Play Suggestions

Plays and other dramatic works
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ArthurNascimento
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Joined: August 31st, 2019, 10:14 am

Post by ArthurNascimento »

Elizabby wrote: September 19th, 2019, 1:58 pm So is it known who wrote The Merry Devil, if it no longer attributed to Shakespeare?
Scholars tried. Michael Drayton, Thomas Heywood, Thomas Dekker... Apparently they seemed to lean more towards the latter, but nothing's confirmed. Might just have to credit it to to "Anon" to be on the safe side. Or, after some time, release it under a collection of Shakespeare's Apocrypha.
maxgal
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Post by maxgal »

Elizabby wrote: September 5th, 2019, 5:19 pm Suggestion moved over from DR suggestions as I think this is actually a play. It sounds good from the description, but I can't get the text link to work. It premiered in 1920, so should be PD.

"The Bat: A Play of Mystery in Three Acts by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood"

https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735037970435/viewer#page/8/mode/2up

I've just a done a book by Mary Roberts Rinehart and quite liked it. More information here: https://www.samuelfrench.com/s/9288/the-bat

There was an earlier collaboration by the same authors "Seven Days" which premiered in 1909.

YES PLEASE! :mrgreen:
I'd love to be Cornelia.

More info, copied from the "Samuel French" website:
In this popular American mystery play, incident is piled on incident with skill and plausibility, and it is impossible to know who the real criminal is until the final curtain. This thriller revolves around Cornelia Van Gorder, a maiden lady of sixty, who rents the summer home of a banker reported killed in Colorado. She is warned that mysterious things are happening but she refuses to move. Then it is discovered that a large sum is missing from the dead man's bank and it is suspected that, far from being dead, he stole the money, hid it in a secret chamber in his house and is only waiting for a chance to sneak back to get it. Four others are after the money: the bank cashier who is wrongfully accused of taking it, a detective engaged by Miss Van Gorder to clear up the mystery, a doctor friend and supposed confederate of the missing banker and The Bat, a notorious thief who has long eluded the police. This genuine thriller is guaranteed to divert any audience.
https://www.samuelfrench.com/s/9288/the-bat
Louise
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Fun Fact: 40% of all statistics are wrong.
dlolso21
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Post by dlolso21 »

New PG release
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60523

The Torch-bearers by George Kelly

A comedy play
LikeManyWaters
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Post by LikeManyWaters »

Happened upon this:

Seven Keys to Baldpate: A Mysterious Melodramatic Farce

It’s the play version of Earl Derr Biggers book. Of course we do have a version of the novel already, but this might be fun. I haven’t read through it yet...

EDIT: it is pretty different from the book. Hmm

...OK when you get to the end it is quite funny :lol:
Last edited by LikeManyWaters on November 2nd, 2019, 6:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.
April
mightyfelix
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Post by mightyfelix »

I'm not familiar with the story. The opening scene reminds me of the setting in The Shining, though. :shock: I suppose things will end a bit better for these folks! :lol:
ToddHW
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Post by ToddHW »

I could run it if no one else is interested. (I did read for our book version.)

Thanks, Todd
ToddHW
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Post by ToddHW »

maxgal wrote: September 20th, 2019, 8:22 am
Elizabby wrote: September 5th, 2019, 5:19 pm Suggestion moved over from DR suggestions as I think this is actually a play. It sounds good from the description, but I can't get the text link to work. It premiered in 1920, so should be PD.

"The Bat: A Play of Mystery in Three Acts by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood"

https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735037970435/viewer#page/8/mode/2up

I've just a done a book by Mary Roberts Rinehart and quite liked it. More information here: https://www.samuelfrench.com/s/9288/the-bat

There was an earlier collaboration by the same authors "Seven Days" which premiered in 1909.

YES PLEASE! :mrgreen:
I'd love to be Cornelia.

More info, copied from the "Samuel French" website:
In this popular American mystery play, incident is piled on incident with skill and plausibility, and it is impossible to know who the real criminal is until the final curtain. This thriller revolves around Cornelia Van Gorder, a maiden lady of sixty, who rents the summer home of a banker reported killed in Colorado. She is warned that mysterious things are happening but she refuses to move. Then it is discovered that a large sum is missing from the dead man's bank and it is suspected that, far from being dead, he stole the money, hid it in a secret chamber in his house and is only waiting for a chance to sneak back to get it. Four others are after the money: the bank cashier who is wrongfully accused of taking it, a detective engaged by Miss Van Gorder to clear up the mystery, a doctor friend and supposed confederate of the missing banker and The Bat, a notorious thief who has long eluded the police. This genuine thriller is guaranteed to divert any audience.
https://www.samuelfrench.com/s/9288/the-bat
Oh dear. The website says that the script they have is from 1945, which will not do. We would need a script copy that was from the earlier dates to actually do this - no telling if there have not been changes made since that time to this not PD copy.

