Empower Through Theater with Great Literary Authors

My name is Genevieve Morrill, and I created a non-profit theater concept for theater education - reading and literacy. We take classic short stories and perform on the stage every word the author wrote so that the narration becomes dialog. The process creates an exciting and smart theater experience.

It is estimated that nearly 800 million adults world-wide (nearly 2/3 women) do not know how to read or write. Established in 2007, Books with Feet, a 501c3 non-profit organization strives to bring great literary giants to an age of social media craze. The concept honors the written word by transforming classic short stories into staged theatrical performances.

Books with Feet is compelled to produce two great authors whose provocative stories provide profound commentary easily translated for today's culture.

They are:

THE BARBER by Flannery O’Connor

A professor feels a need to explain his liberal political views to a conservative barbershop.

Never published in her lifetime, this profound short story, written pre 1947, still holds significance today in our polarized political environment where we are unable to communicate and have a debate.

A man that believes in racial equality, while living in a town and region that believes in a racial hierarchy, trying to convince the men that they are not superior to blacks, he instead ends up showing us that he thinks he is superior to those same men, because he is educated. O’Connor demonstrates the shortcomings in all humans, regardless of race or education level, and the character of Rayber is the vehicle she uses in “The Barber.”

THE JEWBIRD by Bernard Malamud

A protagonist crow named Schwartz, who identifies himself as a Jewbird is fleeing persecution by antisemitic birds and tries to find a home with a Jewish family.

Malamud uses the character of Schwartz to highlight the absurdity of prejudice and the complexities of identity and assimilation. This story is a commentary on our biases even within our own tribes. Through analysis, anti-Semitism is seen as a multi layered concept.