Staged Reading of “Mohammed’s Radio”

Although this was not my first round table reading of a play, it was the first time I was not a part of the round table reading I attended. Upon reading “Mohammed’s Radio” I was immediately interested in the story and the many weighty topics that it tries to address. I was even more interested in seeing how the actors would interpret the characters and in seeing the characters come to life before my eyes. One thing that surprised me about the reading was that the story was acted out even more than I thought it would be. I expected all of the actors to be sitting at a panel in front of me and read from the script with emotion and skill. However, this reading had a little more theatricality in it than I expected. The actors entered and exited when they were supposed to and even changed their posture and gestures to match what they were saying. I expected the physical aspect of acting to be more for a stage production and not really included in the reading of a play. I was also surprised to learn that the character of Little Joe had much more significance to the play than I originally thought he had. During the Q&A after the reading, the writer explained that Little Joe embodied the hope of the play and was the only character that had not been tainted by the neighborhood and had a chance of “escaping.” It was also interesting to see Little Joe portrayed by a college freshman. When asked the question of whether Kelly’s conversion to Islam was genuine, the writer combined the ideas that we suggested in class on Tuesday. He said that yes, it was an escape, but after finding this very convenient escape, Kelly really was starting to find spiritual connection and faith with the ideas of Islam. She just needed to continue in her journey on finding out what Islam is really like.
I was really pleased to find out that a lot of the people who worked on and acted in the play are current Brooklyn College students and alumni! In fact, I knew the actor who portrayed Little Joe, who is a freshman in the BFA program.