Dramatic Reading Suggestions

Plays and other dramatic works
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thistlechick
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Post by thistlechick »

I'm not a fan of Shakespeare and would like to see more "contemporary" plays...

I'm willing to coordinate another one, if someone else is willing to edit =)
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strangebrooch
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Post by strangebrooch »

Caeristhiona wrote:Christopher Marlowe (the other Elizabethan playwright :D ).
Hey now! There are a lot of brilliant playwrights from that era (I mean, for one thing, give Ben Jonson his due, because he is awesome).

But I would definitely be up for Faustus. And, in general, for more non-Shakespearean Renaissance drama, although I haven't got time to coordinate it (dissertation-writing, who'd have thought, is an enormous time-suck ;)).

Also, since someone else wanted to do another musical sometime, The Beggar's Opera would be loads of fun, and relatively easy to coordinate since I don't think there's any actual choral singing (there are a couple of duets and trios but that's manageable). Of course, finding the tunes for the songs (since they're all ballad tunes popular in the 18th century) might be a bit of work; there isn't a website for them online (I've looked before), so that'd make life difficult.
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mackink
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Post by mackink »

Justin Brett wrote:
nomenphile wrote:Lysistrata has good roles for women.
Very true, but do you know of a PD translation that is

a) Funny

b) Unexpurgated?

(After all, it's no fun without the lioness on the cheesegrater, is it?)

Justin
Lysistrata is a great show, but you're right about the "expurgated" versions being no fun. The only one on Project Gutenburg is mildly edited but doable. I personally would like to see the one by Oscar Wilde. I can't find it anywhere, though, not even my public library. It may be something worth looking into.

Also, I'd love to see some Byron's The Cenci or Shelley's Prometheus Unbound go up. I'm a college student with no time, or I'd coordinate Prometheus. I think it would be extreemely cool to do in an audio format. (Possible the only way to do this particular work).
ekaitz
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Post by ekaitz »

It's not exactly a play, but Song of Songs is a dialogue, and I think would sound really nice read as a dramatic work.
russiandoll
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Post by russiandoll »

The main book suggestions forum seems to be being used for play suggestions too, and indeed it's probably not bad to have the ideas for dramatic works there as well as others - after all, you might not know you want to start a DW project until you see the very DW for you mentioned... But for the benefit of anyone looking here, I'm copying over a couple of recent suggestions:

Lushnam suggests Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. French and English versions here http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/r#a575

fink suggests The Beggar's Opera - see this thread: http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17660
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BellonaTimes
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Post by BellonaTimes »

Is anyone doing Moliere's Tartuffe or Aristophanes' The Birds and Lysistrata? These are sharply-written plays.
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Post by BellonaTimes »

annise wrote:
reservedforgreatness wrote:What about the importance of being earnest.. by Oscar wilde
There are 2 versions already in the catalogue if you wished to hear one. Of course there is nothing to stop a 3rd version being produced

Anne
I know I should listen to the other two versions before I ask this but I'm going to forge ahead because my media player's currently occupied with a new live show from Cowboy Junkies 8-) on Archive but... do the plays have to be set during the time that they were written? I mean has anyone on LibriVox done one of these classic plays set now? Hollywood's always coming out with modern versions of Shakespeare and Dickens; how about here?
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chocoholic
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Post by chocoholic »

BellonaTimes wrote:do the plays have to be set during the time that they were written?
Well, they have to follow the PD text exactly, so there's not really any leeway. How were you thinking of indicating setting?
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Post by BellonaTimes »

chocoholic wrote:
BellonaTimes wrote:do the plays have to be set during the time that they were written?
Well, they have to follow the PD text exactly, so there's not really any leeway. How were you thinking of indicating setting?


I'm thinking in the sense of the HBO series Deadwood, which was set in the late 19th Century American West. The scripts were very Shakespearean, albeit overripe with way too much profanity. Also thinking about alternative universe-type story settings ala The Golden Compass. Hedda Gabler (which I thought someone was going to do on here but haven't seen a thread about it) could be done in distinctly American accents -- I don't see stage directions as to nationality beyond a city name or two. You could set it in the Louisiana of the period and read it as if it were a lost Tennessee Williams play.

"The scene of the action is Tesman's villa, in the west end of Christiania.
[right here -- Christiania is in Norway, but who's to say it's not a fictional town in Louisiana? There are towns of the same name in DE, WI, & PA]

ACT FIRST.
A spacious, handsome, and tastefully furnished drawing room,
decorated in dark colours.... Through the panes can be seen
part of a verandah outside, and trees covered with autumn
foliage.
..." Verandah: very southern bit of architecture.

