Dramatic Reading Suggestions

Plays and other dramatic works
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ToddHW
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Post by ToddHW »

[This is a copy of a posting I just put in the Play Suggestions forum.]

I went through the forum a week ago and found about 75 open roles in the 11 [OPEN] plays, and about 80 roles in the 5 [OPEN] DRs (with half of those being in Monte Cristo).

A question for all of you: how do we get more people involved in Dramatic Works, both plays and Dramatic Readings? Can folks jump in with their thoughts?
* We have tried guilt - holding cleanup months trying to get people to jump on to older offerings so we can finish them off and get them cataloged. Or having a dedicated topic set up as a reminder about our long running offerings - sorta like our Orphans thread but more for the senior citizens. Sometimes these seem to work for a while.
* Many of us "advertise" dramatic works in our signature lines. Mine is probably not very effective in getting new people becuz I don't get involved in enough projects outside this forum for new people to see it. But maybe the signature line is becoming less effective since everyone starts to ignore the signatures - just like ignoring ads at other websites?
* At the beginning of the year I made the assumption that offering more plays would help so there would be more choice available in this forum just as there is in the Book or Short Item forums. And so I have been running ragged running multiple plays at one time. I have seen a number of wonderful new contributors throughout the year, and the plays seem to have filled and finished quickly (I am also rabid about orphaning roles at the 2 month point) so maybe this is being effective? On the other hand, there are still 30 open parts in these plays....
* We also have short plays available for folks that don't want to commit to a long play or DR role - but the current one act collection seems to be running on for a long time as well.

What are your thoughts about this?

Thanks, Todd
AdeledePignerolles
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Post by AdeledePignerolles »

I think some people would do DRs but don't know how to get started. Your first DR can be slightly overwhelming, even if you only have a single chapter role. Maybe if someone posted in the need help forum to offer specific help for anyone who'd be interested in DRs but doesn't know where to start?
Adele
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annise
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Post by annise »

I also believe signatures only work if they contain a single entry that changes , otherwise people don't read them.
It's my feeling that its the 4th murderer thats the hard bit to fill , not the lead roles. Maybe you should pair big roles up the some of the 1 liners ?
There's a lot of setting up to do to read 3 words.
I think BCs do their best to make the posts easy to follow but it still is difficult to find roles open, especially in DRs.
My personal opinion is that DRs should be short books with lots of conversation.

And I think with all of LV , readers should be free to do their own chosing . If I chose to BC a project that has limited appeal , I just need to stick around till someone comes along to read it or read it myself :D

Very unhelpful Tod , I know. But with all projects it's much easier to get readers for something everyone has heard of , especially the USA readers because there are more of them

Anne
linny
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Post by linny »

ToddHW wrote:* At the beginning of the year I made the assumption that offering more plays would help so there would be more choice available in this forum just as there is in the Book or Short Item forums. And so I have been running ragged running multiple plays at one time. I have seen a number of wonderful new contributors throughout the year, and the plays seem to have filled and finished quickly (I am also rabid about orphaning roles at the 2 month point) so maybe this is being effective? On the other hand, there are still 30 open parts in these plays....
I think there are too many projects. Possibly if there were less they would move more quickly. I don't tend to go back and listen to a project after it gets to the catalog but for readers that do then contributing to a project that takes 2-3 years to finish wouldn't be appealing. Possibly a change to the 2 month rule would help as well. Maybe main characters are 2 months and minor roles are 1 month. Orphaning roles timely is the only way to keep these long lagging projects from stalling out completely.

Mostly I would like to see the 2 max rule revisited. My understanding is that the rule doesn't apply to plays but I really don't understand this exception. If a BC drops out it's a lot of work for others to pick up. If a BC drops out with multiple projects it's daunting.
annise wrote:But with all projects it's much easier to get readers for something everyone has heard of, especially the USA readers because there are more of them
A really good summary should be required. TBD for DR summaries could be holding things up. I don't mind reading for a text I don't know but having an idea of what it's all about could pull me in.

