I'm a stage manager. It's certainly true that the relationship theater practitioners form with a script is much deeper and more rewarding than the experience a

I'm a stage manager. It's certainly true that the relationship theater practitioners form with a script is much deeper and more rewarding than the experience a casual reader forms with a novel, and a large part of that is familiarity. I'll read a play 5-6 times in preproduction alone, between an initial read for pleasure, close reading for technical requirements, an inevitably slow read to type an electronic copy, several proofreads of my electronic copy, proofreading of the director's cut, etc. There's a table readthrough first thing after the play is cast, and then (if there's a long gap of time) another one at the first rehearsal. And then there's rehearsal. The director and actors figure out at each moment 1) what does each character want, 2) what prior action in the play made them want it, 3) what is the obstacle preventing them from getting it, 4) how does saying a line contribute to overcoming that obstacle, etc. You don't necessarily talk about this for every single line, but anywhere it's not obvious, it will be discussed. (Different directors have different styles, but everything I've seen is a variation on this.) They also do a fair amount of "table work" and homework assignments where actors invent their characters' backstories, prior relationships, etc. I sit through all of this, and it's my job to be reading so that I can prompt and correct lines, as well as (silently) figure out that a designer should know about something, and add it to my report. We usually visit each moment 3-4 times in this phase. So that's 3-4 very close reads. Then we start running larger chunks - groups of scenes, then acts, then the entire show. All told, probably about 7-8 passes through the show. I'm still on book, and I'm getting a sense of how the pieces fit together. We periodically go back to detail work on parts that the director is unsatisfied with. And then tech. 2-3 full tech runs where I am completely engaged and in the moment, calling cues. And then 7-8 performances, but that's cause it's educational theater. In a professional setting, there could be a hundred. At the end of it, I know Streetcar. I have most of it memorized, I know what everything means and why it's said, I know who everyone is and what their intentions are, I know how the plot fits together, I know how the words are supposed to sound, I know the pulse. At the end of my run, I had probably read it 50 times. People outside of theater/film don't really read anything 50 times. I have a lot deeper and more rewarding relationship with Streetcar than you do with Crime and Punishment, and >50 passes through the script probably helped. But spending dozens-hundreds of hours listening to professionals pick apart the text and develop meaning from it probably contributed too.