Another way of modernizing a play without changing the diaglogue is to do it like Baz Lurhman did Romeo & Juliet: stay true to the script but jazz it up with modern music and verbal intonations. Street talk: jive, rap, cockney, et al Do another version of The Tempest ala Forbidden Planet, with a computer voice speaking the lines of Caliban. Oh, and Lysistrata is camp enough to be done (as it was originally done) with an all-male cast, ala Charles Ludlam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ludlam , most famous for The Mystery of Irma Vep http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_Irma_Vep
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BellonaTimes
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Post by BellonaTimes »

Oh, btw, I found a book of early Somerset Maugham plays -- all from 1912 or so -- on Archive that was published in 1915. I believe that they are what's known as drawing-room dramas/comedies. Titles include Penelope, Mrs Dot, and Jack Straw. I've noticed a dearth of Maugham on LV for unknown reasons; can we read the plays?
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RuthieG
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Post by RuthieG »

Publications by Maugham prior to 1923 will be Public Domain for US readers. Nothing of his will be PD for readers elsewhere, though, as he died in 1965.

Ruth
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Post by RuthieG »

jane_smith_student wrote:Hello All!

Have disappeared from this forum for a long time and am back. This is going to be so cool when it's done!

I'd love to help with another project like this--I'm finding the copyright rules a bit beyond me. Does anyone know what date we can go back to?

Imagine if we could do Showboat or Oklahoma!

Anyone else perhaps interested in The Messiah, or Mass in B Minor? Nozze di Figaro (Marriage of Figaro)? Those I know we have right to use ;-) Needless to say, there are also the other wonderful Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.

Any other people interested?

Jane
TriciaG wrote:Jane - you may want to post over in Book Suggestions instead of in this thread.
I'd love to help with another project like this--I'm finding the copyright rules a bit beyond me. Does anyone know what date we can go back to?
Anything BEFORE 1923, as long as the copyright wasn't renewed.
In fact, anything which was published before 1923 is in the Public Domain in the USA. Some things published after 1923 may be in the Public Domain if the copyright was not renewed, but the chance of finding any well-known musical in the Public Domain is pretty well zero, I should think. The much-loved Broadway musicals are mostly 1930s and 40s.

Having said that, there are scores of many, many lesser-known musicals on archive.org here and operas/operettas here.

In respect of classical works such as masses and oratorios, well, to be honest I cannot in my wildest dreams imagine producing one of these. Yes, there are sites which provide PD scores (e.g. the International Music Score Library Project and the Choral Public Domain Library) but frankly, editing together an oratorio would take years. Believe me, even a quite simple play with a few songs is difficult. (I speak from experience. ;))

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EHB
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Post by EHB »

Not a suggestion for recording, but simply a resource: links to etexts of famous public domain English-language plays that have never previously had audio recordings, but that are actually staged nowadays and/or studied as course texts (as confirmed by an internet search). Recordings of such plays would obviously provide a particular service to the community. The list aims to be reasonably wide-ranging, and is not an anthology of my personal favorites (though I do greatly admire many of the listed plays). Authors (and, under each author, plays) are listed chronologically, not in order of importance.

Etexts of many of these plays are available at multiple websites. In each case, I’ve tried to link to a site that provides a convenient reading text, where possible in modern spelling. Therefore, the linked text is not necessarily the best source for recording purposes, and in a few cases, may not itself be PD (though all the plays certainly are). All links were accessed successfully on June 8, 2009.

RENAISSANCE

Anonymous: King Leir - Done King Leir and His Three Daughters; Edward III; Sir Thomas More; Yorkshire Tragedy.
Marlowe: Tamburlaine - Done Tamburlaine Part 1; Tamburlaine Part 2.
Jonson: Every Man in His Humour; Poetaster; Sejanus; Epicoene; Bartholomew Fair; Devil is an Ass; masques: Oberon; Golden Age Restored; News from the New World; many others.
Done: The Alchemist The Alchemist
Chapman: Bussy D’Ambois; Widow’s Tears.
Marston: Malcontent.
Chapman, Jonson, & Marston: Eastward Ho.
Webster: The White Devil - Done The White Devil.
Beaumont & Fletcher: Philaster; King & No King; The Maid's Tragedy - Done The Maid's Tragedy.
Massinger: New Way to Pay Old Debts.

