drew is in.

The "Guide" is an exciting suggestion, but perhaps has already done itself to death.
Maybe take a look at Librivox? We could re-do something as a group project there?

Eh?
https://librivox.org/author/558

Last edited by drewjmore (2020-08-25 14:05:31)

As much as I'd love to do Hitchhikers, we're probably better off doing something public domain.

Ideally, we need something that's not too long, has a decent amount of characters, and is something we could have a bit of fun with. I'm coming up blank right now though. I was thinking Flatland, but most of it is just first-person narration.

Obviously, I'm in.

As for what to read, I will keep pondering, but initial thoughts:

• maybe one of the Oz sequels? could be fun

• one of charles mee's plays? hotel cassiopeia is the first that comes to mind for me, and I think you could narrate the few stage directions. may be too poetic for y'alls taste, idk

• Cory Doctorow has a bunch of stuff available under the CC Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license, so we could do Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom or another of his books

Ooh, I'm down for all of these but especially the latter two, Alice! I think a play sounds the most fun but I'm game for anything.

I said so in chat, but I'm in Excited for play or Doctorow as well - I haven't read any Doctorow but I've always meant to.

I am incredibly psyched about this. Unless anyone comes along with a strong opinion in the next day or two, I'd guess we're willing to trust ya with choosing the text and casting.

Let's read books!

I developed voices for every Harry Potter character by reading the series aloud, twice, before I saw the movies. Does that make me an //accomplished// voice actor? Maybe, maybe not, but rest assured my, "In drag as Queen Elizabeth," brings the house down every time.
That's my audition.

<research:>

Last edited by drewjmore (2020-08-27 23:18:31)

*popping back in* Hey all! Sorry for the delay—work has been . . . work.

If there are no objections, how does this sound: we start with Hotel Cassiopeia with seven of us playing parts and one taking stage directions. Then, after that, if we're all still on board, we move to Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, with eight of us playing MCs and one of us narrating (I need to read the book and see if there are more than the eight characters listed on Wikipedia—if that's the case, we can always divvy up the minor parts among ourselves). For the former, we'd have to have one member sit out—I'm happy to just sit in on the recording so everyone who's signed up here can participate, or Shadow could jump onboard with Doctorow. Or, Shadow, if Writhyn's adoption situation ends up changing you could come onboard now! Whatever works best for everyone here, I am a coward and don't like telling people what to do.

In any event, first things first will be for us to independently read the play to get familiar with the parts. Could everyone here who hasn't already done so PM me their email address? We can get an email chain going to coordinate roles/scheduling/etc.

Excited!

Last edited by Abbie (2020-09-02 04:48:25)

This is all obvious googling, but I'll just record my trip down the various rabbit holes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Cornell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolee_Schneemann
https://kam.illinois.edu/artist/carolee-schneemann
(but I still don't get why the stage directions have her playing the cello)

So now this has become strangely personal for me: I also have a severely disabled brother with CP, and I spent lots of time around Krannert at U of Illinois.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_Kusama
"26 years his junior"
"LEILA
Well,
more than twice my age."

It hardly ever comes up.
I'm oldest of 3 brothers, born '74 '76 '78.
Andrew, Benjamin, Charles.
Ben is a new father & union stagehand who directs the building of sets and whatnot for TV, film & Theater.

Charlie had his first seizure as a very new infant while my mother gave him a bath in the kitchen sink, my memory is of being in the next room and hearing her hysterically calling 911. You can't really tell in childhood photos of Charlie that there's anything unusual about him, but he never progressed beyond mental infancy. "Agenesis of the corpus collossum," is the concise description of the birth defect that causes his disability. He's heavily dosed with anti-convulsant barbiturates at all times. After a concerted, years long effort of ad-hoc physical therapy, he learned to walk (with an uncannily zombie-esque shambling gait) at around age 8, against the predictions of doctors.

When you encounter him in person, he presents as a deeply autistic man with crippling cerebral palsy, somewhat wiry and small in stature. Most individuals with CP are mentally and cognitively normal. Charlie does not speak or understand language, feed himself, or provide for his own hygiene.

40-something now, he is technically a ward of the state, lives in a group home a few towns over. Our parents visit him regularly. Food, music, warm sunbeams & jingly-squeaky-noisy toys make him happy. We have him over for holidays. He has a job, as required by law, but it involves sitting in a bean bag and staying out of the way of the other, less profoundly disabled, folks in the workshop.

Gilbert Grape, Mice and Men, The Goonies... these stories hit me differently than they do other people.

Drew, thanks for writing that. (I tried eight different additional sentences. I've got nothing.)

Thanks. Complicated situation, well and empathically explained.