A New Adaptation of the Lion Feuchtwanger and Bertolt Brecht Play by Oliver Mayer 

ADMISSION: 
Admission is free and open to everyone. Reservations required. RSVP beginning Monday, August 3, at 10 a.m. 

Reception to follow. 

DESCRIPTION: 
Experience an engaging staged reading of Oliver Mayer’s new adaptation of The Visions of Simone Machard,  a classic play co-written by Lion Feuchtwanger and Bertolt Brecht in 1942 exploring themes of oppression and resistance.  

More about The Visions of Simone Machard: 
The original play featured a teenage girl working at a gas station and oil field during the German invasion of France in 1940. In dream sequences, she identifies with Joan of Arc and sees herself leading the Resistance. Mayer’s adaptation is set in a dystopian Los Angeles shaped by oil production and constant surveillance. Performed by USC School of Dramatic Arts students and faculty with design and staging by Evidence Room founding artistic director Bart DeLorenzo, this thought-provoking presentation evokes both our powerlessness in the midst of political upheaval and the urge to resist against all odds. 

Post-Performance Conversation: 
Following the reading, Oliver Mayer, Bart DeLorenzo, USC Dornsife professors Manuel Pastor and Béatrice Mousli, and student performers will discuss the creative process behind the adaptation and themes of resistance, community, and social change. 

Bios: 
Oliver Mayer is a playwright, poet, librettist, and professor of dramatic writing at the USC School of Dramatic Arts. The author of more than 30 plays, his works include Blade to the Heat, Members Only, Ghost Waltz, The Dragon Tree, and Yerma in the Desert. He has also written libretti for several operas and musicals, including 3 Paderewskis, which premiered at the Kennedy Center. A regular contributor to Zócalo Public Square, Mayer is also the author of the poetry collection Body Languages. His work has received numerous honors, including The American Prize for new opera.  

Bart DeLorenzo is the founding artistic director of Evidence Room theater,  where he has directed numerous local and world premieres. Recent productions include The False Servant, Passion Play, Annapurna, Ivanov, Margo Veil, and The Receptionist. He is a graduate of Yale University and the American Repertory Theater’s Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard and a faculty member at CalArts. DeLorenzo’s work has earned widespread recognition, including four Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards, six LA Weekly Awards, three Backstage Garland Awards, and the Alan Schneider Director Award. 

Manuel Pastor is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He currently directs the Equity Research Institute at USC. He holds an economics Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC. Pastor’s research has generally focused on issues of the economic, environmental, and social conditions facing low-income urban communities—and the social movements seeking to change those realities. 

Béatrice Mousli received her doctorate from the University of Paris-IV Sorbonne in 1993 and is currently a professor in French at USC Dornsife. Her work has three main focuses: French and Francophone 20th and 21st century literatures, French colonial history, and literary institutions and networks in France and in the United States and transatlantic literary exchanges. 

Presented by USC Visions and Voices. Organized by Taylor Dwyer (Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, USC Libraries), William Dotson (USC Libraries), and Oliver Mayer (USC School of Dramatic Arts. Co-sponsored by the USC Libraries and USC School of Dramatic Arts.