"Tortured Humans": A Reading of Piscator's 1929 Abortion Play. Directed by Carey Perloff

The Segal Center presents a reading of the first English translation of Carl Credé’s 1929 play Gequälte Menschen (Tortured Humans) by American translator Emily Elizabeth Gasda. Credé’s drama, first directed by Erwin Piscator, explores how a national abortion ban in pre-fascist Germany destroys a working-class family. The reading will be directed by Carey Perloff.  A discussion and reception will follow the reading.

*This event is generously supported by Louise Kerz Hirschfeld.

Cast (in alphabetical order): Sam Adams, Ari Brand, Neal Huff, Eva Kaminsky, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Lakisha May, Joshua Robinson, Thom Sesma, Julyana Soelistyo, and David Strathairn.

Erwin Piscator (1893–1966) was a twentieth-century German director, theorist, and producer known for his role in the development of two significant theatrical forms: the documentary drama and the epic theatre. With a theatrical career spanning 50 years, Piscator pursued a political theatre that created critical spectators motivated to bring about social change.  First trained as an actor, Piscator joined the Berlin dadaists after serving in the German army in WWI. Influenced by the dadaists use of media and collage, Piscator shaped political theatre during the Interwar Period, staging political plays in his epic style that made use of projections, documentary material, music, and film, among other devices. After successes at the Volksbühne and the Grosses Schauspielhaus in the mid-1920s, Piscator founded the Piscator Bühne in 1927, presenting four productions over two years that would earn him international recognition: Hoppla, We're Alive!; Rasputin; Boom; and Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik. In 1931, Piscator went into exile first in Russia, then in France, and finally in the United States. While in the U.S., he created the Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research in New York. Tennessee Williams and Judith Malina were amongst his students. After being in exile for over two decades, Piscator returned to West Germany. In 1962, he was named Artistic Director of the West Berlin Freie Volksbühne. In the years leading up to his death, he directed a number of significant productions in his documentary and epic style, including In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Heinar Kipphardt (1964); The Investigation by Peter Weiss (1965); and his most impactful work The Deputy by Rolf Hochhuth (1963), which addresses the role of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust. Piscator died in March 1966 at the age of 72.

Carey Perloff is a director, writer, producer, and educator who recently completed an acclaimed 25-year tenure as Artistic Director of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco (1992 to 2018). The youngest person ever chosen to lead a LORT theater, Perloff oversaw the rebuilding of the Geary Theater and the creation of A.C.T.’s second stage (The Strand); reanimated ACT’s educational programs; and created decades of vigorous, culturally diverse programming with an international focus. Prior to A.C.T., Perloff ran CSC Repertory where she staged the world premiere of Ezra Pound’s Elektra and won an Obie for Excellence. Noted for her collaborations with Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter, Perloff is also a playwright; her work has been produced across the country and in Paris. She’s the author of Beautiful Chaos: A Life in the Theater (City Lights Press 2015) and Pinter and Stoppard: A Director’s View (Bloomsbury Methuen 2022), was awarded a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government and several Honorary Doctorates. B.A., Classics and Comparative Literature, Phi Beta Kappa, Stanford, Fulbright Fellowship to Oxford University. She continues to direct around the world, most recently at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

Emily Elizabeth Gasda studied German Literature at Boston University and has lived and traveled widely in the German-speaking realm. She will be publishing an account of her recent travels in Sicily and otherwise enjoys writing songs, sewing clothing, and farming.

Louise Kerz Hirschfeld retired in May 2015 as President of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation, which honors her late husband and his art. Mrs. Kerz Hirschfeld while president oversaw exhibitions, supervised publications, directed educational programs, and spearheaded philanthropic endeavors. Other key exhibitions under her charge include Al Hirschfeld: A Celebration of Hollywood and Broadway at the Huntsville Museum of Art; Brits on Broadway at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum; Hirschfeld on Tennessee Williams, a centenary exhibition in New Orleans; and Hirschfeld’s Hollywood at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. One of the most exciting and rewarding ventures she pioneered under the Foundation’s continuing guidance is a collaboration with the NYC Board of Education to produce The Al Hirschfeld Project, a curriculum for teaching the arts in the city's public schools. During her earlier career as a theatre historian, she organized and created many exhibits such as The Theatre of Max Reinhardt and The Demille Dynasty as well as worked in television production as a research consultant for major networks, museums and award winning producers. Mrs. Kerz Hirschfeld work as a photographer was exhibited at New York’s Leica Gallery. In collaboration with her then Foundation Co-Chair, Arthur Gelb of The New York Times, as well as producer Rocco Landesman, she was instrumental in re-naming of the Martin Beck Theatre to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. She was a Tony Award nominator for three years and served on the board of Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center. She and her husband Lewis B. Cullman were designated as New York City Living Landmarks in 2012.