Simon Levy

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic tale of the doomed love of Jay Gatsby for Daisy Buchanan, and the failure of the American Dream, is brought to life in the first official stage adaptation authorized by the Fitzgerald Estate.

At once faithful to the novel yet imagined in a 21st-century theatricality, the adaptation uses contemporary stage craft to capture the lyric and poetic nature of Fitzgerald’s prose without resorting to overuse of 1st person direct address, and telescopes the action into a tight dramatic through-line.

In an age of extreme Illusion and Greed, the deeper themes of the failure of the American Dream, greed, the disadvantaged vs. the advantaged, West vs. East, illusion and the irrecoverable past, among others, are even more timely today than when the book was first published.

This is an adaptation accessible to students who’ve just read the novel, to those who “remember” the movie, to scholars and lovers of the novel, yet also stands alone as a dramatic work for those coming to the story for the first time.

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

The carefree swirl of the Jazz Age... and the tragic romance of Dick and Nicole Diver.

Fitzgerald's "favorite novel" is the story of their passionate love affair and their life as the perfect Jazz Age couple.

He's an idealistic American psychiatrist, full of charm and a promising career. She's an extraordinarily beautiful and wealthy mental patient being treated at a Swiss sanitarium. They fall in love and marry.

Unfortunately, her shameful and tragic past continually forces him to be both doctor and husband. He can't. And though they love each other, he eventually has an affair with an Hollywood starlet, dooming their marriage and setting the stage for his disintegration and loss of self.

Surrounding them are a host of expatriate Americans and glamorous Europeans Dick has "collected."

The action takes place in various European locations... and the memory of Dick Diver... between 1918-1929.

Period MUSIC and DANCE are integral to the action of the play.

1930s. The Golden Age of Hollywood.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece about the movie industry.

The tragedy of a man obsessed.

MONROE STAHR (loosely based on legendary producer Irving Thalberg) is in a fight with PAT BRADY (loosely based on movie mogul Louis B. Mayer) over artistic control of his movies. The “Boy Wonder” is only 36 and the most celebrated producer in Hollywood, but already the corporate men are ready to throw him over if he doesn’t turn a profit. In a world where Money is God, Art is seldom discussed. When Stahr decides to make his masterpiece, the “Shakespeare Project,” as a tribute to his dead wife, knowing full well it will lose money, Brady and the Money Men try to bring him down. They stand a good chance. Stahr has a bad heart from a childhood illness. His doctor tells him if he doesn’t slow down, he’ll be “dead in six months.”

But Stahr is a man obsessed - with movies, with illusion, with memories of his dead wife, with a mysterious, enigmatic woman (KATHLEEN MOORE) whom he met on the back lot after an earthquake nearly destroyed his studio. It’s been years since he’s cared about another woman. He pursues her, like his precious “Project,” without regard to consequences.

All around him are people who love and want to protect him - especially CECELIA BRADY (Pat Brady’s daughter), who takes us on a journey of love into the literal and metaphorical heart of a great man.

Permission for Adaptation Courtesy of the Fitzgerald Estate

Beethoven, the rock star of his generation, is the most celebrated musical genius of his time; but his sexual obsession for his sister-in-law, Johanna von Beethoven, drags his family into terrible tragedy even while he creates his greatest music.

“Every war has its antiwar classic, and here is Iraq’s.” –The Guardian

What I Heard About Iraq is a critically acclaimed verbatim docudrama adapted from Eliot Weinberger's 2005 essay of the same name. It chronicles the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq using direct quotes from politicians, soldiers, and citizens, focusing on the misinformation and "catastrophic success" of the war.

World Premiere at the Fountain Theatre for an extended 5 month run - Edinburgh Fringe Festival, August 2006 (Fringe First Award) - read in 45 cities around the world on March 20, 2006 - Adelaide Fringe Festival, March 2007 (Fringe Award) - produced as a radio play by BBC 4 Radio, May 11, 2007 - 30-city UK tour April - May 2007, culminating in June at Arts Theatre, London - numerous productions worldwide - official BBC entry, Best Drama Adaptation, for the 2008 Prix ItaliaAward - official BBC entry Prix Italia.

She-Who-Is-Made-of-Clay is the last of the Yokuts Indians - and a homosexual (or what we would call a homosexual). In his culture she is a berdache, third gender, 2-spirit, a revered shaman who straddles the world between man and woman. Only he can bury the dead of her people; and on this, his last day, she tells the story of her people as he readies the funeral bier that will consume her life.

America's greatest Hero becomes its greatest Traitor; the true story of Benedict Arnold. A military genius, Benedict saves the American Revolution and becomes the Hero of Saratoga. But he is envied and hated by Joseph Reed, President of Pennsylvania, who plots Benedict’s downfall, forcing Benedict to betray everything he believes in, and becoming the most hated man in American history.

The legendary love story of Tristan and Iseult.

Clay, naked, pink skin glowing in the gloom of a windowless room, plays with his derringer pistols. Sometimes life, sometimes even the love of a woman like Elise, is not enough.

On a day unlike any other, Clay sits in his room in his underwear, sucking down cigarettes, when he's visited by the vision of a dead acquaintance who materializes in his room and gives him the greatest gift of all - the gift of life.

Dedicated to all of those brave enough to walk away from addiction.