this disingenuous recycling of the benefit for playwrights of "hearing works aloud" and then essentially conducting a focus study via talkback and half page surveys but doing this in a way that either directly (charging admission) or indirectly (engagement, pr) benefits a theatre

Which
1. Allows for theatres low risk, low reward opportunities to "engage" with their communities
2. Allows theatres to claim proximity to the cutting edge while programming un-adventurous "seasons"
3. Allows the low budget/ substandard pay of a "reading"

4. Allows a sidestepping of all critique

And ultimately keeps us in this deadly system where the playwright is an entity separate from those creating theatre... and its gotta go. A staged reading is not a product. It CAN (not necessarily MUST) be a part of a process

But I wonder how many of these theatres patting themselves on the backs for letting playwrights hear the language aloud would continue making space if they were expected by etiquette to support the work beyond the price of printing out little surveys

I think this issue looks past economic inequities and deals with the ways american theatre is forbidding itself to progress. In my own experiences, plays early in their processes are not always ready for directors and playwrights are not always ready to share the cockpit

So a lot of time is wasted in "discovery" in a way that does not actually help the play grow. Also, in sitting in talk backs for these readings, too often it feels like playwrights are checking for clarity (of narrative, content, or theme) which I dont think requires performance.

Which is not the fault of playwrights, but a fault of a system that tells them this is a step they must take in lieu of other forms of feedback, discourse, critique, or generation of content

Never again do I want to sit through a play and then
1. Regurgitate information about it to see if I got it or if someone needs to make it more clear
2. Straight up just answer direct questions on whether or not I got it.
There are better ways to develop new work