FIVE years ago, semi-retired Linton resident David Clarke decided his rural community needed more opportunities to be involved in the arts.<\/p>\n
So, with a background in film and television, he launched the Linton Play Reading Group.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started the group for people who might be too shy to perform, but not too shy to read in front of a small group of other people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also for those with an interest in words, literature and plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
Normally meeting every Wednesday evening at 7pm, the ever-changing ensemble of roughly eight people is based in the old Shire offices\u2019 council chamber.<\/p>\n
Each piece explored is chosen by Clarke from the Victorian Drama League\u2019s library of 10,000 plays of varying genres, and has equal reading parts for all participants.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes us two to three weeks to read a play. They\u2019re usually a thriller, whodunnit, a drama, or comedy, because we love to have a laugh. That\u2019s quite important these days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople come and go. Some are really better suited to amateur dramatics because they want to perform on-stage, but most people don\u2019t want to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although not the main purpose of the group, they do sometimes perform some live readings to audiences, with their books in-hand.<\/p>\n