Dramatic Reading Suggestions

Plays and other dramatic works
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BellonaTimes
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Post by BellonaTimes »

badmonkey666 wrote: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!!
Speaking from experience, recording a play of more than 5 parts is a challenge but do-able if you've read enough book chapters where there's a lot of dialogue between characters. I've done two plays solo on LV -- a one-act'er by Maugham, and a multi-scene 1 act play by Moliere. The latter was exhausting. Project Gutenberg has several other one-act plays available though.
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BellonaTimes
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Post by BellonaTimes »

RuthieG wrote:
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.


Ruth
Whoa, four Jerome Kern musicals are PD, including Sally..

Btw, there's this interesting site:
http://www.halhkmusic.com/victorian.html
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Post by Lucy_k_p »

I mentioned this in an unrelated thread, but Charley's Aunt by Brandon Thomas is an amazingly funny and clever play.

However I can't find an online copy of it. If anybody comes across one, that would be totally awesome.
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Post by AmateurOzmologist »

Let's get some more George Bernard Shaw going over here!
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BellonaTimes
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Post by BellonaTimes »

AmateurOzmologist wrote:Let's get some more George Bernard Shaw going over here!
I think you should DIY, Miriam. One of those one-act plays of his in PG that I told you about. One of them has about six characters, another just two.
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ppcunningham
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Post by ppcunningham »

The trouble with life isn't that there is no answer, it's that there are so many answers. Ruth Benedict

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Post by RuthieG »

Sadly, we can't see it in the UK. Google is mean that way.

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Post by ppcunningham »

It looks like it is still in copyright - renewed in 1962.

Patti
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Post by RuthieG »

Heh, not the original version then, which was published in the 1890s. It was updated at various points to remove old-fashioned references.

We will find an original one day. :)

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Post by ppcunningham »

It appears that this version under copyright is the original 1892 text. A note in this script says, in part, "and now issue the original text exactly as written by Brandon Thomas and produced by him in 1892".

Looks pretty grim, unless you know the great-great grandchildren of some of the original actors, and can kick around in their attics.....


Patti
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Post by RuthieG »

ppcunningham wrote:It appears that this version under copyright is the original 1892 text. A note in this script says, in part, "and now issue the original text exactly as written by Brandon Thomas and produced by him in 1892".
Shouldn't be copyrighted then. :evil: I can find the 1935 edition quite easily, but not yet the original. I will keep looking.

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christianstorms
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Post by christianstorms »

I just posted THE SOLDIER to you. I am an actor/voice actor/dialogue coach/translator living in Tokyo for the past 18 years. I have loads of movie monologues on tape. THE VERDICT, ANNIE HALL, etc. Can we start a movie monologue section or are these bits in the public domain? Can you imagine if Shakespeare had living relatives? We would have to pay to listen to words, words we all have inside us.
JamesFairhurst
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Post by JamesFairhurst »

Hi! My name is James Fairhurst and am currently a 2nd year acting student at the Royal Welsh College and Drama and would like to read some dramatic works. I am open to anything, but would love to do some more contemporary stuff like Simon Stephens or Dennis Kelly...
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Post by gypsygirl »

We're glad to have you. Have a look through the open projects in this forum for something that might interest you.

Unfortunately, most contemporary stuff is off limits to us, as we only record works that are in the public domain.
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Post by KiltedDragon »

JamesFairhurst wrote:Hi! My name is James Fairhurst and am currently a 2nd year acting student at the Royal Welsh College and Drama and would like to read some dramatic works. I am open to anything, but would love to do some more contemporary stuff like Simon Stephens or Dennis Kelly...
Hi James,

Welcome to Librivox. A great place to start is at the Librivox Wiki where you will find a ton of information about how the site operates and what you can do to help. http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Main_Page

As for the contemporary stuff, we would all like to do that but everything we do here has to be in the public domain and thus free from copyright (i.e. it's free). There are plenty of good projects here so feel free to roam around, ask questions, and join in the fun.

Barry
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Darn stuff! I have books to read!
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