The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presented SEGAL TALKS, a conversation about curating, producing, and presenting theatre and performance in the time of COVID with Alexis Greene & Emily Mann, livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network on Wednesday 1 December at 9 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 11 a.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 12 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5) / 17:00 GMT (London, UTC +0) / 18:00 CET (Berlin, UTC +1).
SEGAL TALKS: Alexis Greene & Emily Mann- ‘EMILY MANN: Rebel Artist of the American Theater’
Join us for a conversation with Alexis Greene & Emily Mann about Greene’s new book: EMILY MANN: Rebel Artist of the American Theater. Part of the Segal Center’s Fall 2021 Book Talk Series. Moderated by Frank Hentschker, Director, MESTC, The Graduate Center CUNY.
About EMILY MANN: Rebel Artist of the American Theater:
The book traces and describes Emily Mann’s family life; her coming-of-age in Chicago during the exuberant, rebellious, and often violent 1960s; how sexual violence touched her personally; and how she fell in love with theater at the Lab School in Chicago and began learning her craft at the Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while a student at Radcliffe. Mann’s evolution as a professional director and playwright is explored, first at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, where she became the first woman to direct on the Guthrie’s main stage, then on and off Broadway and at regional theaters. Mann’s leadership of the McCarter Theatre Center is examined, along with her battles to overcome multiple sclerosis and to conquer—personally and artistically—the memories of the violence she experienced when a teenager. It is the story of a woman who defied the American theater’s sexism, a traumatic assault, and illness to create unique documentary plays and to lead the McCarter Theatre Center, for thirty seasons, to a place of national recognition.
Alexis Greene is an author, arts journalist and teacher. Recently she completed a biography of the pioneering playwright, stage director and leader of the McCarter Theatre Center: EMILY MANN: Rebel Artist of the American Theater (Applause Theatre & Cinema Books). In addition to her biography of Emily Mann, Greene has written or edited ten books about women in the American theater, including Women Who Write Plays: Interviews with American Dramatists; Lucille Lortel: The Queen of Off Broadway; Front Lines: Political Plays by American Women (co-edited with Shirley Lauro); and Pride Rock: The Lion King on Broadway, written with Julie Taymor. Greene’s articles have appeared in the New York Times, the New York Daily News, and American Theatre magazine, among other publications. She holds a Ph.D. in theater from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and has taught at Hunter College and New York University. She is a co-founder and was first president of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA).
Emily Mann is a Tony nominated director and playwright and a Tony winning Artistic Director. In her 30 years as Artistic Director and Resident Playwright at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey, she wrote 15 new plays and adaptations, directed over 50 productions, produced 180 plays and musicals, and supported and directed the work of emerging and legendary playwrights. She has directed world premieres by Ntozake Shange, Edward Albee, Marina Carr, Christopher Durang, Nilo Cruz, Danai Gurira among others, and is known for her productions of Williams, Lorca, Chekhov, Shakespeare and Ibsen. On Broadway, she directed Execution of Justice and Having Our Say; Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics, and A Streetcar Named Desire. Her plays: Having Our Say, adapted from the book by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth; Execution of Justice; Still Life; Annulla, An Autobiography; Greensboro (A Requiem); Meshugah; Mrs. Packard, Hoodwinked (a Primer on Radical Islamism). Adaptations: Baby Doll, Scenes from a Marriage, Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, A Seagull in the Hamptons, The House of Bernarda Alba, and Antigone. Currently in development for Broadway: her adaptation of The Pianist and a new musical, Our Souls at Night, with composer Lucy Simon and lyricist Susan Birkenhead. Her play, Gloria: A Life about the legacy of Gloria Steinem, ran Off-Broadway and aired on PBS’ Great Performances. Awards: Peabody (for her teleplay of Having Our Say), Guggenheim, Hull Warriner, NAACP, 6 Obies; Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, WGA nominations; Princeton University Honorary Doctorate of Arts; Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwrights’ Award; Margo Jones Award; TCG Visionary Leadership Award; The Lilly and Gordon Davidson Awards both for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater. She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
ABOUT THE SEGAL TALKS
The Segal Theatre Center’s online conversation series SEGAL TALKS was created in March of 2020 after the abrupt closing of the Graduate Center for any kind of public activities due to Corona and the cancellation of the entire spring season. The SEGAL TALKS during The Time of Corona offered conversations on theatre, performance and art during the pandemic featuring with more than 200 theater artists from over 50 countries. New York, US, and international theatre artists, curators, writers, and academics talked daily during the week for one hour with Segal Center’s director, Frank Hentschker, about life and art in the Time of Corona and speak about challenges, sorrows, and hopes for the new Weltzustand— the State of the World. In the summer of 2021 Segal Talks continued to focus on Theatre, Performance and The Political, the Segal Center’s 2023 New York International Festival of the Arts Project and the 2022 Center’s Public Park Project. During the pandemic The Segal Center was for a long period globally the only theatre institution creating new, original, daily content for the global field of theater and performance five days a week. Currently the Center is preparing the 4th edition of the Segal Center’s global Film Festival on Theatre and Performance.
SEGAL TALKS are free, open access, without ads will be live-streamed in English from Wednesday to Friday on HowlRound Theatre Commons and on the Segal Center Facebook. This program is presented in collaboration with HowlRound Theatre Commons, based at Emerson College. All SEGAL TALKS are archived on HowlRound, and on the Segal Center YouTube Channel.
CONTACT
Send us your questions during the live streaming at [email protected].
Contact [email protected] for more information on SEGAL TALKS.
Contact Frank Hentschker at [email protected] for press information.
Follow us @segalcenter on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter
ABOUT THE MARTIN E. SEGAL THEATRE CENTER
Originally founded in 1979 as the Center for Advanced Studies in Theatre Arts (CASTA), The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center was renamed in March of 1999 to recognize Martin E. Segal, one of New York City’s outstanding leaders of the arts. The Segal Center curates over thirty events throughout the Spring and Fall academic seasons, all free and open to the public. Dedicated to bridging the gap between the professional and academic theatre communities, the Segal Center presents readings, performance, lectures, and artists and academics in conversation. In addition, the Segal Center presents three annual festivals (PRELUDE, PEN World Voices: International Pay Festival, and The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance) and publishes and maintains three open access online journals (Arab Stages, European Stages, and The Journal of American Drama and Theatre). The Segal Center also publishes many volumes of plays in translation and is the leading publisher of plays from the Arab world. The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC) is a vital component of the Theatre Program’s academic culture and creating in close collaboration a research nexus, focusing on dramaturgy, new media, and global theatre. The Segal Center provides an intimate platform where both artists and theatre professionals can actively participate with audiences to advance awareness and appreciation. www.TheSegalCenter.org
THE SEGAL TEAM
Executive Director: Frank Hentschker
Associate Producers: Andie Lerner & Tanvi Shah
THE GRADUATE CENTER, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, of which the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center is an integral part, is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York (CUNY). An internationally recognized center for advanced studies and a national model for public doctoral education, the school offers more than thirty doctoral programs, as well as a number of master’s programs. Many of its faculty members are among the world’s leading scholars in their respective fields, and its alumni hold major positions in industry and government, as well as in academia. The Graduate Center is also home to twenty-eight interdisciplinary research centers and institutes focused on areas of compelling social, civic, cultural, and scientific concerns. Located in a landmark Fifth Avenue building, The Graduate Center has become a vital part of New York City’s intellectual and cultural life with its extensive array of public lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and theatrical events. www.gc.cuny.edu.
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