This lovely little selection was actually presented to me by LibraryLady, LibraryGirl's Mum, who had sourced these all in Kent and they are just wonderful. The Cowards are particularly fantastic because they seem unread. However I was instantly drawn to the Dover Thrift editions which I think have the most wonderful covers and readable print inside. These too were near mint copies and I just got stuck in, I am halfway through reading 'The Cherry Orchard' by Anton Chekhov and am really enjoying it. I played Gayef, the same role Stanislavski himself played in the original production I would quite happily wager that I was a better Gayef than him, when I performed it in my BA course and we went very over the top and it was all just very odd. The play itself is of course odd and full of absolutely mental situations like 50 year old women crying over cupboards! Why on earth we thought that the way we should tackle a high comedy like this by completely blowing our characters up to the level of caricatures I do not know but it was great fun. I would highly recommend 'Cherry Orchard' because it is very sad as well as very funny, there is a great pathos to the comedy within the script and it does make this a very satisfying read as well as a great play. So thank you LibraryLady for providing me with plenty of resources for RTDA. Coward is now next on my list of playwrights works to start reading.
Noah by Andre Obey first came to my attention a few months ago when I read a review of Gielgud's performance of the play. I have been looking for it ever since and yesterday it was the first book I spotted.
Picasso at the Lapin Agile and other plays by Steve Martin. Steve Martin is someone I grew up watching in films such as Father of the Bride and Parenthood, I never really understood who or what he was until I got into Saturday Night Live and witnessed his madcap comedic style. His writing has been highly respected for many years and this will be my first chance to read one of his scripts.
Brief Lives by John Aubrey is one of those things you hear about but you don't actually know anything about. I had heard good things about this piece and the fact it is another one man show, an ongoing theme for me it seems at the moment, made me want to read it just for the audition monologues potential.
I, Fatty by Jerry Stahl. This one I could get a slap on the hand about, after all it's not a biography really, it isn't about how to perform slapstick. It is in fact a novel about the life of Fatty Arbuckle from the viewpoint of Arbuckle. It just sparked an interest in me and I hope it proves a nice break from all the theoretical and non fiction books I read about people and the world of theatre/film.
The Actors Book of Contemporary Stage Monologues. Sort of self explanatory really isn't it? Granted they are not contemporary now but still reading monologues from plays generally makes me want to see or read the whole piece and that can't be bad can it?
Educating Rita and Others by Willy Russell. More plays, always handy to have and to study.
Timberlake Wertenbaker: Plays 1
Kenneth Tynan Letters. Letters from the great theatre critic, something both LibraryGirl and I are very excited about reading.
And now for my favourite find....
Nine different souvenir brochures from various productions held in the West End over the past 25 years. I was absolutely flabbergasted to actually find these, so many times people buy them and just throw them away after they have been left to rot or gather dust in a drawer somewhere. I collect these because they show a small glimpse of the theatre of that time. Some of these are just brilliant and some are just plain disturbing, I'm looking at you 'The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus', but all have great insight and shed light on a multitude of things. Look for these to turn up in my next set of 'Theatre Programmes' articles.
LibraryGirl and I have enjoyed our holiday so far and the finds keep on coming... I am going to need a bigger library!
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