Alexander Leeb

Abby Mann

Academy Award-winning playwright Abby Mann is in residence at International City Theatre for rehearsals. Artistic director Shashin Desai and a 15-member ensemble take on the Southern California premiere of Judgment at Nuremberg at International City Theatre, with playwright Abby Mann in residence for rehearsals of the stage adaptation of his own Playhouse 90 teleplay and 1961 Academy Award-winning screenplay.

Featuring Gil Amelio, Chris Foreman, Matt Foyer, David Fruechting, John Gilbert, Dyan Kane, Neil Larson, Henry LeBlanc, Alexander Leeb, Barry Lynch, Silvia Moore, Edmund L. Shaff, Maury Sterling, MaryAnn Strossner and David Lloyd Wilson,.

Judgment at Nuremberg continues ICT’s 20th Anniversary Season, opening on June 17 for a four-week run. Low-priced previews begin June 14.

Must a judge uphold the laws of a state, regardless of the moral and social consequences? Can civilians be held accountable for their country’s atrocities? Should an international court have jurisdiction over defendants who committed crimes against people within their own country? Can what happened in Germany happen anywhere?

Unlike the higher profile trials of Goebbels, Goerring and Speer, the later Nuremberg War Crimes Trials of businessmen, government workers and judges proved divisive and complex. Instead of assigning specific culpability to Hitler and his associates, these trials asked whether the entire German people were responsible for allowing unspeakable crimes to be committed without protest. The issues explored in Judgment at Nuremberg reverberate through history and challenge humanity to this day.

Judgment at Nuremberg began life in 1957 as a live TV drama on CBS’s famed Playhouse 90 series. It was adapted into a feature-length film in 1961, directed by Stanley Kramer and starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster and Maximillian Schell, and winning two Oscars: for Mann’s screenplay and for Schell as defense attorney Rolfe. In 2001, Tony Randall and his acclaimed National Actors Theatre commissioned Mann to adapt his screenplay to the stage for a Broadway production.

Judgment at Nuremberg is produced and directed by Shashin Desai; set design is by Don Llewellyn; lighting and sound design are by Bill Georges; costumes are by Kim DeShazo; and casting is by Michael Donovan Casting. International City Theatre is the Resident Professional Theater at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, and the recipient of the Margaret Harford Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Circle for “Sustained Excellence in Theater.”

Judgment at Nuremberg runs June 17 through July 10.