"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. 

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.

This event is generously supported by Louise Kerz Hirschfeld.