Dramatic Reading Suggestions

Plays and other dramatic works
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Twinkle88
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Post by Twinkle88 »

I'm getting ready to start up a dramatic reading of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin. For those who have never read the story, you could compare it to Anne of Green Gables or Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery -- if you've read either of those.

Would anyone like to be the narrator? I'll be ready to start pretty much as soon as someone decides they want to volunteer. There are 31 chapters, some of them fairly short, and not many that are terribly long.

Also looking for an editor(s)!

EDIT: Narrator and editor found.
Last edited by Twinkle88 on June 29th, 2018, 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kalilei
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Post by Kalilei »

ZamesCurran wrote: June 25th, 2018, 2:13 pm
Kalilei wrote: June 24th, 2018, 1:54 am At the moment I am looking for willing people for the roles of EDITOR and NARRATOR for this project.

1) EDITOR: can be one or two people. While editing a DR is always a lot of work, I believe this project will not be the worst in the way of piecing together. The text is ca. 500 pages but is in verse so the actual amount of words is less than a book of similar length. Additionally, there is very little in the way of rapid-fire dialogue as the character lines often go on for a good block of text with some monologues being quite long.
I can handle at least some of the editing. I edited about 2/3rd of Michael Strogoff, plus a few one-acts. (Sound editing is something I can do on a laptop on the train to work).
Great! As you have editing experience, would you want to have a look at the script I have prepared so you can have an idea of the amount of editing work involved?
Looking for a narrator for a dramatic reading of the Finnish epic KALEVALA
ZamesCurran
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Post by ZamesCurran »

I'm not if I could estimate anything (never really timed himself on the other ones), but I'd love to see the script.
Truth,
James
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mightyfelix
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Post by mightyfelix »

Kalilei wrote: June 24th, 2018, 1:54 am I want to start a new project: dramatic reading of the Finnish epic Kalevala, Kirby translation. I tried to advertise for the editor and narrator in the Listeners and Editors Wanted -subforum but was told that was the wrong way to go about and this thread suggested instead. So here is my post:

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This text is PD, and can be found at Project Gutenberg. A solo project of it has already been completed here but I feel the text would render well for a dramatic reading. It has a wide variety of human characters of all ages, both male and female but also many appearances of talking animals, celestial bodies and inanimate objects, in one case even a beer.

I am a native Finnish speaker, so I think my skills would be best suited for the roles of BC and DPL. I will also make a pronunciation guide for all the Finnish names (that are quite common in the text). I have already made a color-coded word file of the PG text.

At the moment I am looking for willing people for the roles of EDITOR and NARRATOR for this project.

1) EDITOR: can be one or two people. While editing a DR is always a lot of work, I believe this project will not be the worst in the way of piecing together. The text is ca. 500 pages but is in verse so the actual amount of words is less than a book of similar length. Additionally, there is very little in the way of rapid-fire dialogue as the character lines often go on for a good block of text with some monologues being quite long.

2) NARRATOR: I'd prefer this was one person. But if no one is found, I will consider breaking the narration into smaller portions, which as such would fit this book (Lönnrot collected the stories from various folk singers). I plan on keeping the cast gender-specific but as there is no gender specified for the narrator, anyone with the will to commit to this project, fluent English voice, and the desire to put a little effort in their Finnish pronunciation (it's not that difficult, really) is welcome to sign up for the job. I mention Finnish in this context as the narrator will have to deal with character names constantly. I would estimate that roughly 50 % of the entire text is narration.

In case someone is willing to co-BC this with me, I am open to that option as well.

I expect that it will take some time before these roles are filled and all other preparatory work is done. So currently I am NOT looking to sign anyone up for any of the character roles. However, to speed up casting in the future, I will list and shortly describe major characters here. If narration/editing is not for you, but you would be interested in these roles, keep an eye on the DR board. But to re-iterate, they are not open quite yet.

