The Great American Play Series
Stephan Morrow, Artistic Director
and The Nuyorican Poets Café present
A Symposium on Norman Mailer’s work in Film and Theater. “Did you love it or hate it? Norman would agree.”
Hosted by The Nuyorican Poets Café. 236 E.3rd St. N.Y.C. (btwn Ave. B &C). (212) 505-8183.
$7 admission
Wednesday Evening, Sept.23, 2009 from 6:30PM - 9 PM.
As we approach the second anniversary of the sad passing of Norman Mailer, one of the most important voices of the twentieth century, The Great American Play Series and The Nuyorican Poet’s Café are proud to present “A panel discussion on Norman Mailer’s work in film and on stage” Led by actor/director Stephan Morrow* and Daniel Gallant, Executive Director, Nuyorican Poets Cafe.
Panel Members : Norris Church Mailer, John Buffalo Mailer, Michael Chaiken - Mailer film archivist and moderator of The Lincoln Center Mailer Film Retrospective, Jonathan Rosenbaum - noted film critic of The Chicago Reader, Richard Stratton - producer, author and close friend of Mr. Mailer’s, are scheduled to appear. Others to be announced.
The discussion will attempt to assess how successful Mr. Mailer was in his efforts to reach a mass audience, or at least one that went beyond the intellectual elites of his books and why he felt the need to make the attempt.
Also, why the response to his work seemed to be so polarizing - between those who became Mailer partisans and passionately defended it and those who excoriated it. Finally, how his work in film and theater fits into the legacy of his work as a whole with a final section devoted to what the future holds for writers. The discussion will include a Q&A with the aim of creating an evening as free-wheeling and open as Norman Mailer himself would have liked, covering as many aspects of his work and life as time allows.
As might be appropriate for a discussion about Mr. Mailer - there will be a cash bar available to the audience during the evening.
As an actor, Stephan Morrow had the privilege to perform in three Mailer projects: Strawhead - a memory of Marilyn, Tough Guys Don’t Dance and act in and also direct The Deer Park - which led to his working closely with Mr. Mailer in the winter of his life on plans for a filmed version of the play. He had two excerpts from his soon to be completed memoir “The Unknown and the General - my life in the trenches with Norman Mailer on stage and screen” published in The Mailer Review one in 2008 and another in 2009.
In Works and Days
- Norris Church Mailer — Painter, model, and writer; Mailer’s sixth and last wife.
- John Buffalo Mailer — Mailer’s ninth and last child and his third son, born 16 April 1978 to Norris Church Mailer; an actor, playwright, and writer in adulthood, and a co-author with his…
- Michael Chaiken — Film curator and editor; interviewed Mailer about his films (including at Mailer’s last public appearance, July 2007) and later edited collections of Mailer’s film…
- Richard Stratton — American writer and filmmaker; he conducted the two-part 1975 Rolling Stone interview with Mailer and became a long-running associate, later the subject of Mailer’s…
- The Deer Park — Mailer’s third novel — a story of Hollywood and the blacklist set in the desert resort of “Desert D’Or,” modeled on Palm Springs — published by G.