Other thoughts -
I don't read much for DRs. Most of my time has been in BCing and editing dropped projects. I don't understand when BCs don't edit for their projects. If they can't prearrange for an editor or the editor drops out then it seems really unfair to readers to have a completely read project sitting for weeks/months waiting for editing.

When I do read, I don't pick main roles, I'm better as an extra. I would rather the roles weren't lumped together. A line count for these little roles would be great! I am much more likely to pick a number of roles with 1-5 lines then a character with more. A separator in the MW for main characters v extras would also be helpful.

How the MW is arranged and managed limits my contributions. It is not appealing if the link to a google doc is just in the MW and all the way at the bottom where the final edited chapters/acts will be. If a lot of project specific abbreviations are used and I can't quickly figure out what they mean and where to find my text then I move on. There is one current project I find so confusing that I can't even help PL for because I can't follow the organization and abbreviations.

I tend to shy away from the Archive plays (sorry Todd). I find the text difficult especially if there is an all line to find. Those lines I usually miss entirely so now I just skip those projects altogether. If the MW told me that there were x # of all lines that would be helpful.
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Post by Newgatenovelist »

I'm very late responding to this thread, but it's a good question. The dramatic offerings are part of what makes the Librivox catalogue so exciting and varied.

I would agree with Linny about line or word counts. I always found that helpful. It was usually easy to find a very small role that needed filling and add it to my next recording session. However, I do realise setting up a project in that way requires a lot of extra time and effort, so it's more of a bonus to have than a gap when it isn't there.

Erin
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ToddHW
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Post by ToddHW »

I will see if I can work getting the line counts into my standard setup process for the next round of plays I start.

Thanks, Todd
Carolin
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Post by Carolin »

this book would make a great dramatic reading.
"My Novel" — Complete by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7714
Carolin
annise
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Post by annise »

Really - have you looked how long it is :shock: , it has 12 books many with around 20 chapters . :shock: :shock:

Anne
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Post by silverquill »

Long? Naw, 240 chapters 450,000 words . . . . :shock:
Won't even attempt a character count. :roll:
~ Larry
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Post by wib66 »

Carolin wrote:this book would make a great dramatic reading.
"My Novel" — Complete by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7714
I would love to take this on if no one else wants to. I love a great challenge. A lot of it is already labelled with the characters so should be easy to set up. Do you think it would be better to have each book as a separate project and just put up one at a time or to do the whole book in one project so readers can be consistent throughout the book.

Let me know your thoughts
Michele
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Post by TriciaG »

wib66 wrote:
Carolin wrote:this book would make a great dramatic reading.
"My Novel" — Complete by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7714
I would love to take this on if no one else wants to. I love a great challenge. A lot of it is already labelled with the characters so should be easy to set up. Do you think it would be better to have each book as a separate project and just put up one at a time or to do the whole book in one project so readers can be consistent throughout the book.

Let me know your thoughts
I would say each book separately. That way any principal characters that have a ton of lines throughout could be read by different readers. I would hate to see a main character's reader leave partway through such a monster!
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MaryAnnSpiegel
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Post by MaryAnnSpiegel »

Carolin,

What was it about this book that attracted you to it?

MaryAnn
Carolin
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Post by Carolin »

The dialogue, parts of it are like little plays. The fact that this book is called unmissable in any private library in a contemporary publication. And we dont have it in the catalog yet.
Carolin
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Post by Elizabby »

I am about to launch the third "Psammead" book in the Nesbit trilogy. It is 15 chapters, a children's book if anyone is not familiar with it.

I'm looking for expressions of interest in narrating it, as I did the previous two myself but I'm not sure I can manage the workload of both narrating and BCing. Please PM me to discuss.
Twinkle88
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Post by Twinkle88 »

A dramatic reading of An Old-Fashioned Girl will soon be starting! :)
Last edited by Twinkle88 on December 21st, 2017, 9:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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