Mac Wellman's MFA Playwrights Present the Weasel Festival 7/28-30The Apocrypha actually did "make the Bible's cut" in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, which include those books in their canons. But the Apocrypha are not part of the Jewish and Protestant canons. But in any case, one of the texts being dramatized is technically part of the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha rather than the Apocrypha (even though it is usually included in modern Bibles that contain the Apocrypha). This is 2 Esdras, which is not in anybody's canon and is actually a small library of apocalypses now known as 4 Ezra (chaps. 3-14), 5 Ezra (chaps. 1-2), and 6 Ezra (chaps. 15-16).
Wednesday, July 7, 2010; Posted: 02:07 PM - by BWW News Desk
The fifth-annual Bring a Weasel and a Pint of Your Own Blood Festival is excited to present three original plays and a short film at the East 13th Street Theater from July 28th to July 30th. Solely produced and written by playwrights from Mac Wellman's groundbreaking Brooklyn College MFA program, this year's Weasel festival features talented alumni Corina Copp, Benjamin Gassman, Kobun Kaluza and Amber Reed. Each playwright will riff off the stories of The Apocrypha - the infamous religious texts that didn't make the Bible's cut. Not decreed to be divinely inspired, the Apocrypha books are ancient Greek texts that were ripped and pasted back into the Bible throughout history. Filled with luminous stories of prophets, angels, intrigue and heresy, the off-the-record Apocrypha is the perfect inspiration for a festival of peculiar plays by playwrights working outside the canon.
Also, the book of Esther is in all biblical canons, although a number of Apocryphal additions (chaps. 10.4-16:24) are interspersed through the book. The description below implies that the adaptation is of the whole book, but this isn't entirely clear.
Here is the full program for the Weasel Festival:
Each night features three short plays and one short film:
WALTZ: an adaptation of The Story of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, and The Song of Three Children. By Corina Copp; Directed by Meghan Finn
A woman is falsely accused, so an angel stands ready to cut judges in two: so goes divine justice.
Purimacolo: an adaptation of The Story of Esther.
By Benjamin Gassman; Directed by Julia Jarcho
Mussolini's mistress is crashing the Purim play.
Red Ass: The College Years, Sophomore Year: an adaptation of
The Second Book of Esdrus. By Kobun Kaluza; Directed by Judith Smith
On a sandy cove in the Pacific Northwest, Red Ass the turtle seeks prophetic wisdom and sophomore advice from his fellow animals.
A stop animation film adaptation of The Book of Tobit, by Amber Reed