To person who asked the question- why are you an actor then? You speak about plays so coldly and imply that reading them is a chore. Reading bad plays is a chore, like reading bad books, but here are some of the pluses of reading a play:
1- No longwinded descriptions (you can make up what the characters look like)
2- Better dialogue
3- More dramatic/emotional
4- Quick to read
5- Better characters
You can read a play after watching it to see how you would have staged it. What's wrong with reading a play? Plays have stories like novels do.
And all the stuff about Shakespeare being old-fashioned: that's because he's a poet! that's why the words are like that and many of the speeches from his plays are known (or put down as) poems
Read a play by Miller or Williams. It's like reading a very good novel but shorter.
And read the plays all the way through so you can see how your character should act/speak.
I love reading plays