Väinämöinen (mature male voice): main protagonist for much of the work. A primeval minstrel and culture-hero. Has the power of magical song and goes on several journeys, some for shamanistic purposes, others to woo maidens (in vain)
Ilmarinen (male voice): a prodigious smith and a companion of Väinämöinen. Also looks for a wife, and is somewhat more successful than Väinämöinen.
Lemminkäinen (young male voice): a brash, handsome young man, quick to anger. His temper gets him to trouble and, worse still, killed. He is resurrected by his mother and continues his reckless campaigns.
Louhi (mature female voice): the mistress of the north, also a powerful spellsinger who uses her abilities to gain power and wealth. Gracious when things go her way but great in her wrath when they don't. It is largely her daughters that the male protagonists woo.
Maid of Pohja (young female voice): a beautiful maiden, daughter of Louhi. Is wooed by Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen and becomes the latter's wife. Is most likely a composite character of several designers as her temperament goes through a couple major changes throughout the story.
Lemminkäinen's mother (female voice): always trying to keep her son out of trouble, with little success. Gives wise counsel but is unheeded.
Kullervo (young male voice): an utterly tragic character. Orphaned as young, of great physical strength but unfit for any work. Reunited with his family but in the end outcast by everyone save his mother and ridiculed into taking his own life with his sword.

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A concern on maintaining the rhythm was also mentioned. My plan is for the narrator to make a sample verse or two and have other readers listen to the sample before recording and strive for that rhythm. This is more important for shorter lines within the main body of text (which are not so common) so the rhythm doesn't change rapidly back and forth. As for the more common long lines the character have, I don't think maintaining the exact same rhythm throughout the whole work is that important. The characters "sing" (no actual singing is required of the readers) and thus it is to be expected that they might have different rhythms. It should be noted that the reader almost never changes during a line (a row) of text.

The most difficult parts to line up would be the couple of spots where several people are saying a line. My initial plan for this is someone to first record the line, upload it, and then others can listen to the line while recording their own in order to match the rhythm. If this turns out to be too difficult, the process can be simplified so that a single reader is used also for the lines that have several simultaneous speakers in the text. These occasions are almost solely lines of groups of unnamed extras anyway.

My Librivox CV: have participated on several DR as a reader, with a couple of them being medium-sized roles. Have one solo project just about finished. Have started to DPL another solo project. I realize that this project is a large commitment on my part also and plan to see it through if any way feasible.
I enjoy editing DRs. I'd be happy to help. I see you already have one volunteer. I'd be willing to work together with him, or to commit to the entire project, should he change his mind. I'm editor for a couple of projects currently, but I expect those to wrap up long before this one would be ready to edit.

As to the rhythm, as long as it's not drastically different, I'm usually able to use the "change tempo" effect in Audacity to kind of find a middle ground between a faster speaker and slower speaker, when necessary. So, in other words, rhythm and tempo can often be rectified during editing as well. :)
Last edited by mightyfelix on June 27th, 2018, 8:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kalilei
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Post by Kalilei »

mightyfelix wrote: June 27th, 2018, 3:11 pm I enjoy editing DRs. I'd be happy to help. I see you already have one volunteer. If be willing to work together with him, or to commit to the entire project, should he change his mind. I'm editor for a couple of projects currently, but I expect those to wrap up long before this one would be ready to edit.

As to the rhythm, as long as it's not drastically different, I'm usually able to use the "change tempo" effect in Audacity to kind of find a middle ground between a faster speaker and slower speaker, when necessary. So, in other words, rhythm and tempo can often be rectified during editing as well. :)
Great! So now we have the editorial team set. Once we find the narrator, we can start the project in earnest. :thumbs:

Good idea regarding the rhythm as well.
Looking for a narrator for a dramatic reading of the Finnish epic KALEVALA
annise
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Post by annise »

I originally brought up the rythym problem (I should have said metre) , but it looks like only 1 person speaks in most lines so it isn't quite as difficult. It's nice to have people interested in editing but there's a lot to do first, I Mced the group version we have , which was discussed in 2006 and pronunciation guides set up, posted again in 2009 as a solo and I catalogued it in 2016 as a group.

I noticed that Wikipedia says "The poems were often performed by a duo, each person singing alternative verses or groups of verses. This method of performance is called an antiphonic performance, it is a kind of "singing match"" This might be a way of lessening the narator load if needed - you could have more than 2 voices in some sort of pattern.

Anne
Kalilei
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Post by Kalilei »

annise wrote: June 27th, 2018, 9:24 pm I originally brought up the rythym problem (I should have said metre) , but it looks like only 1 person speaks in most lines so it isn't quite as difficult. It's nice to have people interested in editing but there's a lot to do first, I Mced the group version we have , which was discussed in 2006 and pronunciation guides set up, posted again in 2009 as a solo and I catalogued it in 2016 as a group.

