Play Suggestions

Post by **ToddHW** » September 4th, 2017, 7:11 am

alanmapstone wrote:If anyone is thinking of doing more Pinero, could I suggest one of his more serious plays The Second Mrs Tanqueray. This is about the narrow minded and hypocritical Victorian attitudes to a "woman with a past". It has similarities to Wilde's A Woman of No Importance.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Mrs_Tanqueray

Launched. Very different from the farces!

viewtopic.php?p=1391355#p1391355

Thanks, Todd

Kangaroo692 · Post by **Kangaroo692** » September 11th, 2017, 7:01 pm

If anyone is interested, there are three "Boy Scout" plays listed in the the Boy Scout Literature section of the wiki.

-kangaroo

Post by **ToddHW** » September 26th, 2017, 3:38 pm

I'm getting ready to follow Dandy Dick with another Pinero farce, The Cabinet Minister.

Unfortunately I have not found more translated Dumas plays - The Tower of Nestle that I found in English seems more like a pageant than a play. I'd also love to find a PD translated Verne play, but have only found French and a new non-PD English one....

Thanks, Todd

Post by **ToddHW** » September 26th, 2017, 4:47 pm

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

Post by **ToddHW** » October 6th, 2017, 4:45 pm

Since The Physician in Spite of Himself just finished, I launched another Moliere: Love is the Best Doctor.

viewtopic.php?p=1400951#p1400951

Thanks, Todd

Elizabby · Post by **Elizabby** » October 7th, 2017, 1:03 am

There is a collection of four short plays by Lord Dunsany, called "Of Gods and Men" which is on Gutenberg but we don't have it here. The plays are related, and slightly too long to be done as part of the "One Act Plays" collection so I'd recommend doing it as a standalone book.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11283

Post by **ToddHW** » October 7th, 2017, 3:51 am

Elizabby wrote:There is a collection of four short plays by Lord Dunsany, called "Of Gods and Men" which is on Gutenberg but we don't have it here. The plays are related, and slightly too long to be done as part of the "One Act Plays" collection so I'd recommend doing it as a standalone book.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11283

Yes, could treat it sorta like a four act play. I'll take a look when I have a moment...

Thanks, Todd

WiltedScribe · Post by **WiltedScribe** » October 23rd, 2017, 8:47 pm

I'm thinking of launching The Gamester by Edward Moore as my next play, and this time around I'd like to rely on my source text rather than Google Docs. There's a version of Project Gutenberg that I'd like to use: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16267

This version is based on a reprint published in July, 1948, but the play itself is in the public domain, and the BibRec states that it's PD in the US. So is it OK, or do I have to find another version?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

ZamesCurran · Post by **ZamesCurran** » November 13th, 2017, 10:09 am

WiltedScribe wrote: This version is based on a reprint published in July, 1948, but the play itself is in the public domain, and the BibRec states that it's PD in the US. So is it OK, or do I have to find another version?

In theory, if, when reprinting it, the publisher changed it in any way -- say, modernizing some of the 18th century language -- then, boom, you have a new copyrightable work. However, the introduction implies that they did nothing like that, and reprinted the PD work exactly as Moore had written it. In which case, we're OK.

YouTube · Post by **Darvinia** » November 13th, 2017, 10:15 am

Also, we trust PG to do their homework. If they say it is PD in the US in the Bibrec tab, then it's good enough for us!

Post by **ToddHW** » November 25th, 2017, 5:32 pm

I went through the forum this evening and found about 60 open roles in the 8 [OPEN] plays, and about 70 roles in the 4 [OPEN] DRs. Not much different from at the end of September.

Thanks, Todd

Post by **alg1001** » November 26th, 2017, 11:22 am

A play "The Death of Marlowe" is at the end of The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3)

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21262

It is introduced with-
"Mr. R. H. Horne's noble and pathetic tragedy, The Death of Marlowe (originally published in 1837), one of the few dramatic pieces of the present century that will have any interest for posterity."

I am not sure how posterity feels about it, but I am interested.

Elizabby · Post by **Elizabby** » November 26th, 2017, 1:43 pm

Looks interesting, and probably short enough for the One Act Play collection? The current one has a few slots still open.

Post by **alg1001** » November 30th, 2017, 9:12 am

I don't think I am up for working on a play right now. If anyone wants to do it, please do. Thanks for pointing the one-act possibiliy.

ChuckW · Post by **ChuckW** » January 19th, 2018, 7:04 pm

Now that Orra's nearing completion (and I have enough free time to work on plays), I'm starting to look into other dramatic projects to launch soon. Here's what I'm considering right now.

The Dream (Joanna Baillie): I'm determined to get as much Joanna Baillie into the catalogue as I can -- especially the gothic mysteries and tragedies. This one is a doozy: a surreal, proto-Lynchian story of a group of monks who all have prophetic dreams that lead them on the trail of a murder. It's not exactly a closed room mystery (the murderer is discovered at the end of Act I), but it's a fascinating, well-honed examination of fear nonetheless. It's also very short (and unlike Orra, it's written in prose).

After the Fire (August Strindberg): Librivox has plenty of Strindberg in the catalogue (two of which I've done in the past), but we could always have more. This is a relatively short (only two Acts) chamber drama about a family unraveled by the secrets that come about from the burnt remains of a house. Top-shelf Strindberg from the latter part of his career.

The Lower Depths (Maxim Gorky): Because I'm still shocked nobody has done this for Librivox before. Seriously. This is essential. We really need to record this.

Rollo's Wild Oat (Clare Kummer): A frivolous little lark about a privileged millionaire who wants to be a Shakespearean actor. About as insubstantial as a dandelion fart, but fun. There's very little "literary" value here, but it's a fine example of 1920s Broadway comedy.

Anyway, I'll probably launch something in the coming months.