Meyer W. Weisgal, who was general director of “The Romance of A People” last year, will arrive in New York today on the Berengaria bearing a signed contract from Max Reinhardt, the theatrical producer, who will direct a “Jewish Morality Play” here next February. Professor Reinhardt will sail for the United States this month to make preliminary preparations.
The plans include the building of a tabernacle seating 5,000 people. Franz Werfel, a Reich exile, has written the script, and Kurt Weill, who composed the German version of “The Beggar’s Opera,” will write the music. The play is described as “a musical biblical morality on a grand scale to express the spiritual origin, early mythical history and eternal destiny of the Jewish people.”
Mr. Weisgal, before sailing for New York last week, said the project is not a commercial one. This pageant, like “The Romance of A People,” will be for the benefit of Jewish charities and will be backed by the same group which produced “The Romance.” Lord Melchett and a British group also will arrange for a London production in the spring. Mr. Weisgal estimated that the enterprise will cost between $150,000 and $250,000.
Part of the proceeds, it is planned, will be used to build a permanent “Theater in Exile,” probably in New York with Professor Reinhardt as its permanent director. Many German actors, Jewish and non-Jewish, who were exiled by the Nazi regime, will be in the cast of 3,000 persons needed for the production.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
