Reading and Performance
Plays are meant to be performed. The printed text is a script to be fleshed out on the stage in a live production by a producer and actors. Costumes, make-up, staging, actors and music all contribute to an appreciation and understanding of a play. The readers of drama must endeavour to see with the mind's eye and ear, to imagine how they would see a character, a scene or a whole play performed. A play reading with classmates is a worthwhile way of raising questions about performance -- about how dialogue should be delivered, about gestures, tone, body-language, etc.
Readers of drama do have one advantage in that they can re-read a complex passage or meditate on the nuances of a speech whereas the audience at a performance gets no instant replay.
To read and to see a play allow for the most valuable experience of all. Then, one can test one's own interpretations and expectations against those of the director and the actors.