I noticed that Wikipedia says "The poems were often performed by a duo, each person singing alternative verses or groups of verses. This method of performance is called an antiphonic performance, it is a kind of "singing match"" This might be a way of lessening the narator load if needed - you could have more than 2 voices in some sort of pattern.

Anne
I should be able to get the pronunciation guide up pretty quickly once we have a narrator. Kirby was nice enough to attach a glossary of the Finnish names and words (which seems quite exhaustive to me) at the end of Volume 2 of the book so I don't need to skim the text again for the words. So the delay from the actual start of the project to people being able to start recording shouldn't be too long at least.

For the antiphonic performance, if it was used within one Runo (there are 50 Runos in the book), I think it would make the reading a little uneven as character lines would interfere with the "battle". This way would also increase editing work. If we can't find a narrator for the whole project, I am open to dividing the work in smaller parts. There is an unofficial division of the work in 10 epochs each focusing on one main character or event which could be used as a roadmap.

I have also considered doing the narration myself (someone else would need to PL those parts) but my I'd need to renew my rig before starting such a recording work. Additionally, I am not an English native speaker so the result might not be that good.
Looking for a narrator for a dramatic reading of the Finnish epic KALEVALA
Elizabby
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Post by Elizabby »

Oscar Wilde's play "An Ideal Husband" is launched, here: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=70809
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Post by Elizabby »

Story of the Amulet is almost finished, so I'm following it with "The Railway Children" which is probably Nesbit's best known book. I would rather read a part so I'm looking for expressions of interest in narrating - though if I don't get any I will narrate it myself. Either way I expect this project to launch in early September.
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Post by HannahMary »

Elizabby wrote: August 21st, 2018, 2:25 am Story of the Amulet is almost finished, so I'm following it with "The Railway Children" which is probably Nesbit's best known book. I would rather read a part so I'm looking for expressions of interest in narrating - though if I don't get any I will narrate it myself. Either way I expect this project to launch in early September.
Hi Beth, If you do not yet have a narrator for "The Railway Children," I would be interested in working on that. Just let me know. Love that book!
~ Hannah
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LikeManyWaters
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Post by LikeManyWaters »

Andrew the Glad by Maria Thompson Daviess

This book is actually mostly dialogue. The 6 main characters all are introduced in the first two chapters.

I've made a Character List and Scripts for all the chapters already.

Just wondering if this interests anyone else, too.
I would like to BC, narrate, & edit, but would like a DPL for the final chapters.
I'd like to launch this in a few months after I record all the Narration for it and wrap up another solo I'm doing.

So waddaya think? ;) This is mainly dependent on interest, but I think it'd be fun.
Just "putting a bug in your ear."
Last edited by LikeManyWaters on May 8th, 2019, 9:41 am, edited 3 times in total.
April
annise
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Post by annise »

Have you ever been involved in a DR before? I couldn't see one looking at your previous posts, there's a lot more to running them successfully than making scripts and character lists.
I don't get involved in DRs, so I'm happy for DR BC.s to disagree but I think having a DR as your first group BC and reading the narrator part before posting the project is sort of "cart before the horse " ish.
12 chapters is a plus, an unknown book maybe a minus for attracting readers but that is always just a guess, Mostly male characters is usually a minus if you are gender specific.

Anne
LikeManyWaters
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Post by LikeManyWaters »

:) Thank you. I don't plan on doing anything right away, and probably won't at all if no one is interested. I'm a fast learner. But I won't do anything yet if it is a bad idea... And no, I haven't been involved in a DR yet. Just smack me, it's ok! 8-)
April
Twinkle88
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Post by Twinkle88 »

The character list and scripts are beautiful!! :cry: You put a lot of work into them, and it shows!

Perhaps if you'd like to get a feel of what BC'ing is like, you could first BC one or two of the weekly poetry projects. Here are instructions on how to do it: viewtopic.php?p=15711#p15711

The link to the planning thread seems to be changed, but I think this is it here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=63737
You also might want to PM David (aradlaw) that you want to do it. He's the one who normally coordinates the Weekly Poem if no one else volunteers.
IanBaker
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Post by IanBaker »

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dorothy_and_the_Wizard_in_Oz
I would like to suggest starting up the project: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, By L Frank. Baum :)
But as a Dramatic Reading. :!:
This would be a good book to record because it is simple and yet timeless. Currently we do not have a dramatic version of this book. :?
Thanks,
-IanBaker :thumbs:
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