Task 23: Read a Play

[Marie]

Possibilities: The Rover, A Game at Chess, The Alchemist

[Renee]

I may read Sweeny Todd for this one!

[sarah]

Going to finally read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. They are my two favourite characters from Hamlet and I can't believe I haven't read this play (or seen it) yet.

[Anna]

I'm trying to decide if William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope would be stretching this one too far.

[Jenn T Rogers]

Sarah wrote: "Going to finally read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. They are my two favourite characters from Hamlet and I can't believe I haven't read this play (or seen it) yet."
One of my favorites. Enjoy the discovery!

[Dhruv]

Hello Shakespeare! So many to choose from. I've only read his Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet. Recommendations anyone?

[Julia]

I've read plays for fun for 40+ years. Plus, I'm on the board of a community theater, reading and seeing plays and directing and being in them is why I'm paid the big bucks.

(OK, zero bucks.)

Last year I read 11 plays. I read a lot of Arthur Miller and Paddy Chayefsky, but my favorite best play I reread last year was The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial: A Drama In Two Acts by Herman Wouk.

[Bex]

I read Bare by Toa Fraser three times last year I loved it so much! I think now I shall read another of his No. 2 :)

[Leanne]

Planning to read "Peter and Alice" by John Logan

[Niffer]

Dhruv wrote: "Hello Shakespeare! So many to choose from. I've only read his Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet. Recommendations anyone?"

As You like It, Midsummer Night's or Measure for Measure would be good ones to try. Don't be seduced by Titus Andronicus, very wordy and you mostly have to search in the stage directions for the grisly bits anyway! ;)

[Julia]

I just finished reading A Doll's House today. A surprisingly quick read and very interesting.

[Jessica]

I am going to read

[Pauline]

Thanks to whoever first recommended "Master Harold"...and the boys. I was dreading this task, but just finished this book and really enjoyed it.

[Courtney]

I checked out M. Butterfly from the library for this task.

[Bonnie G.]

Reading The Merchant of Venice. Though I have seen it performed several times, I somehow never read this one.

[Belinda]

I am going to read Hamlet

[Lisa M]

I found a copy of and read The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Very clever and witty play well worth reading as well as watching (the movie with Reece Witherspoon is good too).

[Elizabeth]

I'm going with Rent. I saw it over 10 years ago but have never read the book. Alternatively I might do Angels in America. Both are set in the 1980s and revolve around HIV/AIDS.

[Elizabeth]

I'm going with Rent. I saw it over 10 years ago but have never read the book. Alternatively I might do Angels in America. Both are set in the 1980s and revolve around HIV/AIDS.

[Eva]

Robin wrote: "I'd love to get the script for the musical Hamilton, but I don't know if it's been published."

Amazon has it as a preorder - I think it comes out in April. That is my choice. I can't stop listening to the album! The play is coming to Chicago in September. Yes, I have become obsessed with this musical. I bought the biography Alexander Hamilton. It is the book on which the musical is based. I read The Wright Brothers for the biography category. I may tackle Alexander Hamilton later this year. It is over 800 pages.

[Lissa Mascio]

I just finished Night of January 16th by Ayn Rand and it was a super fast, gripping read (only 118 pages)! It was originally written in 1933 but I have a copy of her 1968 edition, which is her "true" version after several bastardized versions made it to stage from the 1930's to the 1960s. I would love yo see someone but this show up - 12 audience members get tobe the jury, so there's a different ending every time.

[Beachesnbooks]

I'm really curious about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, but it's been years since I've read Hamlet (like 8 years I think?). I really enjoyed it at the time. For those of you who've read it, do you think I'd need to re-read Hamlet to understand/appreciate the play, or will I be OK without it?

[Renee]

I read Women's Minyan excellent read, gives a glimpse into the lives of uber orthodox Jewish women. It tears your heart apart, would also work as dealing with feminist themes

[Bianca]

I wanted to read last year, but kept grabbing other books and never got to it. This year I plan on picking it up.

[Robin P]

Jaleenajo wrote: "I'm really curious about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, but it's been years since I've read Hamlet (like 8 years I think?). I really enjoyed it at the time. For those of you wh..."

I don't think you need to reread Hamlet. It stands alone. But you might want to watch one of the many movie versions.

[Nina]

I'm thinking this is a good opportunity to read 'Inherit the Wind'.

[Bea]

Jaleenajo wrote: "I'm really curious about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, but it's been years since I've read Hamlet (like 8 years I think?). I really enjoyed it at the time. For those of you wh..."

I read the play and finished it before I realized that it was connected to Shakespeare's Hamlet, which I was not familiar with. I gave it 2*, which generally means I did not enjoy it. I think it might have rated higher if I had been familiar with Shakespeare's Hamlet. Given that you are, even though in the past, you will probably get the humor and references that I missed.

