Art Drama

For nearly 30 years, Clark Gable was "the King" of Hollywood. Female fans swooned, and male admirers were made envious of his unaffected masculinity. Through jaunty, self-assured performances in films like It Happened One Night, San Francisco, Mutiny on the Bounty, and Gone with the Wind, he carved a niche for himself as the quintessential American movie star.

Never done Shakespeare before? Wondering what's in store? This brief guide gives an overview of acting in Shakespeare's plays. It covers traditions, the use, or non-use, of accents, hints on characterization, learning to speak in iambic pentameter, and so forth. This audiobook includes a bonus chapter of Shakespearean content not found in the e-book.

Orson Welles is a one-person play in two acts about the life and times of Orson Welles. Some say that Orson Welles was a genius, but he always denied that. He did give us Citizen Kane, considered by most critics to be the best film ever made, but after that, his career took one long downward plunge. The play finds Welles trying to find the financing for one of his film projects. It's a difficult task, since most of the Hollywood community considers him to be a "screwball".

How do any of us really know who we are? A man arrives in a strange town only to find that everyone knows his name, but thinks he’s someone else. A woman wonders why her husband is not the man he was, but starts to rather like it. Confusion mounts as everyone uncouples from themselves. Will they ever find themselves again? And do they really want to?

The Roman General Titus Andronicus returns from war with four prisoners who vow to take revenge against him. They rape and mutilate Titus' daughter and have his sons killed and banished. Titus kills two of them and cooks them into a pie, which he serves to their mother before killing her, too. The Roman emperor kills Titus, and Titus' last remaining son kills the emperor and takes his place.

Bianca is beautiful and demure, with a plethora of would-be suitors, but marriage is forbidden until her older sister, Katherina, finds a suitable match. The hitch? Fiery Katherina has sworn to deny the hand or demands of any would-be suitor. That is, until she meets her match in the wily Petrucio. As Katherina’s own sharp tongue is met by Petrucio’s feigned cruelty, the ‘shrew’ apparently capitulates. Or does she?

Arguably the greatest love story ever told, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet continues to touch modern audiences with its passionate depiction of the tragic romance between two young lovers. With a bitter feud between their respective families, Romeo and Juliet’s love is troubled from the start, and through their relationship, Shakespeare shows the fine line between love, hatred, comedy and tragedy.

Roman General Coriolanus makes his name defeating an enemy army and defending Rome. The Senate nominates him as consul, but he cannot win the people's vote, so he is banished from Rome and allies with his old enemy. He comes to attack Rome, his mother persuades him not to and his new-found ally kills him for the betrayal.

Wealthy and popular, Timon of Athens helps his friends, gives many gifts and holds a feast. After ignoring his true friends' warnings, Timon runs out of money and none of his 'friends' will help him. He runs away to a cave where he curses humanity, finds gold, funds someone to destroy Athens and dies.

Magical and dreamlike in its tone, Shakespeare’s The Tempest begins with a storm of epic proportions and a shipwreck. Banished from Italy, Prospero lives on a remote island with his daughter. Using his magic, he vows to seek revenge on the injustice dealt to him by his brother, but in doing so, Shakespeare questions the difficulty of distinguishing ‘men’ from ‘monsters’, and the realities of justice.

King Cymbeline of Britain banishes his daughter Imogen's husband, who then makes a bet on Imogen's fidelity. Imogen is accused of being unfaithful, runs away and becomes a page for the Roman army as it invades Britain. In the end, Imogen clears her name, discovers her long-lost brothers and reunites with her husband while Cymbeline makes peace with Rome.

Richard, duke of Gloucester, schemes to inherit the throne by killing all who stand in his way - including his own brother and the two young sons of King Edward IV.

As a cub river pilot, one of Mark Twain’s masters was a pilot named George Ealer, who recited Shakespeare by the hour - from memory - and who was a virulent opponent of the notion that the Shakespeare plays and poems were in truth written by Sir Francis Bacon. At first, young Sam Clemens agreed with his teacher and boss, but he soon realized that it was no fun for the pilot to argue with someone who agreed with him all of the time.

The Rape of Lucrece follows a popular story from one of Shakespeare's favourite ancient writers, Ovid. Lucrece is the angelic wife of Collatine, an illustrious Roman general. She is coveted and eventually attacked by Prince Tarquin, Collatine's best friend.

Sir Michael Morpurgo retells two of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays, King Lear and Henry V, in this stunning audio collection in association with the RSC, featuring readings by members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Michael himself.

Long before Rod Serling created The Twilight Zone and hid social messages within the context of science fiction and fantasy, Playhouse 90 was among the last of the live television anthology dramas to explore them as straight dramas. This audiobook shall shed light on Playhouse 90, and put into perspective the influence it had on The Twilight Zone and others.

Actor. Dramatist. Poet. Husband. Father. Producer. Businessman. Servant of the Crown. All of the above can be applied to William Shakespeare. Certainly England's greatest playwright, he is still considered to be the most influential writer in the English language. Leaving behind a nearly unprecedented body of work to his credit, he addressed the full spectrum of the human condition and achieved what few other writers have in becoming a part of a global consciousness.

Full cast stage drama of Shakespeare's Macbeth recorded in the 1950s and starring Alec Guinness and Pamela Brown.

Adapted and narrated by Caitlin Moran, this brand-new radio adaptation intersperses dramatised scenes from Moran's life (from her teenage years in a crowded council house in Wolverhampton, to setting out as a music journalist, to getting married and having children) with her thoughts on subjects that range from the necessity of big knickers to the experience of giving birth and having an abortion.

Abe Vigoda worked as an actor for all of his adult life. He did theatre...He did television...But it wasn’t until he was 50-years-old that he got a role where the public even noticed him. He played Tessio in The Godfather. Michael B. Druxman’s humorous one-person play, Abe Vigoda, finds the actor with a major problem. The press has, erroneously, announced that he is dead, and his agent’s phone has stopped ringing. Now, Abe has to convince the entertainment industry that he is still with us.