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  Romeo and Juliet

  William Shakespeare

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  Romeo and Juliet is the play which, in English literature at least, effectively invented the modern love story. Its charm and its power derive from the romantic setting (Verona, an Italian Renaissance city), the youthful innocence and ardour of the lovers, and (perhaps crucially) the excitement and drama created by the opposition which they have to contend with, an opposition which does not simply stem from the older generation but which is starkly present in the feud between their two families and which seems to be supported by the malignity of Fate. The wit, tenderness, dramatic variety and poetic beauty of this play continue to work their spell: it has proved a perennial favourite inspiring, even in our century, works such as the musical West Side Story.

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  Notes on The Sonnets

  Luke Kennard

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  Winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2021
  
  Longlisted for the Rathbones folio prize
  
  A Poetry Book society Recommendation
  Luke Kennard recasts Shakespeare's 154 sonnets as a series of anarchic prose poems set in the same joyless house party.
  A physicist explains dark matter in the kitchen. A crying man is consoled by a Sigmund Freud action figure. An out-of-hours doctor sells phials of dark red liquid from a briefcase. Someone takes out a guitar.
  Wry, insolent and self-eviscerating, Notes on the Sonnets riddles the Bard with the anxieties of the modern age, bringing Kennard's affectionate critique to subjects as various as love, marriage, God, metaphysics and a sad horse.
  'Luke Kennard has the uncanny genius of being able to stick a knife in your heart with such originality and verve that you start thinking "aren't knives fascinating... and hearts, my god!" whilst everything slowly goes black.'
  - Caroline Bird

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  Through the Looking-Glass...

  Lewis Carroll

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  Sequel to Alice in Wonderland, this volume sees Alice travel through a mirror to a dream-world where she meets chess pieces and other curious characters. (Summary by David Goldfarb)CastNarrator: David GoldfarbAlice: Miss AvariceThe White Queen/The Fawn: Elizabeth KlettThe White King: Algy PugThe Father/Gentle Voice/Oysters/The Lion: Vinnie TeslaThe Tiger-Lily: Cheri GardnerThe Rose: breezyweezyA Daisy/The Pudding: Heather PhillipsAnother Daisy: ElliA Violet: Liz BenningtonThe Larkspur/A Horse: MalaneThe Red Queen: AvailleThe Guard/The White Knight: Peter YearsleyA Gentleman/The Red Knight/Long-Beaked Creature: Levi ThrockmortonA Goat/Someone: Chris DonnellyA Beetle/The Carpenter: Shea McNamaraGnat/The Moon: Amy GramourOther Voices: Bill Mosley, Steve Belleguelle, Tom CrawfordTweedledum and Tweedledee: Peter BishopThe Walrus/The Unicorn: David LawrenceThe Sheep/Hatta: Arielle LipshawHumpty Dumpty: Matthew ReeceHaigha: Denny SayersThe Aged Man/The Frog: Martin GeesonShrill Voice/The Fishes: Liberty StumpAudio edited by: David Goldfarb

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  The Poetry of Herman Merville

  Herman Melville

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  Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1st, 1819, the third of eight children.   
   
  At the age of 7 Melville contracted scarlet fever which was to permanently diminish his eyesight.   
  At this time Melville was described as being "very backwards in speech and somewhat slow in comprehension." 
   
  His father died when he was 12 leaving the family in very straitened times. Just 14 Melville took a job in a bank paying $150 a year that he obtained via his uncle, Peter Gansevoort, who was one of the directors of the New York State Bank. 
   
  After a failed stint as a surveyor he signed on to go to sea and travelled across the Atlantic to Liverpool and then on further voyages to the Pacific on adventures which would soon become the architecture of his novels.  Whilst travelling he joined a mutiny, was jailed, fell in love with a South Pacific beauty and became known as a figure of opposition to the coercion of native Hawaiians to the Christian religion.   
   
  He drew from these experiences in his books Typee, Omoo, and White-Jacket. These were published as novels, the first initially in London in 1846. 
   
  By 1851 his masterpiece, Moby Dick, was ready to be published.  It is perhaps, and certainly at the time, one of the most ambitious novels ever written.   However, it never sold out its initial print run of 3,000 and Melville’s earnings on this masterpiece were a mere $556.37. 
   
  In succeeding years his reputation waned and he found life increasingly difficult.  His family was growing, now four children, and a stable income was essential.   
   
  With his finances in a disappointing state Melville took the advice of friends that a change in career was called for.  For many others public lecturing had proved very rewarding.  From late 1857 to 1860, Melville embarked upon three lecture tours, where he spoke mainly on Roman statuary and sightseeing in Rome.  
   
  In 1876 he was at last able to publish privately his 16,000 line epic poem Clarel. It was to no avail.  The book had an initial printing of 350 copies, but sales failed miserably. 
   
  On December 31st, 1885 Melville was at last able to retire.  His wife had inherited several small legacies and provide them with a reasonable income. 
   
  Herman Melville, novelist, poet, short story writer and essayist, died at his home on September 28rh 1891 from cardiovascular disease.

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  Spoon River Anthology

  Edgar Lee Masters

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  This is a collection of poems, in the form of an entire community speaking from beyond the grave about their lives, and, in some cases, gossiping about their neighbors' lives. It's interesting to hear how other people perceive a particular character, and how that character responds.

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  Inheritors

  Susan Glaspell

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  Inheritors, (1921) by American dramatist Susan Glaspell concerns the legacy of an idealistic farmer who wills his highly coveted midwest farmland to the establishment of a college (Act I.) Forty years later, when his granddaughter stands up for the rights of Hindu nationals to protest at the college her grandfather founded, she jeopardizes funding for the college itself and sets herself against her own uncle, president of the institution's trustees (Acts II & III.) Ultimately, she defies her family's wishes, and as a consequence is bound for prison herself (Act IV.) The play was a stirring defense of free speech and an individual's ability to stand for his or her own ideal during a time of aggressive anti-Communist politics in the US. Inheritors was first performed at Provincetown Playhouse in 1922, the last of Glaspell's plays presented there. It has been revived in New York City by Mirror Repertory in 1983 and Metropolitan Playhouse in 2005. (Summary by Wikipedia)Cast:Smith: Chris MarcellusGrandmother: Margaret EspaillatSilas Morton, Emil Johnson: AnthonyFelix Fejevary the First: AllenJohnsFelix Fejevary the Second: Rick Cahill, Robert HoffmanSenator Lewis, Ira Morton: Nathanial W.C. HigginsHorace Fejevary: Chuck WilliamsonDoris: Elizabeth KlettFussie: Liz BenningtonMadeline Fejevary Morton: Arielle LipshawIsabel Fejevary: Linette GeiselHarry: MichaelH-SHolden: Delmar H. DolbierNarrator: Amanda FridayAudio edited by Chuck Williamson

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