WSR LAB Series hosts Avram Noble Ludwig, filmmaker turned playwright
Avram Ludwig may not be a household name, but his work with frequent collaborator director Doug Liman sure is.
On “Bourne Identity,” he snuck shots in the middle of the night, using power secretly tapped from an outlet outside Tavern on The Green. For the sci-fi thriller “Edge of Tomorrow,” Ludwig staged a mockup of the movie’s final scene, trashing his own rental car as a backdrop for Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. (Audiences may have loved it, but the rental company panned his work.)
And for the signature aerial shot of the Great Sphinx of Giza for Liman’s “Jumper,” Ludwig ignored warnings from the Egyptian Minister of Defense, commanding a helicopter the size of a Greyhound bus to get close to the historical landmark for a tight shot. In the process he got future pilots banned from ever flying over the Sphinx again.
Those experiences inspired Ludwig’s just-released debut novel, “Shooting the Sphinx” which is also the inspiration for a new stage play which made its staged reading debut with WSR’s LAB Series on July 25, 2016.
The cast included Anish Jethmalani*, Sahar Dika, Robert Hardaway, and WSR ensemble members Alicia Regan* and James Knight*. The reading was directed by James Knight. A Q&A with the playwright/author/filmmaker followed the reading.
Born into a theatrical family, Avram grew up backstage and on sets. His father worked frequently with Elia Kazan and Arthur Miller. His mother, Eulalie Noble, was pregnant with him during the first production of Shakespeare in the Park. On the eve of the first public performance, she fell backward from the second story of the set onto the stage, but Avram hung in there and waited several years to make his theatrical debut. Avram originated the role of Richard Ashleigh, in the world premiere of Eugene O’Neil’s lost play, NOW I ASK YOU, at the Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village.
Thursday, July 14, 2016, 12:05 PM
