Ottawa theatre professional Paul Dervis, along with professional actors from around the city came together for the first of three Hothouse presentations that aim to help student scriptwriters perfect their writing.
“You have butterflies in your stomach, like, ‘Oh my god what are people gonna think, is it gonna work?’” said Henrique Esper of the script writing program.
The Hothouse presentations have been going on at the college for over a decade, with Ottawa Director Paul Dervis being the volunteer artistic Director for the reading series for many of those years. The series is truly about helping the play writes develop their scripts.
“In stage reading I’ll ask the play writes what they want to do with this and are we doing what you want,” Dervis said. “And then I’ll tell them whether it works or not, but I’m not going to change it.”
On Feb. 2 the Algonquin script writing students presented the first Hothouse in the hopes of improving their scripts by presenting small segments of larger plays after which, they receive comments and suggestions from fellow students and audience members, including friends, family and faculty members.
For many of the students these readings are the first time that their scripts have been read aloud to an audience.
Peter Morgan, also a student of the scriptwriting program, said that the main purpose of the hothouse is to show the play writes how the dialogue works when it’s spoken. This is one reason why professional actors, who volunteer their time, are brought in to read the scripts.
Paul Dervis said that about 10 years ago he brought in professional actor, most of which have come from the Algonquin theatre program, to read the scripts because they have a more clear understanding about the purpose of the evening.
“It’s not for me, it’s not for the actors,” said Dervis. “It’s for the play writes”.
At the first installation of the play reading series the audience members were engaged in discussion with the play writes, openly discussing and accepting criticism about their work which will be presented as a whole play at the end of the term.
The next Hothouse presentations are Mar. 2 and Apr. 13 and are to be presented in room N112.