Dynamic Women® · 2026-06-30 · 20 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
10 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Diane Rolston, host of the Dynamic Women podcast and creator of the one-woman play "Chasing Enough," took a significant creative risk by doing a public read-through of her unfinished 105-page script in front of a curated audience of friends, colleagues from CAPS (Canadian Association of Professional Speakers), and her local North Vancouver community. Rather than waiting a year or more as many playwrights do, she invited supporters to hear the work read aloud by herself and collaborator Louisa Fung from Presentation House Theater, with Louisa handling the supporting characters while Diane performed Barbara Overwork, the play's overachiever protagonist with three saboteur characters and one supportive character embodied within her. The read-through revealed unexpected emotional resonance in certain scenes, highlighted where the pacing and structure needed refinement, and demonstrated that audiences respond differently to various moments than creators anticipate. Rolston cut the script from 105 to 75 pages based on feedback and learned critical lessons about balancing show-don't-tell storytelling with necessary explanation, understanding that audiences are smarter than writers often assume, and recognizing that scenes creators love aren't always those audiences connect with most powerfully.
A read-through is where actors and collaborators literally read the script aloud without lighting, sound, props, or full acting - just performing the words as written. Diane chose to take risks by acting out parts of her script and having Louisa read stage directions and non-Barbara characters to make it more engaging than a pure reading, though it differs from a full theatrical production with sets, costumes, and lighting.
Ideally 60 to 75 minutes with no intermission, and no more than 90 minutes, because audiences have physical limits (bathroom breaks) and one performer cannot sustain viewer attention for extended periods without support from other actors or production elements.
A finished one-woman show needs to be tight and fit within 60-75 minutes of performance time; at 105 pages with breathing room for emotional moments and acting, the script would run too long, placing excessive demand on a solo performer to maintain audience attention.
She discovered that the opening came on too strong and might benefit from a softer entrance so audiences warm to Barbara before seeing her in performative mode, and that her ending didn't land emotionally as intended - audiences wanted more of a character transformation or resolution than she'd written.
She invited roughly 21-22 people from her personal and professional networks including CAPS members, soccer teammates, church friends, neighbors, and local network connections - people she knew were supportive and wanted her to succeed, so they could provide honest feedback without the pressure of a public event.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
This episode is almost entirely a personal journal entry about the host's theater read-through experience. The handful of 'lessons' offered are platitudes with no transferable, non-obvious substance for a B2B operator.
Audiences are smarter than we think
less explanation and more experience. That's a little bit of that show don't tell
Every observation recycled is a well-worn creative-process cliché - show don't tell, get early feedback, embrace vulnerability. There is no contrarian or first-principles thinking anywhere in the episode.
show don't tell
sometimes the scenes that, that you love, that I love aren't the ones that people connect with and that's okay
There is no guest; this is a solo monologue by a life-and-leadership coach narrating her personal creative project. There is no practitioner expertise relevant to B2B operators on display.
I am Diane Roulston, your host host and I'm going to share today a little bit more about the first time I play Chasing Enough met an audience
I am currently writing a one woman show
A small number of concrete details exist (page count, audience size, timeline milestones) but every figure relates to a personal theater project and carries zero evidentiary weight for business learning.
I had like 105 pages. I needed to cut it down to, like, I cut it down eventually to 75
I had like 21, 22 people who care about me
This is an uninterrupted solo monologue with no guest, no questions, no follow-ups, and no opportunity for challenge or pushback; the format structurally prevents any conversational craft from existing.
So this is so. It's amazing, amazing to have finally read Chasing Enough to an audience
So thank you for listening. You know, your continued support to be listening to the Dynamic Women podcast just warms my heart
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
If you've been following Diane's journey writing a one-woman show, her play Chasing Enough met an audience for the very first time last week and it was terrifying, vulnerable, and incredibly valuable all at once. Our host, Diane Rolston, shares what happened when 21 people sat down to hear an unfinished, unpolished script that no one outside her writing coach had ever heard before.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: If you've been following me, you know that I am currently writing a one woman show and last week I did the read through of it. And so this episode is about the first time my play Chasing Enough met an audience.
Speaker B: You're listening to the Dynamic Women podcast. Each week you'll be inspired by our global community of women. They'll share with you tools and stories to help you be dynamic in every area of life. Here's your host, award winning coach and the CEO and founder of Dynamic Women, Diane Raulston.
