Beyond Shakespeare

Antonio and Mellida by John Marston (Epilogue) - Epic Epilogues
Performances of the epilogue to Antonio and Mellida by John Marston - a piece of action that will one day be used as a bit of ammunition in the War of the Theatres - because Ben Jonson will steal the image presented here and use it against Marston. Another epilogue to listen to is The Poetaster - it's really fun - though a brief extract featuring Rob Myson is included here.
The epilogue is performed (four times, each different!) by Fiona Thraille - a British voice actor, narrator and audio producer who has worked in voiceover, podcasts, and who has narrated and produced over a dozen audiobooks through Audible. She is the founder and producer of Dashing Onions Audio - an audio drama podcast, was co-host and producer of the Audio Drama Production Podcast for a year, and has given lectures and presentations on aspects of audio drama podcast creation.If you'd like to make us to do a full audio production of this play, join us on patreon and choose this play at the next vote. www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare or you can follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes - or go to our website beyondshakespeare.org
The episode is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton.
Additional sound effects from the wonderful people at http://www.freesfx.co.uk

Spoilers: The Life and Death of Jack Straw (Act 1, Scene 2)
Jack Straw is not a long play, but that won't stop us going into ridiculous amounts of detail about it. Act 1, scene 2 sees the first reaction to the revolt, and the introduction to some... short lived characters. The scene is illustrated via a rough cut of our soon to be released full cast audio adaptation - which languishes in the edit as we post this.
The rough cut of Act 1 scene 2 to The Life and Death of Jack Straw is performed by Heydn McCabe as The Treasurer, Adam Thurkettle as the Archbishop and Simon Nader as the Secretary. The Messenger was played by Alan Scott. Introduced by your host Robert Crighton.

BE WARNED - If you just want to listen to the play as a play, don't listen to the spoilers episodes. Come back later, or don't listen. However, if you find early drama hard to follow, then you will get a good grounding in the action here - especially as we may make changes or cuts for our final version! The plain text version is rough in hew, it will change and we produce it in part to hunt out errors. You can follow the text online - though some texts are better than others. There are, to our current knowledge, only two modern editions - the print on demand acting edition published by Groundling Press which can be found at their website http://www.groundlingpress.com/, and the almost impossible to get edition edited by Stephen Longstaffe (Mellen Critical Editions, 2002). Online versions exist - there is a copy of a fascimile at archive.org, which serves as a foundation https://archive.org/details/cu31924013324540/page/n9
Other online versions can and should be searched for. Support the podcast by going to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare and pledge something – or by leaving a review on itunes or whichever podcasting service you use. Or follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or check out our website at www.beyondshakespeare.org - you can even email us if you feel so inclined - [email protected]

Exploring: John the Evangelist - 1520-57 (printed c.1550)
From our Exploring workshop, where we read through the text of this play for future use towards an audio/stage show. John the Evangelist is a strange beast, with little in the way of plot it's a series of scenes orbiting the preaching of the titular character. Whilst it's fair to say we didn't warm to the dialogue, the dramaturgy of the play really sparked an interest. There's more to this play than meets the eye. 
The Beyond Shakespeare Irregulars this episode are Richard Fawcett, Maria Walker and Mark Scanlon, with your host Robert Crighton.
You can follow the text via this link - your thoughts and comments are welcome. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45805/45805-h/45805-h.htm

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare or follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or even go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

God's Promises by John Bale - an omnibus edition of our plain text version. No frills, just the text, all in one episode.  This version was started over six years ago and reflects the evolving working practice of our producers.  One day, we will go back... one day. Online editions of the play are available - here's one, others can and should be searched for. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19481/19481-h/19481-h.htm
God's Promises by John Bale - features Annie Eddington as the Prologue, narrator and epilogue; Simon Nader as Adam, Alan Scott as Noah, Geir Madland as Abraham, Rob Myson as Moses, Heydn McCabe as King David, Mark Holtom as Esaias, Cecil Qadir as John the Baptist and Robert Crighton as God.
Support the podcast by going to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare and pledge something – or by leaving a review on itunes or whichever podcasting service you use. Or follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or check out our website at www.beyondshakespeare.org - you can even email us if you feel so inclined - [email protected]

