Reading Plays Online by Video Call

The Chitacle theater menu

The theater menu holds 200+ original plays for two and monoplays by Chitacle: ready-made scripts for an adult encounter. All plays are freely distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, with no rights claims.

Role combinations of plays in the repertoire: two male roles, two female roles, or mixed. Monoplays come with both male and female roles. You can invite viewers into the online theater and turn the meeting into a real performance.

Play genres: drama, comedy, tragicomedy, melodrama, romantic comedy, black comedy, lyrical drama, thriller, science fiction, buffoonery, absurd, miniature.

What online play reading is

It's a format where two people meet by video call, the same play opens on each of their screens, and they read it aloud — one plays one character, the other plays the other. No stage, no hall, no preparation. Only the text, the voice, and the gaze.

Reading plays is an ancient theatrical art. This is how the actors of the Moscow Art Theatre rehearsed, this is how dramaturgy was read in 19th-century drawing rooms, this is how acting is taught in studios. Chitacle carries this practice into the browser — with partner matching, video call, and real-time line highlighting.

This is an adult project — 18+. The themes and language of the plays are for mature readers.

Four formats of reading

In Chitacle you can read in different ways — depending on your mood and whether you have a partner right now:

• "Read now." Instant partner search — within a couple of minutes the system finds another person who also wants to read right now. Good when a free hour opens up in the evening.
• "Schedule a meeting." You choose a day and time — for example, Wednesday 21:00 — and the system finds a partner by that moment. Reminders arrive an hour before and 5 minutes before the meeting.
• "Read to me." In the role of listener: a partner of the opposite sex reads a monoplay, only they see the text, the entire monologue is addressed to you alone.
• "Read with a friend." A private meeting via personal link — you choose the partner yourself and invite them.

You can invite viewers to your meeting (except instant matching) — friends or loved ones who join as observers, not participating in the reading. The same works for online supervision: an acting teacher, psychologist, or coach joins the student's or client's session as a viewer.

Camera and microphone are required everywhere — this is theater of voice and gaze; without them the essence is lost.

How the reading happens

• Step 1. Go to the site in any browser. No apps needed.
• Step 2. In the Dressing Room, choose how you want to read — with a random partner, on schedule, in the role of listener, or via personal link.
• Step 3. The system chooses the partner and the play. You don't choose the play — the system decides what will be assigned to the pair. That's part of the format: you don't know in advance what you'll read, and that's the intrigue.
• Step 4. Once a partner is found — the stage opens. On the screen you see your camera, your partner's camera, and the play's text. Highlighting shows whose line is next. On the play card, its title, runtime, line count, and genre appear.
• Step 5. Turn on camera and microphone, and start reading aloud.

One meeting is given one play. Conversation, on the other hand, has no time limit. Read in 30 minutes, talk for another hour. What matters in Chitacle isn't the play itself but the contact that arises through it.

Who Chitacle is for

• For drama school students. Sight-reading practice, the table-read period, rehearsals with classmates online between classes.
• For acting teachers. Fresh material for class. Online supervision: the teacher joins the session as a viewer and observes the students in real time.
• For foreign language teachers. Reading plays with a partner breaks the language barrier faster than ordinary conversation. Interface in five languages: Русский · English · Español · العربية · 中文. The play repertoire is growing.
• For literature lovers. Reading a contemporary play with a live partner is not at all the same as reading silently, alone.
• For those who want an unusual date or first meeting. An hour of shared reading shows more about a person than a month of profile correspondence.
• For psychologists and therapists. Drama therapy, work with anxiety, a training ground for communication skills. A supervising specialist can join the client's session as a viewer.
• For two who already know each other. "Read with a friend" mode — a private meeting via personal link. An unusual gift for a loved one.

What's in the repertoire

The Chitacle repertoire holds over 200 original plays: plays for two and monoplays for a single performer. All are written within the project, under the pen name Chitacle. Genres — drama, comedy, tragicomedy, melodrama, black comedy, psychological, philosophical, miniature. Runtime: plays for two 35–45 minutes, monoplays 20–25 minutes.

Enjoyed a play and want the full text? Write to chitacle.online@gmail.com with the play's title — we'll send you the file. You learn the play's title during your meeting in the theater.

Frequently asked questions