Speaker A: Hello lovely Dynamic women. Welcome to the Dynamic Women podcast. I am Diane Roulston, your host host and I'm going to share today a little bit more about the first time I play Chasing Enough met an audience at a read through last week. Now this is something that kind of terrified me because reading a play that is not fully developed, that has still, uh, lots of questions around it, that hasn't been heard by anyone other than my, my writing coach. And it's so it's not finished, it's not polished. And the funny thing is that the character in it, Barbara Overwork, she's an overachiever. And being that people are seeing this without it being perfect, finished, really fully developed is, you know, a bit of a risk, bit of a gamble, and very, very vulnerable. So why did I choose to do it early? Well, first, before I kind of go through it fully, let me just explain what a read through is so that you understand a little bit more. But I'll, I'll share why I chose to do it early, what surprised me and a little, a little bit of my lessons that I learned. So a read through, a uh, read through is where you take your script and you literally read what the script is. I was, I've been learning, learning a lot. So there's no, like you're not really doing lighting or sound or anything. That comes more when there's like a proper workshop being done. But we moved this into more of a, uh, read through. We as in me and I was supported by Louisa Fung. She is also in the creative hub with me at Presentation House Theater. And so she was to read like what act we were in, what scene we were in, any description of the scene. And also talk a little bit more about the things that aren't seen because I'm not acting it. So read through is literally reading it. Though I decided, uh, to take an even bigger risk and act out parts of it just because I felt like those parts, it'd be more fun for my audience to be able to See some of it. So that's a read through. You read through it and then at the end you do a feedback session with those in attendance, asking them questions like, what was your favorite moment? What things are you confused about or need some clarifying maybe what moment stood out to you? And then for me, I wanted to know a little bit about like, is it landing where I need it to land? A lot of people actually don't do this stage until maybe a year in or even further in. At least that's what I've been hearing. And so the fact that I'm kind of doing it now was brave, but I wanted to do it. So why did I choose to do it early? I really wanted to hear the script out loud. So I read, uh, it's just me in this show. It's a one woman show. It might change later on once I start working with my director. But as I was talking to Louisa about it, she's like, you have so many characters because you're not acting. It's going to be maybe confusing for the audience. It's going to be tiring for you. And so she had a good point. And so Louisa read all characters who were not me because, or Barbara overworked because Barbara has four, three saboteurs and one kind of supportive character that are all kind of inside of her. Internal characters that come out and are personified as people. So she read the other roles and I read all of those characters that came from Barbara or Barbara herself. And while like theater is meant to be experienced, right. Not just read. And um, yes, I'm going to be acting it later and I'm going to have a director helping me and maybe some acting coaching or something. But to be able to read it at this point gave me so much great feedback from m the audience. Now who did I invite? I did not want to make this a public thing, so I just wanted friends of mine or connections of mine in my network who I felt would be supportive. So I put it out to a few different communities that I'm a part of. I invited people from caps, the Canadian association of Professional Speakers, people from my soccer team, from my church, from my local networking group, and then friends of mine, even some neighbors. So I had a nice assortment of people there. Some just lived on the North Shore in North Vancouver, bc, some live further away. And so they came for this kind of two hour event. And because they were all people I knew, I knew they were like cheering me on and they wanted me to succeed. But rather than just this is the whole theater is meant to be experienced. I wanted them to experience the play, not just people H me handing the play to people and having them read it. I wanted them to see kind of the intended emotion and then get their feedback. And I needed honest feedback before moving forward because I have. I had so many scenes. I had like 105 pages. I needed to cut it down to, like, I cut it down eventually to 75. And I needed feedback on did I cut the right things? Are things now confusing because I cut parts? And it's interesting because some of the parts people wanted. Actually, I'll share it later. People wanted those parts back that I cut. But a show is really when a one, uh, person show, when you want to do it from start to finish without any intermission, you really do need to have, um, it be tight. Like 60 to 75 minutes. No more than 90, because people can't really hold their pee for that long. They can leave and come back, but I. I don't want that either. Plus, it's me. And so do I really want to do 90 minutes by myself without anyone else? That's. That's a lot of work. So in doing it, I had to really cut it down. It's. When I read it with Louisa, I'd say it was probably an hour, but I didn't let anything