My stage play about George Gershwin’s friendship with Arnold Schoenberg — Twelveness — has been produced as an audio performance by the Crowded Kitchen Players of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The show is available at https://crowdedkitchen.podbean.com/
I am extra-ordinarily proud of this. And especially now in our time of quarantine, this can be a nice way to spend 90 minutes.
Here are the deets:
TWELVENESS: A Play in Three Scenes (PREVIEW)
Legendary American pianist and songwriter George Gershwin and Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg volley tennis balls, music theory, and musings on the meaning of art on a Beverly Hills tennis court and over dinner and drinks in a series of entertaining and provocative conversations that may never have taken place. But, they should have.
This play takes place largely in the last months of 1936 and early 1937. George Gershwin would die on July 11, 1937 from an undiagnosed brain tumor. He was 38 years old.
Arnold Schoenberg was famous for his serial compositional technique, the twelve tone row. He would live, teaching and composing, until 1951.
Written by Charlie Barnett
Produced and Directed by Ara Barlieb and Pamela Wallace 2020
Featuring Dan Ferry as George Gershwin, David Oswald as Arnold Schoenberg, Trish Cipoletti as Ginger Rogers, Syd Stauffer as Gertrud Schoenberg
Music by Charlie Barnett
(Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes)
wish the play had been mentioned in The New Yorker article March 18, 2024 article on Schoenberg