In response to our Shakespeare Actors Wanted request, where we are looking for volunteers actors to read the plays of Shakespeare, I had an email from a Peter Pressman who wrote to me about the Speak The Speech project. This is a group of volunteers who are wanting to make Shakespeare more universally accessible by producing audio recordings of all his plays.
We are a small audio theatre company dedicated to providing freely available Shakespearean audio performances online, for the benefit of educators, students, theatre people, the disabled, those in rural areas or overseas, or to put it simply: Everyone!
They have so far produced five full plays with their sixth, Romeo and Juliet, currently in production.
- As You Like It
- Henry IV: Part I
- Henry IV: Part II
- Romeo and Juliet (Coming Soon!)
- Twelfth Night
- The Tempest
Peter hopes that they can work together with Project Gutenberg towards providing the complete works of William Shakespeare online for free. I hope so too and have placed Peter in contact with Michael Hart.
Speak The Speech are always seeking submissions, and volunteers so if you want to help, or just wish to listen to their current selections, please visit; www.speak-the-speech.com
We have just posted three new plays from another theatre company, Sounds of Shakespeare, who used to do something similar up in Canada. They’ve contributed Cymbeline, King John, and Antony and Cleopatra to the collection, with more to come.
I wish you would do a recording of the Merchant of Venice!!
Hi Rachel,
Just in case Peter doesn’t catch your comment I will email it to him directly. There have already been a few more readings added since this post so who knows, perhaps the Merchant of Venice will be next!
The Speak the Speech site used to be a terrific resource for my students. However, the website at http://www.speak-the-speech.org and http://www.speak-the-speech.com are no longer viable sites. Where did the wonderful audio programs go?