[Teresa]

I'll probably read the Vagina Monologues for this one. I saw the play once, years ago, and loved it.

[Lauren]

I read In a Forest, Dark and Deep by Neil Labute! Which is two bickering siblings in a cabin in the woods. Really quick and also works for "Read a Book Under 100 Pages"

But I also found a cool THREE-FER that I am going to read as well. Some Girl is a play...that was adapted into a movie...and is under 100 pages! SCORE!

This one is about a guy who on the eve of his wedding decides to visit a few of his ex-girlfriends. The movie's trailer looks pretty good so I am going to give this a read too since it is on my shelf.

[Courtney]

Lisa M wrote: "I found a copy of and read The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Very clever and witty play well worth reading as well as watching (the movie with Reece Witherspoon is good..."

I ended up reading this too! I really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to watching the movie! <3Colin Firth<3

[Gabbie]

I'm reading Hamlet, I've been meaning to cross it off my list, and I'm taking the chance to do so now. Also, it seems kind of fitting since I was in Denmark and visited the Elsinore castle (where Hamlet takes place) it's kind of fun to picture the characters in the castle now, actually knowing how it looks and feels like :)

[Julia]

One task down! I was thinking of doing a Shakespeare play, but I had listened to a podcast on Eleanor of Aquitaine so I read James Goldman's "The Lion in Winter"

[Monica]

Julia wrote: "One task down! I was thinking of doing a Shakespeare play, but I had listened to a podcast on Eleanor of Aquitaine so I read James Goldman's "The Lion in Winter""

This is just what I came to say. I finally settled on reading The Lion in Winter. I'm also going to use it on the movie vs book task. One of my favorite movies in terms of dialogue.

[Julia]

Monica wrote: "This is just what I came to say. I finally settled on reading The Lion in Winter. I'm also going to use it on the movie vs book task. One of my favorite movies in terms of dialogue."

Great minds think alike I guess! That'd be a fun one to do for the movie vs book comparison -- I didn't really notice much being left out/changed. Maybe adding some different stage directions for the larger movie set.

[Allie]

I read As You Like It last week. The dialogue was delightful, but it didn't end up being one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. (That's Much Ado About Nothing!)

[Sophia]

Used this task as a chance to finally read Hamlet. I only read Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream in high school, and I read Macbeth for the first time just last year (which I very much enjoyed). Hamlet was great too, and I hope I get a chance to see it performed live at some point.

[Brandyn]

The script for Cursed Child is going to be printed this year!

https://www.pottermore.com/news/ww-pu...

[Danielle]

Brandyn, I saw that! I am for sure reading that for this challenge!

[Teresa]

I read The Importance of Being Earnest. It's goofy and funny.

[Jackie]

I just finished Cyrano de Bergerac.

[Katy]

I think I'll be using The Cursed Child for this.

[Megan]

I read a one act play called Fat Reserves written by my friend Deborah Harbin for this challenge.

[Zoë]

Brandyn wrote: "Man I wish the "Cursed Child" script was being released with the play."

Careful what you wish for ;)

[Ironinklings]

I'm not a huge fan of reading plays, I'd rather see them on stage. That being said, I found a bunch of plays that I wanted to read when I started researching this challenge. I think I'm either going to read something by August Wilson or for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange. I think I'm leaning toward the latter.

[Bryan]

This was the first challenge I accepted for 2016, reading Marcel Pagnol's play Topaze . Having recently read Marseille Noir as a Librarything.com Early Reviewer, I wanted to get a "sunnier" view of the city of Marseille, and thus turned to Pagnol and a book I already had on my shelves from back when I was a French literature major at UC Berkeley. Can't say that the play did much to improve my view of the French city, as it had very little to do with that city itself, and furthermore, even though the play was written in 1928, one of the main themes in the book is the criminal activity of most of the characters, just as in the 2015 Marseille Noir . Oh well, c'est la vie, I guess.

[Bobby]

I chose Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill, and by a wonderful stroke of luck I found out a theater in Dallas is currently staging it, so I saw the play and finished reading the book during one of the intermissions.

[Bingeing & Books]

Finished A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry for this category last night.

[Bingeing & Books]

Finished A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry for this category last night.

[Lauren]

I read Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit for this challenge - very interesting play! As a bonus, I also read another of Sartre's plays that I picked up with this one at the library, The Respectful Prostitute.

[Michael]

I'll probably do The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly Guirgis.

For those into Jewish folklore, you should probably check out the Yiddish play The Dybbuk by S. Ansky. There are straight translations of it and there's also a translation/adaptation by Joachim Neugroschel and Tony Kushner under the title Dybbuk and Other Tales of the Supernatural.