Submitted by the San Juan Community Theatre

San Juan Community Theatre presents an experimental version of its popular reader’s theater program on Sunday and Monday, July 2-3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Gubelman Theatre.

Raymond Carver’s short story, “Beginners,” will be presented verbatim, without cutting or altering a word – but as semi-staged theater. Actors will take the parts of the different characters in the story, bringing them to life within the narrative. The technique of staging a short story as a play has been developed to a high point by the San Francisco theater troupe Word for Word.

Directed by Georgia Smith, the featured island actors are Penelope Haskew, Bobby Ryan, Douglas Schirmer, Krista Strutz, Duvie Dow and Greg Swinford.

“Beginners” is classic Carver: two men, two women, a couple bottles of gin, and a helpless longing for love. Most readers know it as the famous title story of Carver’s collection “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” But that title – and quite a bit of the writing in the published version – were the work of Carver’s editor, Gordon Lish. The version presented at SJCT is Carver’s original work, as published by his widow Tess Gallagher, just a few years ago.

Admission to this From the Page production is free. Seating is limited; doors open at 6:30 p.m.