Recently a group of Randolph area theater experts sat in a circle on the Chandler Music Hall stage. They had been recruited to read and critique a new script, “Funny Feeling,” by Judith Keller, a Manhattan-based playwright and filmmaker who had come to Randolph for a few days to work on the play.

When one member of the Support Group referred to “Funny Feeling” admiringly as one of the densest plays he had ever read, Keller smiled.

Another said “I don’t like Tom at all as a person, but as a character, he’s great!” She nodded.

“I wish you hadn’t let Lucille have an affair with that sleazy guy,” another complained, “It’s demeaning to her. She’s better than that. Don’t make me lose respect for Lucille.”

“It’s okay with me,” Keller responded, “That’s who she is. I don’t want to make her a goody-goody.”

The play’s central character, Lucille Harrison, to be portrayed on the Chandler stage next Saturday, Oct. 23, by Tony-Award-winning actress Elizabeth Franz, is decidedly not a goody-goody. The victim of a community that unjustly destroys her reputation, she is, like the playwright, a strong, principled, independent woman with who knows how to live life.

Keller lives in New York City, where she has made some award-winning short films centered around older women characters. Her films have been presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, aired on National Public Television, CBS, and cable TV, and are distributed in the United States and internationally.

“The Club Med Account,” Keller’s full-length comedy about the head-on clash of politics, sex and family values, won an award in the national Playwrights, Actors, Contemporary Theater Competition for Women Playwrights and two competitions for professional readings, both held in New York City, one a staged reading directed by Oscar-winning director, Nigel Noble. It has also been produced in Rome and Johannesburg.

After two sessions with the Chandler Playwright’s Support Group, which, for “Funny Feeling,” consisted of Betsy Cantlin, Greg Crawford, Cynthia Jackson, John Jackson, Linda Morse, Barbara Nolfi, Mark Rosalbo, Don Schramm and Jeff Tolbert, Keller said this week, “They were really bright, generous, sensitive and constructive—a bit prudish at times, and that was a great help, too. They understood just what I was trying to do with the play. The discussion was always comfortable and candid, and I’ve taken what I learned to heart in the revisions I’m doing. A play script is a living and changing organism.”

Tony Keller, who is producing Funny Feeling, is a member of the Chandler board, chair of Chandler’s future planning committee, and Judith Keller’s nephew. He says he’s delighted that his aunt’s play is having its first public airing in Randolph.

“From Chandler to Broadway,” he quipped.

“Funny Feeling” is part of a new campaign Chandler Center for the Arts is launching to restore live theater to the Randolph Area. While youth theater has flourished here during the past 15 years, little theater activity has been happening within the adult population since the glory days of the 1970s and 80s.

Through such efforts as the SlamVermont Festival at Chandler this past July and the current Funny Feeling project, which brings a visiting playwright together with theater enthusiasts in the community and mixes a cast of New York stars and regional actors, Chandler is experimenting with directions that might coax theater back into focus in Randolph the way it is in Rochester, Waitsfield and Thetford.

With the renovation and public accessibility of Chandler’s Upper Gallery, a new “cabaret” program is being planned for 2010-11 which will spotlight regional playwrights and actors, along with fiddlers, stand-up comedians, chamber music players, and dance bands. A 2011 classic film series is also in the works. Chandler will announce the new Upper Gallery programming in November.

“Funny Feeling” will be presented as a stage reading on Saturday, October 23 at 7:30 p.m. in Chandler Music Hall, as a benefit for the new theater program at Chandler. The cast combines noted Broadway and Vermont performers. Reservations can be made by calling 728-6464.