breathe. I was just, like, saying stuff. She was saying stuff. I was saying stuff. And it was really quick that it literally was me reading or rather than performing. And when I do perform it, there will be space to breathe. There will be more emotive language and more acting that has no words. But because I wasn't acting, uh, it was just straight, straight reading. So it was about an hour. So I'm guessing we're pushing more 90 minutes. But that's that honest feedback of like, am I hitting the mark? Is the message. I'm intending what they're feeling. And the other thing around this is, you know, creating in public, as in public, even though they're my friends. Right. But in front of others is the first time anyone has heard my script other than my writing coach. Creating in public is uncomfortable but incredibly valuable, especially if you have people that care about you and want you to succeed. They gave me some really great feedback. And it wasn't all, like, just fluff and you're amazing. They gave me some really honest feedback in the development of the script. This episode is sponsored by VA Made Easy. Need more time in your day. VA Made Easy connects you with skilled and vetted virtual assistants who take the busy work off your plate. Social media, content creation, scheduling, inbox cleanup, research, CRM management, tech tasks, audio and video editing and so much more. You stay focused on the tasks that actually grow your business while your VA handles the rest. It is simple to start, easy to manage and built for people who want real support, not guesswork. Have more time freedom, work freedom and financial freedom. Visit vmadez.com to get matched today. So what surprised me about this? Well, some, some things were really powerful, more powerful than I even intended and caused shifts not just in who they are as like a person, but they were starting to see it as who they are as a mother or who they are as someone at ah, a job, who they are as a friend. So they started to see in different areas of life how this show can impact them. Also, it's interesting to see where people laughed and where people didn't laugh. And so thankfully I had the whole thing recorded so I'm able to. Well, I should have recorded it from the front so I could see their reactions. Just having the sound, uh, is enough, right? Is enough. Also the emotional moments, knowing what hit a emotionally. Some people said afterwards that there were moments where they almost wanted to cry because it was so sad. Other moments where they felt anxious because of the intensity of the scene and what, what I, the kind of what surprised me. And I'm going to kind of go into this later in, in the next episode I'm going to talk about what I learned, um, by letting people see my work before it was ready. So I'm going to kind of go into that a little bit more of the lessons learned. But in this time what I realized is, you know, I came out with a big bang, which I might actually more softly come into it so that people start to like the character before they see her in like show mode. And also what's surprising is the ending didn't land where I wanted it to land or I felt that it would land emotionally that people were kind of wanting, wanting more, running more of a change. And so these are the things that now I get to go and, and develop. But it was, it was surprising. Different pieces and like, oh yes, now I see how that's the case. Right. So yeah, some things didn't work as well as I had hoped. There's always, uh, already one scene I'm fully cutting because it just doesn't make sense. One scene I might put right back in because they were kind of like really wanting it. And then some other little scenes where they want to make them longer and then other pieces that weren't as clear that I need to add in. And so it's. I need to cut before I can add. If I want this to kind of work out as my intended, my intended ending for it and impact for it. And what's funny is, you know, we don't. When I do keynotes, I just do my keynote. I don't always have, I don't have read throughs of my keynote. I just do it. But my amazing CAPS community. Canadian association of Professional Speakers. If you do a, uh, talk in front of them at uh, the convention or if someone else is speaking at the same place that you are, or you're doing it to one of the chapters, they will give you constructive feedback. They will be honest with you, not just whitewash or just boost your ego. They will give you that honest feedback. And to know where my ideal audience, where it hit the mark and it didn't. That's massive. Massive. So what are kind of um, m. Some of the biggest lessons kind of at this point? Audiences are smarter than we think. Right. And so I was trying to write it in a way that in, in writing for plays and in theater we need to show them, not tell them. And so a lot of the stuff I was doing was more TED talky, more workshop sounding where it was uh, me telling them what I feel and me telling them what they should feel and the reasons behind it and everything. And so I did, I attempted to do a lot of the stripping back to show. And you asking your audience in advance, they will give you great ideas. That's why they're smarter than you think. And the next thing was less explanation and more experience. That's a little bit of that show don't tell. But also it's around there. I tried to strip it back so much that there wasn't explaining, which also meant that they were confused at some parts. So there needs to be that really nice balance of explanation and experience. So