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EudoraWeltyOnstage.com
The stories of America's great writer performed onstage
Eudora Welty wrote five novels, many famous short stories, many wise essays, She took remarkable photographs. Born in 1909, she amassed a body of work simultaneously strong and supple, delicate and refined, personal and universal. In the summer of 2001 she passed away, honored as an American treasure.
NEWS: A Play with Music adapted from the works of
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In response to the recent devastation of Mississippi's delta, The Flea Theater will present Sister and Miss Lexie , a play with music adapted from the works of the legendary author and chronicler of the South's irrepressible human spirit -- Eudora Welty, opening Thursday, November 3 rd at 9pm with preview performances slated to begin Thursday, October 27 th at 9pm Downstairs @ The Flea (41 White Street). Written by Brenda Currin and David Kaplan , the 25 th Anniversary production is produced by The Flea Theater (Jim Simpson/Artistic Director and Carol Ostrow/Producing Director) in association with Edwin W. Schloss.
Performed by Ms. Currin and pianist Ayako Morino, and directed and designed by Mr. Kaplan, Sister and Miss Lexie tells the story of the heroic schoolteacher Miss Julia Mortimer from the novel, Losing Battles and the comic classic “Why I Live at the P.O.” as well as the themes of five other short stories. Set in various locations around the State of Mississippi, every word is written by Welty, though stitched together in a startling way to the music of Beethoven.
In the summer of 1979 actress Brenda Currin and director David Kaplan began to adapt Welty's work for the stage. First performed at midnight on the Off-Broadway set of "Vanities," the adaptation then titled "Sister and Miss Lexie" officially opened Off Broadway in 1980, when it received critical praise and then was followed by another successful engagement in 1985.
Eudora Welty's writing bears witness to the rapture of the commonplace. Her confrontations with the great issues of her time and place - poverty, racism, ignorance - were subtle and indirect, and controversial for their subtlety. She was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1909. What she saw and understood in that city and state inspired her life's remarkable contribution to world literature. Her portraits give evidence that faced with hardship; the human spirit is irrepressibly hopeful, saucy and proud. She wrote five novels, many short stories, wise essays and took remarkable photographs.
Brenda Currin played the daughter in the film of In Cold Blood while still in college. She won an Obie award for her performance in My Sister in This House at the Second Stage. Her other credits include: Threepenny Opera directed by Richard Foreman at Lincoln Center, Museum , The Art of Dining by Tina Howe and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You . Ms. Currin has focused her theatrical career largely on collaborations of original pieces and adaptations. She collaborated with Martha Clarke on Vienna: Lusthaus.
David Kaplan stages plays around the world, most recently, in June 2005, Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! in its Russian premiere in Russia. Seasons past include Russian premieres of Auntie Mame , Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer and Williams The Eccentricities of a Nightingale in Cantonese at the Hong Kong Repertory Theater. In New York he staged Genet's The Maids at CSC, a text he went to stage in Mongolia. He is the curator for Provincetown's 2006 Tennessee Williams Festival.
“The Flea embraces those established theater artists- like David Kaplan, Liz Swados and Len Jenkin- whose knowledge of theater is deep and but whose love of theater is still on the edge. These are the types of artists, like Jim Simpson, Artistic Director, whose work we champion and whose vision we produce,” said Ms. Ostrow. The Flea Theater is one of New York's leading off-off-Broadway companies. Winner of a Special Drama Desk award for outstanding achievement, Obie awards as well as an Otto for political theater, The Flea has presented over 70 plays and numerous dance and live music performances since its inception in 1996. Past productions include Anne Nelson's The Guys , A.R. Gurney's O Jerusalem, Mrs. Farnsworth and Screen Play, Liz Swados' JABU, Kate Robin's The Light Outside, Talking Band's The Parrot , Karen Finley's The Return of the Chocolate Smeared Woman , Glyn O'Malley's A Heartbeat to Baghdad and Roger Rosenblatt's Ashley Montana Goes Ashore in the Caicos..or What Am I Doing Here?
Sister and Miss Lexie runs October 27-December 20
Thursday - Saturday at 9pm and Sunday at 3pm and 7pm.
There will no performances the week of November 24.
The Flea Theater is located at 41 White Street (btwn Broadway & Church Streets -- accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,Q,W,6,J,M,Z to Canal or 1,9 to Franklin Street).
More Flea information click here