Scripts: Going's Folklore and Fairy Plays

Here we are months after Judge Koeltl's ruling against the Internet Archive, and still waiting to find out exactly what is going to happen. For one beautiful year, this blog site was where I posted about books at the Internet Archive, and I haven't really known what to do with it in this legal limbo.

But thanks to doing some readers theater work for MYFest this summer, I've decided to start posting books of scripts here. It's sad to go back to posting about books that people might not be able to access online (if the Internet Archive actually has to shut down their controlled digital lending)... but I've accumulated a nice collection of readers theater and other books of scripts here on my own physical bookshelves, and I figured that by blogging about those books, all of which I acquired from used booksellers, that could possibly help others decide if a book is worth tracking down at their library or buying.

So, just like I was doing last year, I'll post about those books here, giving some basic background information, along with a table of contents that lists the scripts in the book. I'll also be trying to read one script a day to learn new script-writing techniques; I'll share those posts over at my Notebooks blog.

Today's book is actually in the public domain, published in 1927! It entered the public domain just this year. The author is Charles Buxton Going, and the title is: Folklore and Fairy Plays. This is not a book of readers theater scripts, but since it was focused on stories taken from folklore and fairy tales, of course I wanted to take a look! It's not at the Internet Archive (although I should upload a copy!), but it is at Hathi Trust.

There's a tiny article about Going at Wikipedia; he was an engineer by profession (!), and writing was a hobby, one he shared with his wife.

Here's a list of the plays included:

1. The North Wind Blowing (Basque).

2. Benead and the Moor Elves (Breton).
3. Tomorrow (Breton).
4. The Stones of Plouhinec (Breton).
5. A Psychotherapist (Spain).
6. The Wheel Turns (Basque).
7. The Prince with the Long Nose (France).
8. Graelent of Brittany (France).
9. Twilight of the Moon.
10. A Wooing (Basque).

Since this book is in the public domain now, that means not only can the scripts be performed in any venue without paying royalties, it also means you adapt the scripts freely to meet your needs. In my Notebook post tomorrow, I'll say something about what it might take to adapt a play I read here and really liked, "Tomorrow," into a readers theater script.