TWELFTH
NIGHT by
William Shakespeare - FULL
Audio Book - DRAMATIC READING -
Twelfth Night; or,
What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601--02 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the
Christmas season. The play expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of the occasion, with plot elements drawn from the short story "Of
Apollonius and
Silla" by
Barnabe Rich, based on a story by
Matteo Bandello. The first recorded performance was on
2 February 1602, at
Candlemas, the formal end of
Christmastide in the year's calendar. The play was not published until its inclusion in the 1623
First Folio. (Summary adapted from
Wikipedia.org - Attribution:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index
.php?title=Twelfth_Night&action;=history)
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CHAPTER LISTING & CHAPTER LENGTH:
Act 1 -- 00:33:41
Act 2 -- 00:36:32
Act 3 -- 00:39:25
Act 4 -- 00:12:57
Act 5 -- 00:21:50
CAST:
Orsino,
Duke of
Illyria —
Joshua B. Christensen
Sebastian —
Madame Tusk
Antonio, a
Sea Captain, friend to Sebastian —
Alan Davis Drake
A Sea Captain —
Kara Shallenberg
Valentine, a gentleman attending on the Duke —
Zachary Brewster-Geisz
Curio, a gentleman attending on the Duke —
Heather Barnett
Sir Toby Belch, uncle to
Olivia — Alan Davis Drake
Sir Andrew Aguecheek —
Andy Minter
Malvolio, steward to Olivia —
John Gonzalez
Fabian, servant to Olivia —
James Rye
Feste the Clown — Larysa Jaworski
Olivia, a rich
Countess —
Kristin Hughes
Viola —
Karen Savage
Maria, Olivia's waiting woman — Rosalind
Wills
Servant — Larysa Jaworski
Priest —
J.C.
First Officer —
Christie Nowak
Second Officer — Rosalind Wills
Narrator — Gesine
MORE ABOUT WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptized) -- 23 April 1616) was an
English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the
English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called
England's national poet and the "
Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays,
154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, two epitaphs on a man named
John Combe, one epitaph on
Elias James, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married
Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children:
Susanna, and twins
Hamnet and
Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in
London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the
Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the
King's Men. He appears to have retired to
Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of
Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the
16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including
Hamlet,
King Lear,
Othello, and
Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the
English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognized as Shakespeare's.
Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the
19th century.
The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and
the Victorians worshiped Shakespeare with a reverence that
George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry"
. In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world. (from Wikipedia)
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- published: 18 Nov 2012
- views: 28770