it's really clear to your audience. Now granted, I'm not acting. There's no props, there's no music, there's no me moving around. And, and there was a little bit of voice changing because again, even though it's a read through, I wanted to, to emote a little bit. And then another lesson is that sometimes the scenes that, that you love, that I love aren't the ones that people connect with and that's okay. And just some tweaks that people are kind of saying like, oh, I wanted this or this felt off. That's that's the greatest thing because now I can adapt. And that was the plan. Get this done by the end of June, use the summer to tweak, maybe one more read through and then in the, in September to do a private preview of it or a private workshop where we know it's still not completely done, but now I'm acting in it. Now we've got sound and lighting and props and set and costumes. And again people can give feedback after. So we do some more kind of tweaking before the show is like the big grand opening of the show. If you would like to potentially be at the uh, another read through or to get an invite to come to that private preview. Meaning I'm not going to kind of put it out there in the newspaper and I'm not going to have presentation host theater put it out there to people. It's going to be through my network. If you want to invite to that or you want to just kind of follow along on the journey. I'm going to put a link in here to the landing page for chasing enough where you can learn a little bit more. And also that gives you that opportunity to sign up so that you can get some updates and special invites to, to what's coming up. And the uh, kind of next piece I'm going to be putting in probably are, is going to be some, some photos and maybe even a little bit of video for, from, from the read through. So last lesson is that the script became so much clearer because people experienced it. And while I'm now learning that I really should have filmed from the front to see their faces because then I would have known. Are they on the verge of tears? Are they kind of shifting in their seat and uncomfortable? Are they bored? Are they laughing? What do they laugh at? And is it a big belly laugh or was it a little laugh? Was it some people, but not everyone. Like these are the things that are going to help me really to lock in this play. So I'm just extremely grateful. You know, the, the support that I received. The fact that I had like 21, 22 people who care about me, people who came to support me and gave feedback like that was just such a blessing. I, I feel so blessed to have people like that in my life. And the show is already better elevated, more fine, starting to be like fine tuned in different places and more areas where like the wheels are now turning in my mind to be like, oh, what about that? And what about that? What about that? Even the night before I did it, I changed one scene to make it more interactive with the audience. But what I heard was, yeah, they like that interaction, but they also found it very profound what I did. And I'm not going to say what I did because I want you to experience it as the show. And so that's part of how the show has become better because the, uh, creative juices of me doing it and coming up with last minute ideas and now new ideas for the next one. So this is so. It's amazing, amazing to have finally read Chasing Enough to an audience. Even though it's a private audience, it still was in public. It felt extremely vulnerable. Some parts felt risky, but because I had a wonderful, like my friends, I knew they wanted me to succeed. So while I shared kind of some overarching lessons, what I'm going to do in the next episode is talk more about what I learned by letting people see my work before it was ready. And I feel like that if you have perfectionism, that is going to be a really great, really great episode for you. So thank you for listening. You know, your continued support to be listening to the Dynamic Women podcast just warms my heart and helps to kind of keep me doing this week after week for over seven years now.
Speaker B: Wow.
Speaker A: So subscribe, make sure you don't miss any of these episodes. Know that we are on YouTube as well and these episodes are transcribed into blogs so you can watch them, listen to them or read them. You have options there. Share this with a friend as well because maybe you're going to want to come to the show and bring them and just kind of big future picture. So some workshops, previews for private audiences in September, October, just kind of depends on when, when we've locked it in and then looking at 2027 to take it on tour. So stay tuned. Maybe I'll be coming to a city near you and if you would like to kind of be like a local ambassador connected to the show or supporting in some way or partnering with me, collaborating with me in some way, please also reach out dianeroson.com and while I can't lock anything in now, uh, it's just good to know who is where in what city so that you would be the first one that I reached out to. Until next time, stay dynamic. Bye.
Speaker B: Thank you Dynamic Women for joining us today. Please hop on over to itunes to subscribe and leave us a review. Who do you know who needs to hear our message? We'd love it if you'd share our channel with your friends and family. If you're ready to be more dynamic have more balance and more success. Head over to www.dance dynamicwomenclub.com. free gift for your Key to Success book. Stay dynamic.
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