Gorgeous
Director: Morgan Gould
Cast:Nicole Spiezio, Nancy Robinette, Emily Kunkel
Crew:Writer: Morgan Gould. Producer: Chloe Sabin. Director of Photography: Alexa Wolf; Editor: Janna Emig
Email:morgan.d.gould@gmail.com
Synopsis
Beth is getting married in 36 hours and her mother hasn't seen her dress. If this sounds low stakes, you aren't a fat woman with a mother who hates herself. Grab a piece of Danish and dig into this comedic tragedy about mothers, daughters, and who gets to be a bride.
Trailer
About the director
MORGAN GOULD (she/her) WRITER/ DIRECTOR - is a playwright, director, and screenwriter and a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellowship Program at Juilliard. Morgan's play JENNIFER WHO IS LEAVING recently premiered at Round House Theatre in D.C. with Morgan Directing. DC Theatre Arts called it "A knockout play that should be destined for Broadway" and the Washington Post called it "A superb comedy, hilarious and meaningful." Morgan's other plays include: NICOLE CLARK IS HAVING A BABY (2020 Kilroy's List) which was set to premiere as part of the 44th Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville with Morgan directing. The production was canceled due to the coronavirus after only 5 performances. Her other plays include I WANNA FUCKING TEAR YOU APART, a Beatrice Terry/ Drama League Award Winner that had its world premiere at Studio Theatre in Washington, DC in February 2017 (with Morgan directing). It was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play, and DC Metro Arts said that Morgan's work "shows every bit as much promise as Edward Albee's early work, arguably more," and ALL THE STUPID BITCHES (Finalist - O'Neill, workshop at Playwrights Center, IAMA Theatre) and THREE FAT SISTERS (Finalist – Sundance, Workshop, Cutting Ball Theater and Z Space in San Francisco). Morgan is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, a Yaddo Colony Fellow, a MacDowell Colony Fellow, and an alumnus of Interstate 73 at P73, the Ingram New Works Program at Nashville Rep, the Dramatists Guild Fund Playwriting Fellowship, The Women's Project Lab, the Civilians R+D Group, Target Margin Lab, Lincoln Center Director's Lab, SDC Observership Program, the BAX AIR Residency, Playwrights Horizons Directing Residency and New Georges Writer/ Director Lab. She has previously held staff positions at Playscripts, Inc., Lark Play Development Center, Cape Cod Theatre Project, and was the Associate Artistic Director of Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, where she co-created UNTITLED FEMINIST SHOW (BAC/PS 122). Morgan is also the Artistic Director of Morgan Gould & Friends – her theater company with 9 actors, 3 designers, and a filmmaker (www.morgangouldandfriends.com). MG&F's work has been featured in and at the New Ohio/ Ice Factory Festival, Dixon Place, The Brooklyn Lyceum, HERE Arts Center, Ars Nova, CAP21, BAX, New Georges, and The Culture Project. As a director, Morgan has directed world premieres and contemporary works by other playwrights at the Humana Festival, Marin Theatre Company, Primary Stages, WP Theater (Women's Project), Hangar Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Page 73 Productions and many more. As a screenwriter, she was recently on staff for Amazon's reboot of A League of Their Own (created by Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson) and she has developed film and television projects with Gloria Sanchez Productions, Wondery, A24, Temple Hill, Audible, Amazon, HBO Max, Apple, and Netflix. She is currently working on an original series with Creative Engine/ EOne and Max, an adaption of bestseller The Bequest with The Walsh Company and Apple TV, and a feature film with Taika Waititi and Netflix in addition to developing other film and TV projects. She is repped by UTA and Manage-ment. Morgan holds a B.A. in Directing from Fordham College at Lincoln Center, and a M.F.A. in Playwriting from Brooklyn College. She is a very grateful and proud union/ guild member – WGAE, SDC, Dramatists Guild.
Filmmaker's note
My name is Morgan Gould and I'm an NYC-based first-time filmmaker. For the last decade plus, I've been working in the theater world as a playwright and director – directing world premieres by other (mostly female) voices and writing and directing my own work which centers around how feminism transitions between generations, how we learn from our mothers, and why the hell my mother hasn't asked me about my inner life since the early 90s. I write and make things about fat women, poor women, loud women, and white trash (in other words, my family and the women who raised me). I recently began developing television and film, most recently I staffed on Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham's Amazon adaptation of A League of Their Own.
With Gorgeous, as with a lot of my work, I wanted to explore the fat femme experience (my experience!) and create a moment in time where we could see clearly that the challenge of being fat isn't being fat (I promise, it isn't). It's other people's belief that being fat is horrible. To be fat and content or fat and happy is completely unimaginable to most people (even fat people) because we've been told we're supposed to be miserable. I wanted to demonstrate that here – this fat character would have been totally fine enjoying a normal cultural moment, were it not for the gaze of her formerly fat mother (who is also traumatized by fat stigmatization).
I also wanted to show women having fun. Enjoying each other, laughing, engaging, teasing. I wanted to show that women are capable of tremendous joy and hilarity—despite the way we're told to be smaller, prettier, quieter, more worthy, less ourselves.
But I also wanted to capture how love has always worked in my family – it's full-throated and funny and free and wild and then BOOM…one dangerous moment and we all realize how fragile our relationships are, how little we know each other, how much power we have to hurt each other. And how sometimes we have to stop expecting our families to give us the love we deserve.
I hope you enjoy our film and you see some of the women you know and love inside it.
All my best,
Morgan Gould