Mel Konner Play Festival launches new act for retired Emory professor 

Five staged readings written by retired Emory professor Dr. Mel Konner are scheduled for November 6 through November 10 at 7 Stages Black Box Theater. The works were hand-selected by Konner’s Emory colleague, Vincent “Vinnie” Murphy, theater professor and founder of the university’s Brave New Works series. Murphy is also directing the Mel Konner Play Festival.

The plays, which share themes of love, adventure and survival, include The Incident at Flossenbürg; Jessica: A Romantic Sequel to The Merchant of Venice; Fatsoff: Being the Very Tragical Comical History of the Life of the Real Falstaff as Told by the Fake One; Catalysis; and Sixteen Springs: The Missing Years of The Winter’s Tale. 

“I feel like the most important work [for me] is to uncover unrecognized playwrights with a strong, vibrant voice,” Murphy said in a recent interview with ArtsATL. 

“And when I discovered that Mel Konner had . . . challenging, funny and beautifully wrought plays that never had a professional production, I asked his permission to get them out to the Atlanta audience in a staged reading format.”

Konner, who spent years teaching and writing books on a range of subjects, said that building the festival of staged readings has been an exciting new challenge. 

“I loved my first career, but it’s been so uplifting to do something different,” he said. “It’s a rebirth, really. A book, for years, involves just you and an editor. A play almost immediately involves the writer in a turbulent, wonderful world.”