E. Warren Perry, Jr.

Interview with Warren Perry in January 2010 issue of ArtNews

January 4, 2010. Check out the current issue of Artnews magazine, available for sale now; Warren is quoted by contributing writer Rachel Wolff in the January 2010 issue, which contains an article on page 22 that describes both the Echoes of Elvis exhibition opening at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery this Friday, January 8 (what would have been Elvis Presley's 75th  birthday) and the traveling Elvis at 21 exhibition, which also opens this Friday at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, CA. Echoes of Elvis will have a press preview on Thursday morning, then will be open to the public on Friday at 11:00 am. The exhibition will be on view at the National Portrait Gallery until August 22, 2010.

Warren Perry quoted in January 2010 issue of Vanity Fair - Elvis at 21 Exhibition to open next month

Elvis at 21, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service exhibition featuring monumental photographs of Elvis Presley taken by Al Wertheimer in 1956, is featured in a seven-page illustrated article in the January 2010 issue of Vanity Fair magazine, on news stands today. As co-curator, Warren is quoted(from the exhibition catalog, Elvis 1956) on page 53.

The Elvis at 21 exhibition opens at the new Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, CA on January 8, 2010 -- what would have been Elvis' 75th birthday. Warren's other exhibition, One Life: Echoes of Elvis, for which he is the sole curator, opens at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, also on January 8, 2010.

Entertainment Tonight will be featuring the Elvis at 21 exhibition in tonight's broadcast (Friday, December 4).

Elvis 1956 released November 10, 2009

Elvis 1956, the 128-page hardcover catalog created to accompany the upcoming traveling exhibition Elvis at 21 (from the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service), has just been released by Welcome Books, a division of Random House. The book features compelling and intimate photographs of Elvis Presley taken by photojournalist Al Wertheimer in 1956, at the beginning of Elvis' skyrocketing fame. Elvis 1956 includes an introduction by Chris Murray of Govinda Gallery and essays by Warren Perry and Amy Henderson of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

The book is available now through Amazon, Random House, and other primary bookstores.

http://www.amazon.com/Elvis-1956-Warren-Perry-Jr/dp/1599620731

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781599620732

August 30 feature article on Warren Perry in Memphis' The Commercial Appeal

Sunday, August 30, 2009 - Memphis' daily newspaper The Commercial Appeal featured a lengthy article on Warren Perry, who was born and raised in Memphis, written by long-time CA arts writer Fredric Koeppel.  The article discusses Perry's recent play, Ekphrasis: Cave Walls to Soup Cans, currently running in Chicago, the recent publication of his play Swift to My Wounded: Walt Whitman and the Civl War, and his curatorial work on two upcoming exhibitions on Elvis Presley (Echoes of Elvis at the National Portrait Gallery, opening January 2010, and Elvis at 21, a Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service exhibition opening in December 2009 at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles).

Click here to read the entire article:

Memphis Commercial Appeal - "Ex-Memphian Warren Perry embraces art, from lighthearted to heavy-handed" by Fredric Koeppel

Our thanks to Fredric Koeppel for the hard work on the article!

Newsweek's Pop Vox quotes Warren Perry on legacy of Michael Jackson vs. Elvis

 

August 24, 2009 - Newsweek's  Pop Vox by Sarah Ball quotes Warren Perry, who is curating one (Echoes of Elvis) and co-curating a second (Elvis at 21) major Elvis Presley exhibition next year about the recent death of Michael Jackson and whether Jackson's legacy will be anything like that of Elvis Presley. Perry is also a co-author of the upcoming book Elvis 1956, to be released November 2009.

Click here to access the Newsweek article, "Drugs Officially Killed Michael Jackson -- But It Doesn't Matter."

Echoes of Elvis will open at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC in January 2010, and Elvis at 21, a traveling exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, will open in Los Angeles, CA at the new Grammy Museum in December 2009.

Swift to My Wounded now available, published by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

Warren's play Swift to My Wounded: Walt Whitman and the Civil War, first commissioned and produced by the National Portrait Gallery in 2007, has been published by the Smithsonian. Printed copies have just arrived today. The play is available for order now on Amazon and will be for sale at the NPG bookstore.  

Click here to download a short clip of the 2007 production.

Elvis 1956, with an essay by Warren Perry, available November 2009

The Smithsonian is releasing Elvis 1956, a hardcover catalogue published by Random House/Welcome Books in conjunction with the Elvis at 21 traveling exhibition, scheduled to open at the new Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, California in December 2009.

Elvis 1956 contains essays by Warren Perry and Amy Henderson, an introduction by Chris Murray, and photographs by Alfred Wertheimer. The book is 128 pages, with full page photos by Wertheimer of Elvis Presley's 1956 trip from Memphis to New York City at the age of 21.

Photographer Al Wertheimer (left) and Warren Perry (right) met at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC recently, along with fellow exhibition curator Chris Murray.

Elvis 1956 will be available November 10, 2009, but pre-orders may be placed through Amazon.com right now:

http://www.amazon.com/Elvis-1956-Warren-Perry-Jr/dp/1599620731/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247507507&sr=1-1

The Sitters nominated for Best Play at the August 2006 Strawberry One Act Festival in New York, published in anthology

The one-act play The Sitters was a hit at the summer 2006 Strawberry One Act Festival, organized by The Riant Theatre in New York City. From an initial 45 accepted entries, The Sitters advanced through all four rounds of the competition to the awards ceremony, where the final four plays with Best Play nominations were performed at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space, at Broadway and 95th in New York City. The Sitters was the only play nominated in all four awards categories: Best Play, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress. Warren directed the play himself, and he was awarded Best Director. Below is the awards ceremony with (l-r) Van Dirk Fisher, Artistic Director of The Riant Theatre, playwright/director Warren Perry, and the previous year's Best Director Award Winner.

From Gilbert Stuart and George Washington, to Whistler and his mother, Civil War era photographer Mathew Brady and actor Edwin Forrest, and Andy Warhol and his soup can, The Sitters is a hilarious and poignant exploration of the relationship between artists and their subjects.

We were so proud of our amazing cast, who were funnier and more entertaining with each performance. The success of the project was the result of a well-written, funny script, the incredible talents of our actors (including whistling), and everyone's willingness to make four trips up and down Interstate 95 from Washington DC to New York in a single month. [l-r is Christopher Dinolfo as Gilbert Stuart, Daniel Siefring as Charles Willson Peale, and Brandon McCoy as George Washington]

The Sitters was published in the anthology The Best Plays of the Strawberry One Act Festival, Volume Four, edited by Van Dirk Fisher, iUniverse: 2007. To buy a copy of the anthology click here.