Table Read

The script read aloud, parts assigned, no staging — where dialogue proves or embarrasses itself.

At a table read, actors (or generous friends) read the script straight through aloud. It's the cheapest diagnostic there is: clunky dialogue, over-length scenes, and jokes that die all reveal themselves in an ear that the eye forgives.

Writers listen for where energy drops and where readers stumble — the stumbles are almost always the script's fault, not the reader's.

In One More Draft: Table reads with performed voices