COMPLETE[PLAY]The Rehearsal by George Villiers - thw

[ToddHW]

Thank you.

I'll have to look at mimicry - maybe I'll feel too much like a parrot....

Thanks, Todd

[mightyfelix]

Act 2:
0:49 Wrong word, p. 49. This should be "...melt into fruitful showers of blessings on the people." I hear "...melt into fruitful flowers of blessings on the people."

Act 4:
0:24 Wrong word, p. 99. This should be "Come sword, come sheath thyself within this breast." I hear "Come ford, come sheath thyself within this breast."

hmmm. "ford" didn't make any sense, did it?

Well, lets try these:

https://librivox.org/uploads/toddhw/rehearsal_physician_2.mp3
https://librivox.org/uploads/toddhw/rehearsal_physician_4.mp3

Thanks for the good PL!

PL ok now, thank you!

[mightyfelix]

Hello, Thunder - Act I - uploaded:

https://librivox.org/uploads/toddhw/rehearsal_thunder_1.mp3

I did the bit when both Thunder and Lightening have lines together, although it might have a pattern/speed to refer to to make it work. Please let me know if you want it read in a particular way.

P.S. It will be an honour if Bayes cruelly mimics Mr. Cartwright's first line.

Well thundered! I love how over-the-top this is. It will be quite funny! PL ok.

[mightyfelix]

Here is the second herald:

https://librivox.org/uploads/toddhw/rehearsal_herald2_5.mp3 18 seconds

May I also read the fisherman?

PL ok, nicely done!

[mightyfelix]

Hello here are the parts for Prince Volscious, sorry for the delay if you heard it you'd think my upstairs neighbors drop weights on the floor in their spare time :p

https://librivox.org/uploads/toddhw/rehearsal_volscious_3.mp3 (2:22)
https://librivox.org/uploads/toddhw/rehearsal_volscious_4.mp3 (2:06)
https://librivox.org/uploads/toddhw/rehearsal_volscious_5.mp3 (0:28)

Nicely done. I love that you are playing this character straight. That will be an excellent contrast to some of the more wacky characters.

Acts 3 and 5 are PL ok. I have only one note for you.

Act 4:
0:07 Wrong word. P. 105, line is "But thou to love dost, Pretty-man, incline." I hear "But thou to love soft, Pretty-man, incline." I think the long s is again the culprit here, as it looks like 'doft.'

[DrSpoke]

It will be quite funny! PL ok.

Thank you Devorah! I look forward to listening to the play; also because I wonder how the editing in theses undirected productions, where nobody knows how the other one with relevant lines is playing them, can deal with characters doing things together!

[ToddHW]

Oh, that is the fun of these plays. And we're not undirected - we're just group directed.

First off, every BC is allowed to do things differently, so some will be gender and age restrictive when they cast; I am blind to such in my casting. Some BC's will put out a glossary so everyone speaks the same pronunciations, or provide PL comments for correction to the same effect; I look for a more gentle "standard" PL:

What I care most about in a reader file for a play is that there are no lines missed since that would mess up the lines of other people as well. I do NOT care if people pronounce other character's names (or place names) differently from each other - I treat that as people just having an accent, or using pet name pronunciations, or something like that. But I would like to have people use the same consistent pronunciation of names throughout each of their files. If words are wrong or order slightly changed, I only care if it significantly changes the meaning such that a listener will be confused.

We do ask, whenever we repeat our usually unstated directions, that readers:

then browse through the text and record all the lines you have to speak. Also include any "All" lines while your character is on stage. For a big role it may be good to read the entire play to get into character, but at least it would be good to read a bit around your lines, see what the others are saying, so you can better "react" to them. Just be as expressive (according to the character) as you can in your role.

When I edit the submitted files together, I will adjust the volumes of the lines of all readers relative to each other to both fit together and to suit the action of the play - a quiet aside, some whispered plotting, a shouted interruption. Similarly I will adjust the gaps between the pasted together reader lines to provide longer gaps for thoughtful pauses - are they looking into each others' eyes? Is he staggering back at a loss for words? Or perhaps short gaps for rapid or even run-on interruptions - Who is in control? Stop and listen to me! Overlaid lines where people are talking together get aligned; sometimes different voices are made to predominate at different times.

