Online Play Reading Group

Henry Higgins, a phonetician, accepts a bet that simply by changing the speech of a Cockney flower seller he will be able, in six months, to pass her off as a duchess. Eliza undergoes grueling training. When she successfully “passes” in high society—having in the process become a lovely young woman of sensitivity and taste—Higgins dismisses her abruptly as a successfully completed experiment. Eliza, who now belongs neither to the upper class, whose mannerisms and speech she has learned, nor to the lower class, from which she came, rejects his dehumanizing attitude.

Characters:

• Clara Eynsford Hill (The Daughter)
• Mrs. Eynsford Hill (The Mother)
• Freddy Eynsford Hill (Freddy)
• Eliza Doolittle (The Flower Girl)
• Colonel Pickering (The Gentleman)
• Professor Henry Higgins (The Notetaker)
• The Bystander
• The Sarcastic Bystander
• Mrs. Pearce
• Alfred Doolittle
• The Parlor Maid
• Mrs. Higgins

There are different versions of Pygmalion. We will be using this script: https://classictheatre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Pygmalion-script.pdf

The script will be displayed during the reading. If you would like to dibs a character, please do so in the comments below. If you are not able to attend the day of, please change your RSVP. Two no shows will result in being asked to leave the group.

Barbara Undershaft, a major in the Salvation Army, is estranged from her wealthy father, Andrew Undershaft, a munitions manufacturer. Although the Salvation Army condemns war, it gladly accepts a donation of £5,000 from her warmonger father, and she resigns in protest. The Army offers the poor only salvation, while Undershaft takes steps toward eradicating poverty. Barbara later comes to accept her father’s views on capitalism and to believe that the greatest evil is the degradation caused by grinding poverty.

Characters:

• Barbara Undershaft: Lady Britomart's daughter, Major of the Salvation Army
• Andrew Undershaft: husband to Lady Britomart
• Adolphus Cusins: Barbara's fiance
• Lady Britomart Undershaft
• Bill Walker
• Peter Shirley
• Jenny Hill
• Morrison: butler to Lady Britomart
• Snobby Price
• Sarah Undershaft: Lady Britomart's daughter
• Footman to Lady Britomart
• Rummy Mitchens
• Maid to Lady Britomart
• Charles Lomax: Sarah's fiance
• Mrs. Baines: Colonel in the Salvation Army
• Stephen Undershaft

You can find a copy of the script here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3790/3790-h/3790-h.htm

The script will be displayed during the reading. If you would like to dibs a character, please do so in the comments below. If you are not able to attend the day of, please change your RSVP. Two no shows will result in being asked to leave the group.

In the court of the Austrian Emperor Joseph II, Antonio Salieri is the established composer. Enter the greatest musical genius of all time: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Salieri has given himself to God so that he might realize his sole ambition, to be a great composer. Mozart is a foul-mouthed, graceless oaf who has that which is beyond Salieri’s envious grasp: Genius.

Characters:

• Antonio Salieri
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Constanze (Stanzi) Weber: Mozart’s wife
• Joseph II: Emperor of Austria
• Count Johann Kilian von Strack: chamberlain of the Imperial Chamber
• Count Franz Orsini-Rosenberg: director of the Imperial Opera.
• Baron Gottfried van Swieten: also known as “Lord Fugue”
• Kapellmeister Guiseppe Bonno: Royal choral director
• Two “Venticelli”
• Salieri’s Valet and Cook
• Teresa Salieri: Wife of Salieri
• Katherina Cavalieri: Salieri’s promising pupil
• Major-Domo: A servant of a prominent baroness
• Priest
• Servants and Citizens of Vienna

You can find a copy of the script here: https://www.shilo.org.uk/amadeus/AmadeusScript1999.pdf

The script will be displayed during the reading. If you would like to dibs a character, please do so in the comments below. If you are not able to attend the day of, please change your RSVP. Two no shows will result in being asked to leave the group.

Nana and Mena bicker and provoke one another in the small smoky cottage where they live with Sive and Mena’s husband, Mike. While Nana dotes on her orphaned granddaughter, Sive, Mena plots to marry the young girl off to an old local farmer for the promise of land and a chance to escape from poverty.

Characters:

• Nanna Glavin: An old woman (mother of Mike Glavin and grandmother of Sive)
• Mena Glavin: Mike Glavin's wife
• Sive: The illegitimate granddaughter of Nanna Glavin
• Thomaseen Seán Rua: A matchmaker
• Mike Glavin: The man of the house
• Liam Scuab: A carpenter, Sive's sweetheart
• Seán Dóta: An old farmer, suitor for the hand of Sive
• Pats Bocock: A travelling tinker-man
• Carthalawn: His musical son

The script will be displayed during the reading. If you would like to dibs a character, please do so in the comments below. If you are not able to attend the day of, please change your RSVP. Two no shows will result in being asked to leave the group.