Spoilers: The Life and Death of Jack Straw (Act 1, Scene 1)
Jack Straw is not a long play, but that won't stop us going into ridiculous amounts of detail about it. Act 1, scene 1 sees the beginning of the revolt, and the introduction to a lot of characters. The scene is illustrated via a rough cut of our soon to be released full cast audio adaptation - which languishes in the edit as we post this.
The rough cut of Act 1 scene 1 to The Life and Death of Jack Straw is performed by Pollie Hall as Jack Straw, Leigh McDonald as Wat Tyler, Rob Myson as Parson Ball, Hugh Weller-Poley as Tom Miller, Sarah Golding as Nobs, with your host and tax collector Robert Crighton.

BE WARNED - If you just want to listen to the play as a play, don't listen to the spoilers episodes. Come back later, or don't listen. However, if you find early drama hard to follow, then you will get a good grounding in the action here - especially as we may make changes or cuts for our final version! The plain text version is rough in hew, it will change and we produce it in part to hunt out errors. You can follow the text online - though some texts are better than others. There are, to our current knowledge, only two modern editions - the print on demand acting edition published by Groundling Press which can be found at their website http://www.groundlingpress.com/, and the almost impossible to get edition edited by Stephen Longstaffe (Mellen Critical Editions, 2002). Online versions exist - there is a copy of a fascimile at archive.org, which serves as a foundation https://archive.org/details/cu31924013324540/page/n9
Other online versions can and should be searched for. Support the podcast by going to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare and pledge something – or by leaving a review on itunes or whichever podcasting service you use. Or follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or check out our website at www.beyondshakespeare.org - you can even email us if you feel so inclined - [email protected]

Exploring the Chester Mystery Cycle - Play 18 (The Resurrection)

From our Exploring workshop, where we read through the text of this play for future use towards an audio/stage show. We're into the home straight now, with the Resurrection play - guarding of the tomb goes bad for the knights, and the disciples get a surprise visitor.
The Beyond Shakespeare Irregulars this episode were Liz Cole, Richard Fawcett, Mark Scanlon, and Alan Scott – with host, Robert Crighton.
There are more versions of the Chester plays than you can shake a stick at - (actually there are eight) - so any text you use to follow will probably be a bit different to ours (for the sticklers, our base text was H, except for play five, where it was just easier to go for a group text (D-or Hm, A, R, B) composite - though some readings may have been borrowed from all). However, you don't necessarily need to worry about such things, so here's a nice friendly modern spelling version we found online. http://groups.chass.utoronto.ca/plspls/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/index.html

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare or follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or even go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

Spoilers: Gammer Gurton's Needle (Act 5)
Welcome to this spoilery introduction to the play Gammer Gurton's Needle by Mr S. We present a run down of the action, with commentary and clips, followed by a plain text recording of material in the edit for the final full cast audio adaptation (coming soon!)It's Act Five (feel free to go back to the beginning if you want to work chronologically), in which the injured Doctor Rat brings in the LAW, i.e. Baily, whose presence allows all Diccon's lies to come tumbling out. 
The plain text version is performed by Heydn McCabe as Diccon the Bedlam, Geir Madland as Hodge, Pamela Flanagan as Dame Chat, Rob Myson as Doctor Rat and Sarah Golding as Gammer Gurton. The host is Robert Crighton, who is filling in the part of Baily for this episode - it will be different in the final cut.
BE WARNED - If you just want to listen to the play as a play, don't listen to the spoilers episodes. Come back later, or don't listen. However, if you find early drama hard to follow, then you will get a good grounding in the action here - especially as we may make changes or cuts for our final version! The plain text version is rough in hew, it will change and we produce it in part to hunt out errors. You can follow the text online - though some texts are better than others. Good editions of the play can also be found - not always in print, but still in circulation - and are worth the hunt.Online versions are various and with many variations in text (dialect does that to a play) - but here's one that can be found at project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37503/37503-h/37503-h.htm

