THE FIRST
NEW MUSICALS BASED ON
EDNA FERBER
SHORT STORIES
directed by
LAURA BRANDEL
(hit the wall, life after)
the writers
DEBRA BARSHA
and
SHEILAH RAE
50% of this week's donations will support the
THE BLACK WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS' GROUP
special guest
JULIE GILBERT
(Ferber's grand-niece, biographer and estate executor)
The 40-minute presentation will feature a conversation with Ferber's grand-niece, biographer and estate executor Julie Gilbert, and excerpts from two one-act musical adaptations of two Ferber short stories written by Debra Barsha (Radiant Baby, A Taste of Things to Come) and Sheilah Rae (The Belle of Tombstone, Funny You Don't Look Like a Grandmother). The writers will present a song from each musical short performed remotely.
The presentation will celebrate Edna Ferber, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer and playwright whose works include Show Boat (which became the prolific and celebrated 1927 musical), Cimarron, Giant and Ice Palace. Ferber’s dedication to the immigrant experience is so richly conveyed in Barsha and Rae’s adaptations of Every Other Thursday - about the life of a Finnish domestic in New York City, and Our Very Best People - which explores the development of the American West, Ferber’s fascination with The Harvey Girls, and the importance of the railroad in the West’s emergence.
WITH PERFORMANCES BY
DIANA HUEY
(the little mermaid)
JENNIFER BLOOD
(girl from the north country)
