A stage reading of the play Moby Dick – Rehearsed by Orson Welles
Staten Island OutLOUD will present a stage reading of the play Moby Dick–Rehearsed by Orson Welles on
The National Endowment for the Arts chose Staten Island OutLOUD to present “The Big Read” on Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea, the tragedy of the whaleship Essex, rammed and sunk by a giant whale in 1820. (The story of the Essex inspired young Herman Melville as he began work on Moby Dick.)
It is the 10th NEA award for Staten Island OutLOUD.
“The Big Read” encourages communities to read, discuss, and celebrate selections from American and world literature. To date, the NEA has funded more than 500 Big Read projects in towns and cities across all 50 states. It is offered in partnership with the Institute of Museum & Library Services, and in cooperation with Arts Midwest.
Moby Dick–Rehearsed premiered at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London in 1955. The original cast included Welles, Kenneth Williams, Joan Plowright, Patrick McGoohan and Gordon Jackson. The play was published by Samuel French in 1965.
The stage production of Moby Dick Rehearsed ran from June 16 to July 9, 1955, but it did not mark the end of Welles’ interest in the Melville classic.
He played Father Mapple in the John Huston big screen version of Moby Dick in 1956.
And 15 years later, Welles filmed 22 minutes of various scenes from the play, reading all of the parts himself. The surviving footage of that film was acquired and restored by the Munich Film Museum. (See below).
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