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Wellespring: A Centenary Celebration of the Inexhaustible Inspiration of Orson Welles - TOO MUCH JOHNSON, a Play Reading

Sunday, June 7, 2015
12:00 AM
Detroit Film Theater, Detroit Institute of Arts

The recent rediscovery of the film Orson Welles shot in 1938 for his stage production of Too Much Johnson was widely reported -- and generated considerable international enthusiasm. What was lost in the excitement of seeing Welles's "first" professionally produced film seventy-five years later, however, was the fact that this footage did not exactly constitute a film; rather, it was made to serve as a single component of a multimedia theatrical production. This event aims to return a part of this footage to resemble its original context by presenting it as Welles intended it -- as a screened prologue for a stage play accompanied by music. To approximate this experience, the screening of the film footage that Welles himself shot for the prologue will be accompanied by narrated excerpts of the script and the music of alumnus Frank Pahl and the Little Bang Theory -- featuring SAC's Terri Sarris. Recent SAC alumnus and incoming PhD student Vincent Longo, who "rediscovered" Welles's original script, will be the narrator of the event and provide a brief historical introduction while several SAC students, directed by SAC’s Mary Lou Chilpala, will participate in the reading of the script: Anne Marie BarryAnna BaumgartenAva (Emma) BurnhamAvery DiUbaldoMichael LopetroneNick Sheehan, and Riley Taggart