Full-cast audio versions of classic comedies

featuring the latest expressive synthetic voices



Listen to site introduction:



Skip site introduction and take me to the plays!

Greetings! Welcome to TTS Playhouse, the first website in the world to feature full-cast audio recordings of classic plays using the latest in humorous and original synthetic voices.

My name is Ballard Quass from western Virginia in the United States of America.

My interest in such plays began in the 1980s when I would visit my local library to check out the 33-rpm performances of classic plays like "The School for Scandal" by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, "Love for Love" by William Congreve, and "She Stoops to Conquer" by Oliver Goldsmith. I loved listening -- and re-listening -- to the masterpiece performances of the great British stage stars of the time, including Ralph Richardson, Lynn Redgrave, Laurence Olivier and Claire Bloom. It bothered me, however, that the list of such full-cast performances of plays was starkly limited at my local library and that this list seemed unlikely to grow any time soon. Of course, there were always a ready supply of Shakespeare plays in the form of topnotch audio recordings from famous producers such as Naxos Audio, the Marlowe Dramatic Society, and the Royal Shakespeare Company, to name but a few. In fact, in 2005, I set myself up for life when it came to Shakespeare plays by purchasing the 38-play series by Arkangel at the now defunct audiopartners.com. But similar audio resources for almost all other public domain plays were simply not available.

Nor has the situation improved much over the last three decades. Of course, one can now hear an ever-increasing number of these neglected masterpieces performed by a full cast of sorts on Librivox.org, where well-meaning but occasionally dramatically challenged volunteer readers strut and fret their hour on the virtual stage. (If you listen to such plays, by the way, be sure to listen to the ad-free versions at Librivox. There's always some hucksters who repackage the free recordings as paid content and overload them with highly irritating advertisements.) But I wanted to experience the joy of hearing more classic plays performed by classic actors, as in my student days when I would check out long-playing vinyl records at the local library. I longed, in particular, to hear the works of Ben Jonson, the supposed runner-up to Shakespeare in the thespian smarts department in Jacobean London. Who dares call themselves a Shakespeare fan whilst being ignorant of the plays of the Bard's chief rival? I also wanted more Sheridan. I had enjoyed the Command Classics performance of "The School for Scandal" as mentioned above, as well as the Caedmon production of "The Rivals," featuring Dame Edith Evans as the hilarious Mrs. Malaprop. But I have since learned that the Anglo-Irish playwright wrote a well-received third comedy for his Georgian public entitled "A Trip to Scarborough," a play that does not appear to have been produced, however, in an audio format for the general public.

What's a theater lover to do, especially when he lives over 3,750 miles away from London's West End!

In October of last year (2025), I determined to do something about this dearth of professional audio recordings of comical masterpieces. If production companies were not going to come up with the goods, then I would create these masterpieces myself. As an experienced audio engineer, I was aware of the latest developments in AI-powered synthetic voices and I knew that such voices could "sub" for "the real thing" with ever-increasing plausibility. The number of digital speakers was growing daily and I realized that they could now credibly impersonate a wide range of theatrical types: everything from a whimpering coward to an outraged superhero. I resolved therefore to begin recording full-cast audio performances of classic dramatic comedies using the latest in synthetic voices. This may sound to some like I am thereby removing the human element from play production. Indeed, I myself feared that I might be committing such a sin when I first began contemplating this project. However, I soon realized that the human element remains, for while the voices of the various actors are synthetic, it is the human producer, myself, who decides how and when these voices are employed in order to create the desired effect.

That said, I do not have any immediate plans to record a serious drama, let alone a tragedy, using this method. Although synthetic voices can be subjected to an increasing level of control as to timbre and emphasis and so forth, it is sometimes difficult to produce the precise result that one is envisioning with a given voice. This shortcoming tends to work to one's advantage in the long run when recording a comedy, since it adds a secondary element of potential humor to the production: the humor created by the unexpected and sometimes slightly inappropriate emphasis or vocal tone adopted by a given speaker in a given situation. Such unpredictable vociferations, however, would be out of place in a serious drama and can only be a distraction for the listener. More importantly, however, I want to be amused by my recordings and not depressed by them. That is why, for now at least, I am dedicated to selecting only comedies for production from the vast repertoire of public domain plays for which no pedagogical resources of this kind are available.

Let me end this introductory post by listing the plays that I have so far produced using the latest in synthetic voices. Please keep in mind that this unique form of play creation is a new project for me, so I like to think that I am improving over time. I therefore recommend that you first listen to my most recent free performance, "Volpone" by Ben Jonson, in order to get the best idea of the potential of this new genre that I am trailblazing here. I say "free" performance, because if I am to continue this project on a sustainable basis, I will need the help of drama fans like yourself in paying the licensing fees for the voices that I am using in my production work. Meanwhile, however, the plays that you see listed on this page remain free for everyone to both listen to and to download. Again, these plays will give you a good idea of what to expect from the full-cast audio plays that I plan to offer in the future. My plan is to make one new audio play available every month for subscribers to my Patreon channel (link coming soon), beginning on March 13th, 2026. The featured play for that upcoming date will be "A Tale of a Tub," a satirical comedy by Ben Jonson. If you too would love to hear the next-best thing to a full-cast performance by a renowned stage production company every single month, please support the upcoming Patreon page for TTS Playhouse as we pioneer a new genre of full-cast audio plays featuring the latest in synthetic voices.

Dramatically Yours,
Ballard Quass

PS I'd love to hear from fellow drama lovers. Please send your question, comments and drama-related ideas to quass@quass.com.


Volpone: A 17th-century satire in which a rich and quick-witted Venetian conspires with his lackey to acquire gifts and money from their neighbors under false pretenses. (run time: 02:50)

The Double Dealer: Restoration Comedy about romantic duplicity. (run time: 02:25)

The Electric Man: One-act version of a ground-breaking sci-fi comedy in which an inventor uses an android lookalike to stop his stepmother from marrying a gold digger. (run time: 00:36)

The Post Office: A touching story of a sickly Bengali boy whose optimistic and imaginative outlook on life inspires his friends and foes alike. (run time: 00:37)

The Country Wife: A five-act Restoration Era comedy of manners loosely based on the plays of Moliere. (run time: 03:02)

Box and Cox: Box and Cox is a one-act farce about the reuniting of two long-lost brothers. (run time: 00:40)

The Inspector General: A satirical comedy of errors lampooning the corruption of public officialdom in Czarist Russia. (run time: 02:23)
Contact: quass [at] quass.com. All rights reserved. c 2025 Brian B. Quass, TTS Playouse. Up.