RESTORATION AND 18TH CENTURY

Colman & Garrick: Clandestine Marriage.
Goldsmith: Good Natured Man. Done Good Natured Man

19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES

Robertson: Caste; School.
Boucicault: Colleen Bawn; Arragh-na-Pogue; Shaughraun.
Jefferson: Rip Van Winkle.
W.S. Gilbert: Sweethearts - Done Sweethearts.
Pinero: Magistrate; Schoolmistress; Second Mrs Tanqueray; Trelawny of the Wells; His House in Order. Done: The Amazons: A Farcical Romance


ALREADY RECORDED

Reliable audio recordings (often with illustrious casts) already exist of the following PD plays. (Indeed, some of these recordings are themselves already PD, or will soon become so in many English-speaking countries. Some are already available as free downloads on the internet.) This category is provided simply for reference (no elinks supplied). Of course, that doesn't mean that no further recordings of the plays are necessary!

Anonymous: Everyman; many of the medieval York, Towneley, and Chester plays.
Bale: King Johan.
John Heywood: Play of the Weather.
Norton & Sackville: Gorboduc.
Udall: Roister Doister.
S.: Gammer Gurton’s Needle.
Kyd: Spanish Tragedy.
Marlowe: Edward II; Dr Faustus; [LV has Jew of Malta in pipeline].
Shakespeare: all the undisputed plays, plus Two Noble Kinsmen.
Jonson: [professional Volpone may be in pipeline].
Dekker: Shoemaker's Holiday.
Tourneur or Middleton: Revenger’s Tragedy.
Beaumont: Knight of the Burning Pestle.
Webster: Duchess of Malfi.
Middleton: Trick to Catch the Old One; Women Beware Women; Changeling.
Milton: Comus; Samson Agonistes.
Dryden: All for Love.
Wycherley: Country Wife.
Congreve: Love for Love; Way of the World; Semele.
Gay: Beggar’s Opera.
Goldsmith: She Stoops to Conquer.
Sheridan: Rivals; School for Scandal; Critic.
Byron: Manfred.
Shelley: Cenci.
Browning: [LV has Pippa Passes in pipeline].
Boucicault: Octoroon.
Gilbert: all the scripts for Sullivan, plus a few others.
Gillette: Secret Service; Sherlock Holmes.
Pinero: Thunderbolt; Widow of Wadsdale Head; Enchanted Cottage (not PD, but listed for completeness).
Wilde: all the modern prose plays; [LV has Florentine Tragedy & Sainte Courtisane in pipeline].
Shaw: most of the plays.
Yeats: many of the plays.
Barrie: Quality Street; Admirable Crichton; Peter Pan.
Brighouse: Hobson’s Choice.
Synge: Shadow of the Glen; Riders to the Sea; Tinker’s Wedding; Well of the Saints; Playboy of the Western World.
O’Neill: Beyond the Horizon; Emperor Jones; Anna Christie; Hairy Ape; plus some one act plays (and numerous later non-PD plays).
Sidney Howard: Silver Cord (and several later non-PD plays).
Kaufmann et al.: Dulcy (and many later non-PD plays).

Barrie: Dear Brutus - in progress
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badmonkey666
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Post by badmonkey666 »

I am new here and I have no idea if this question goes here or in another forum, BUT....

Can someone do a play Solo? As in pick a play that is in the public domain and have a few friends say the parts and record it?? Or do the project "solo" as in I post it, but have other people, including myself, from the Librivox community say the parts? Just wondering, because I prefer doing a single part in a play instead of reading an entire book and all the plays in English seem to be full up on people.

Any answers would be highly appreciated! Thanks!!
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RuthieG
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Post by RuthieG »

I understand your frustration, badmonkey. We have a lot of plays at the moment which we are trying to complete. I am sure that new plays will get posted eventually, so keep your eye out for them. The roles (especially female ones) get taken very quickly. If you're a man, you probably stand a better chance of getting a part.

In the meantime, why not start with a poem or a short story in one of the Short Works Collections? It can be your choice, and you would get prompt feedback.

It is certainly possible to co-ordinate a play oneself, badmonkey. However, I can't say I would recommend it to someone who is not very familiar with the recording, editing and co-ordinating processes. It can get pretty complicated and takes a l-o-o-o-ng time to do. (I speak from experience. :shock:)

All parts would need to be recorded and submitted by registered Librivoxers, so do ask your friends to come along and register.

Ruth
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