Why not a single dictatorial director, honing every line you submit? Here's my standard blurb honed after over a decade here in The Playpen (a term I just thought of as I typed this and I wonder if I will regret having done so...):

I very honestly leave choice of accents and characterizations in ANY part up to the reader. One of the key pleasures of running a play here at Librivox is finding out what the various readers have decided is right. Usually some unexpected things, and always different from how I had originally pictured the play on stage myself. So that the completed play is not my vision of what should be, but a truly new and exciting collaborative creation.

Thanks, Todd

[DrSpoke]

character) as you can in your role.

Hi Todd, I'm very pleased to be one of the Playpen Inks (sic - playing around what else Playpen could suggest...) in your Playpen! And I did read the whole thing before recording; it helps me, even if I don't have a leading role, because I have a sense of the tone of the play.
Good to know that BCing/editing librivox plays - a big job I guess - feeds your curiosity and creativity.
I hope you don't mind if I probe further. I was wondering how you tackle easy scenes, those not risky in terms of action/reaction, yet tricky for other reasons: characters that are somewhat dancing; even without a rhythm, they would be relating to each other's lines in some pattern-like way, or one that suggests a common pace of sorts?
Thanks

[ToddHW]

I hope you don't mind if I probe further. I was wondering how you tackle easy scenes, those not risky in terms of action/reaction, yet tricky for other reasons: characters that are somewhat dancing; even without a rhythm, they would be relating to each other's lines in some pattern-like way, or one that suggests a common pace of sorts?

We had some of that in plays by Calderon. Apparently the formal Spanish style of his day gives each character their own poetic meter. Full range from iambic pentameter to almost haiku. Then as they interact in the play it is like what I imagine a poetry slam could really be - sometimes one character falters and adopts the other's meter, sometimes they merge slowly into a compromise meter. A lot of fun to read about and edit.... I guess I better do some more of his. (Sometimes translators mess things up and lose all that.)

Have also had some Muppet-show-like ballroom scenes in Moliere where couples are supposedly dancing and you hear a couple clearly speaking only as they supposedly swirl by at the front of the stage. Hard to convey the different couples overlaid over the rest of the folk without having stage directions give names each time someone spoke (and totally destroy the flow). I sorta decided - as I remember - that getting the swirl feeling was more important that what they were actually saying. But maybe I have done it both ways different times....

This is why I have been here in the Playpen 12 years.

Thank, Todd

[DrSpoke]

This is why I have been here in the Playpen 12 years.
Thank, Todd

Well, congratulations! And best wishes for the next years of unlocked Playpen.
Thank you Todd

[GaleHall]

Below is the link for the Second King of Brentford Act 2

https://librivox.org/uploads/toddhw/rehearsal_secondkingofbrentford_2.mp3

50 seconds

[ToddHW]

Thank you.

Todd

[mightyfelix]

Below is the link for the Second King of Brentford Act 2

https://librivox.org/uploads/toddhw/rehearsal_secondkingofbrentford_2.mp3

50 seconds

Nicely done! I will mark this PL ok.

I will also just mention that I'm a little stymied by the word i'fack on page 53. It doesn't seem to make sense to me, whether you read it as fack or sack. You read it as "I sack," which may be correct for all I know, so I won't ask you to change it. I wonder whether it could possibly mean "in fact," just a shortened version? But again, I don't know, and you don't need to change anything. I am really just musing here.

[alanmapstone]

I will also just mention that I'm a little stymied by the word i'fack on page 53. It doesn't seem to make sense to me, whether you read it as fack or sack. You read it as "I sack," which may be correct for all I know, so I won't ask you to change it. I wonder whether it could possibly mean "in fact," just a shortened version? But again, I don't know, and you don't need to change anything. I am really just musing here.

I think i'fack is a mild expletive and should be read as a two syllable word
It may be an archaic colloquial English form of "f*** me". At that time even educated people often used very coarse language

[GaleHall]

Attached are my first goes at the part of The Second King of Brentford Act 5

https://librivox.org/uploads/toddhw/rehearsal_secondkingofbrentford_5.mp3

2 minutes and 18 seconds