Other online versions can and should be searched for. Editions: There are lots out there, these are the three volumes that pop up a lot. Five Pre-Shakespearean Comedies - Oxford (1934), Four Tudor Comedies - Penguin (1984), Gammer Gurton's Needle - New Mermaids (2nd Edition 2007)

Support the podcast by going to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare and pledge something – or by leaving a review on itunes or whichever podcasting service you use. Or follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or check out our website at www.beyondshakespeare.org

Exploring the Chester Mystery Cycle - Play 17 (The Harrowing of Hell)

From our Exploring workshop, where we read through the text of this play for future use towards an audio/stage show. Some really interesting features to this play - it's not all harrowing action, there's some really interesting additional comic business as well.
The Beyond Shakespeare Irregulars this episode were Liz Cole, Richard Fawcett, Mark Scanlon, and Alan Scott – with host, Robert Crighton.
There are more versions of the Chester plays than you can shake a stick at - (actually there are eight) - so any text you use to follow will probably be a bit different to ours (for the sticklers, our base text was H, except for play five, where it was just easier to go for a group text (D-or Hm, A, R, B) composite - though some readings may have been borrowed from all). However, you don't necessarily need to worry about such things, so here's a nice friendly modern spelling version we found online. http://groups.chass.utoronto.ca/plspls/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/index.html

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare or follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or even go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

The Malcontent by John Marston (Epilogue) - Epic Epilogues
Performances of the epilogue to The Malcontent by John Marston - an act of fascinating arse licking to a one time enemy, Ben Jonson. This epilogue is best heard with the War of the Theatres in mind - because it is related to an earlier public spat with Jonson and others. Other epilogues to listen to are Cynthia's Revels and The Poetaster - they're rather fun - though brief extracts are included here.
The epilogue is performed by Fiona Thraille - a British voice actor, narrator and audio producer who has worked in voiceover, podcasts, and who has narrated and produced over a dozen audiobooks through Audible. She is the founder and producer of Dashing Onions Audio - an audio drama podcast, was co-host and producer of the Audio Drama Production Podcast for a year, and has given lectures and presentations on aspects of audio drama podcast creation.If you'd like to make us to do a full audio production of this play, join us on patreon and choose this play at the next vote. www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare or you can follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes - or go to our website beyondshakespeare.org
Also featuring the voices of Sarah Golding, Rob Myson and the episode is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton. 
Additional sound effects from the wonderful people at http://www.freesfx.co.uk

Spoilers: Gammer Gurton's Needle (Act 4)
Welcome to this spoilery introduction to the play Gammer Gurton's Needle by Mr S. We present a run down of the action, with commentary and clips, followed by a plain text recording of material in the edit for the final full cast audio adaptation (coming soon!)It's Act Four (feel free to go back to the beginning if you want to work chronologically), in which Gammer calls in the local parson Doctor Rat - but he is soon dealt with by the cunning of Diccon. The plain text version is performed by Heydn McCabe as Diccon the Bedlam, Geir Madland as Hodge, Pamela Flanagan as Dame Chat, and Sarah Golding as Gammer Gurton. And introducing Rob Myson as Doctor Rat. The host is Robert Crighton.
BE WARNED - If you just want to listen to the play as a play, don't listen to the spoilers episodes. Come back later, or don't listen. However, if you find early drama hard to follow, then you will get a good grounding in the action here - especially as we may make changes or cuts for our final version! The plain text version is rough in hew, it will change and we produce it in part to hunt out errors. You can follow the text online - though some texts are better than others. Good editions of the play can also be found - not always in print, but still in circulation - and are worth the hunt.Online versions are various and with many variations in text (dialect does that to a play) - but here's one that can be found at project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37503/37503-h/37503-h.htm

Other online versions can and should be searched for. Editions: There are lots out there, these are the three volumes that pop up a lot. Five Pre-Shakespearean Comedies - Oxford (1934), Four Tudor Comedies - Penguin (1984), Gammer Gurton's Needle - New Mermaids (2nd Edition 2007)

Support the podcast by going to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare and pledge something – or by leaving a review on itunes or whichever podcasting service you use. Or follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or check out our website at www.beyondshakespeare.org