STAGED READING | FREDERIC MORTON | EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL
The Austrian Cultural Forum New York is pleased to present the premiere of Frederic Morton’s as yet unpublished play Everything Beautiful. This staged reading will be directed by the artistic director of Premiere Stages, John Wooten and will feature the talents of Jean Tafler, Clark Carmichael, Melissa Miller, Allen Lewis Rickman and Marguerite Stimpson.
ABOUT THE PLAY
In Nazi occupied Vienna of 1938, the Jewish community set up a vocational retraining center. Distinguished professionals, such as cardiologists or architects, were trained as shoemakers or house painters, respectively. The point of this was to ensure that they could make a living in exile regardless of language difficulties. Everything Beautiful tells the story of Walter Felbmann, a prominent lawyer being retrained in the center, whose wife is killed. This event dramatically affects his life, his outlook, and his behavior; It governs the subsequent action of the play.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR & DIRECTOR
Frederic Morton, (born Fritz Mandelbaum, in 1924 in Vienna) is a Jewish writer who fled from the Nazis to the United States in 1940, by way of Great Britain. Morton first worked as a baker, and later studied literature. From 1959 on, Morton worked as a columnist for several American periodicals.He is the author of 12 books, two of which, The Rothschilds and A Nervous Splendor, have been National Book Award finalists. The Rothschilds was made into a Tony Award-winning musical with Hal Linden and ran on Broadway for two years. A new musical adaptation of his novel A Nervous Splendor was performed in Budapest and in Tokyo in May 2008. Morton’s work has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 1965 as well as in The Best American Essays 2003.
John J. Wooten, (born 1965) is an American playwright, screenwriter, director, producer, and educator. He is a founding member and Producing Artistic Director of Premiere Stages and the resident director for the Peter Ustinov screenwriting competition presented each year by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Before being hired in 2004 to launch Premiere Stages, Wooten served ten seasons as Artistic Director of TheatreFest, where he produced and or/directed over fifty professional Equity productions. Wooten’s plays have been produced Off-Broadway and his premieres include The Role of Della, an ATL finalist.
VENUE
ACFNY