LEWISTON — The Public Theatre is creating a Play Club — like a Book Club, but instead participants will read plays. The first meeting will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, via Zoom.

Every year when the theater picks the season, they read many great plays that never appear on stage (sometimes for the simple reason that the cast size is too big). Theater members thought it would be fun to share some of the scripts to a play club. Each month they will choose a play and talk about it, meeting three times to discuss three plays. Executive Artistic Director Christopher Schario will be the moderator and Professor Martin Andrucki of Bates College will provide insights and suggestions for discussion.

Play Club members will be responsible for acquiring and reading scripts prior to each meeting. Group size will be limited to ensure great conversations — if demand is high, a second group may be added.

The first play to be discussed, in October will be the Pulitzer Prize and 2012 TONY award winner “Clybourne Park” by Bruce Norris. Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking 1959 play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” “Clybourne Park” is set in two eras, with conversations happening in the same house 50 years apart. Act one takes place in 1959, when a white couple unknowingly sells their home to the first black family in the neighborhood (the same neighborhood mentioned in “A Raisin in the Sun”) and their neighbors want them to stop the sale.

In Act two, it’s 2009, and the same property is being bought by a young white couple, and the now predominantly African-American neighborhood battles to hold its ground in the face of gentrification. Excruciatingly funny, thought-provoking and squirm-inducing, there’s a reason this play won the Pulitzer Prize.

“Clybourne Park” and “A Raisin in the Sun” are available for purchase online. It is not necessary to read “A Raisin in the Sun,” but theater members suggest it. They will provide a synopsis of “Raisin in the Sun” to those who sign up for the club.

At the end of the October meeting they will suggest four plays for the remaining two sessions. Those in attendance will vote on which two plays to read for January and March. To reserve a spot or for more information, email info@thepublictheatre.org or call 207-782-3200.

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