Drat.

Thanks, Todd
alanmapstone
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Post by alanmapstone »

Librivox has never done Calderon de la Barca's play "Life is a Dream" in the English translation by Edward Fitzgerald. This is the greatest play of the "Spanish Golden Age" of drama, sometimes called the Spanish Hamlet. Admittedly the English translation is not great and changes some aspects of the play.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2587/2587-h/2587-h.htm
Alan
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ToddHW
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Post by ToddHW »

Well, that should be possible - given that I have just started Calderon's Magician, we'll see how that goes and maybe do all of his in turn!

I'll look for a better English translation.

Thanks, Todd
ToddHW
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Post by ToddHW »

dlolso21 wrote: October 20th, 2019, 4:48 pm New PG release
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60523

The Torch-bearers by George Kelly

A comedy play
Yeah, I'll run this. Looks hilarious. However, it'll have to be a US cast - Kelly died in 1974

Thanks, Todd
adrianstephens
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Post by adrianstephens »

William Congreve (d 1729) was a writer of comedic plays in the Restoration period in Great Britain.

His most famous play has already been librivoxificated.

His second most (according to Wikipedia) is Love for Love: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_for_Love
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1244/1244-h/1244-h.htm

Does anybody think it would be a suitable project for librivoxificationalisement?
My Librivox-related YouTube series starts here: Part 0: Introduction. https://youtu.be/pMHYycgA5VU
...
Part 15: Case Study (Poem) https://youtu.be/41sr_VC1Qxo
Part 16: Case Study 2 (Dramatic Reading) https://youtu.be/GBIAd469vnM
ToddHW
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Post by ToddHW »

Here's the list of what I have prep'd for 2020 (or maybe in the last two weeks of 2019).

Moliere - we're getting to the end of these (first time through anyway!). I have Princess of Elid, Melicerte, and Comic Pastoral prep'd; the only other full length one is Don Juan which I will prep after Don Garcia ends. There are also 5 one act plays of his that could be done standalone or perhaps more better as part of the One Act Collections.

There are lots more Pineros. I have The Squire prep'd, and have located source text for 17 others so far. Plus there are a number of one acts that could be part of the One Act Collections.

There are a couple more plays by Terence, and then I'll switch over to Platus - also translated by Riley as were the Terence plays.

Other Calderon's have been recommended for after the Wonder-Working Magician ends. And I have a one act by Gregorio Martinez Sierra running now and will do some of his full length plays if that goes well.

The last play by Steele is running. Need a replacement playwright for that era.

There are some more by Ben Jonson though I am getting tired of them. They are just a few years too early to have completely understandable English. (yes, I know that Terence and Platus are much older, but Riley's translations are "new".) It is hard to know exactly what you are saying when you take a role in a Jonson, and only when it gets put together does it make real sense.

Plays by Roswitha have been recommended and I shall probably offer one of them.

I found a couple versions of Christmas Carol as a play, and thought about a December play-in-a-month binge, but I didn't really like them that much - there are inconsistencies in the scripts and likely listener confusion as an audio play - how do you deal with a major role such as The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come when he/she/it does not speak?

And of course, other things will pop up such as new items PD in 2020 (or I'll reread through this forum and find promises I have already made and then forgotten.... oh yeah, I liked that, and that, and also that and ...)

Thanks, Todd
alanmapstone
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Post by alanmapstone »

Richard Steele was a friend and contemporary of Joseph Addison whose play Cato was very popular.

I would second the suggestion of Congreve's Love for Love. A very good play. His play The Double Dealer is also good. Congreve is also same era as Steele.

Moliere's Don Juan is interesting as it was one of the sources da Ponte used for the libretto of the Mozart opera Don Giovanni.

I agree about Jonson. His best plays are very good but some of the others are a bit shambolic. There are a couple of Marlowe plays which have not been done, Dido Queen of Carthage and The Massacre at Paris.

Looking forward to whatever you offer us in 2020, Todd.
Happy new year 😁
Alan
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ToddHW
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Post by ToddHW »

dlolso21 wrote: October 20th, 2019, 4:48 pm New PG release
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60523

The Torch-bearers by George Kelly

A comedy play
Just launched. Only PD in US

Thanks, Todd
SonOfTheExiles
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Post by SonOfTheExiles »

As another year of Librivox DR draws to a close and a new one begins, let us take a moment to toast all those that bring us that masterful blend of paradoxes, sweet and bitter, ice and fire, love and hate, soft breezes and raging hurricanes, that is the LV thespian art.

Chris
Currently on sabbatical from Librivox
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