UW Drama professor Valerie Curtis-Newton, who was just named one of the 13 most influential Seattleites of the past decade by the Seattle Times, will direct Julie Kramer's 2012 adaptation of Rona Jaffe's 1958 novel, The Best of Everything.
The Best of Everything is a swirling, fast-paced story of a group of women working at Fabian Publishing house in 1950s New York. Drawing comparisons to Mad Men, Sex and the City, and Girls, the play charts the ascendance of Caroline Bender, a young typist who confronts all the allure, degradation, and drudgery inherent to being a "working girl" in that era on her path to becoming an editor.Straightforward and clear-eyed about everything from sex and abortion to abusive men and true heartbreak, Jaffe's novel was ahead of its time. According to a 2018 Buzzfeed article, "Jaffe's classic still strikes a chord, this time eerily prescient regarding so many of the circumstances surrounding sexual harassment that paved the way toward the #MeToo movement."
The Best of Everything was adapted into a film starring Hope Lange and Joan Crawford in 1959, and a daytime soap opera which aired on ABC in 1970.
The cast is comprised of members of the Professional Actor Training Program (MFA, Acting) as well as undergraduate Drama majors. The designers are all members of the MFA Design program.
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