun and foster an encouraging vibe is like a top secret weapon in any directors arsenal, allowing the energy AND performances elevate as confidence in the room grows. It can make or break the experience, so I try not to be shy or hold back, and lead from the front, even if I am nervous.
For me, this experience was unforgettable and would not have been possible without such a fantastic writer and cast of actors to help make it happen.
We are SO excited for the next Table Reads, and we hope to see you all there!
Emily Monaghan is a screenwriter and director from the New York City area in the United States. Monaghan has written and directed several short films, including Changing Tune (2024) and Le Fleur (2023)
