Guest Post from the PAC Playreading Group!

You might not know that Portland Actors Conservatory, besides being the premier institution for professional acting training in the Pacific Northwest, has an intrepid band of literary explorers we call our Playreading Group. Basically it's a loose cadre of like minds who read PAC's season of plays in written form and get together to discuss them, before attending the shows. Members report getting a lot more out of the experience of seeing the play when they've had time to investigate the scripts beforehand. How do you join this group? Email our friendly board member Elaine Harper at emjjames [at] comcast [dot] net and tell her you're interested in joining.

Below are some impressions from another Playreading Group member, Rich Rubin, on a play he recently saw in the Portland area. He wanted to share his experience and we knew it was perfect for the blog.

I saw a matinee performance of "Crimes of the Heart" at the Sandy Actors Theatre this afternoon, and I wanted to pass along our very strong recommendation. The play itself is a Pulitzer Prize winner, and combines over-the-top family strife and quirky comedy to produce a very entertaining mix. The production is also first-rate in every respect, with seamless direction and uniformly high-quality performances featuring great comic timing. One of the actors, Erin Hickman, is an alum of the Portland Actors Conservatory and another, Patrick Roth, is a current student, so there's a very gratifying PAC connection here as well. I'd be surprised if they didn't all enjoy "Crimes of the Heart" as much as we did.