The Insights & Revelations Performance Series Announces Isaiah Sheffer

The Insights & Revelations Performance Series, now in residence at The Emelin Theatre of Mamaroneck, announces its April 22nd, 8:00 p.m. presentation

Dreamers & Demons: The Three Worlds of Isaac Bashevis Singer

Written & Performed by Isaiah Sheffer (Artistic Director, Symphony Space; Host, NPR's Selected Shorts)

Sneak Preview! Join Isaiah Sheffer, Mary Brienza, and Kathryn Markey as they perform excerpts of Sheffer's new play, based on published stories, sketches, interviews and his personal conversations with Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer. The play evokes Singer's three worlds: the Eastern European shtetl; the refugee Jews of Coney Island, The Bronx, and Miami Beach; and the demons, dybbuks and spirits that filled the writer's imagination.
A discussion and reception with the artists follows the performance.
"Isaiah Sheffer is one of the most beloved guest artists that we've presented in The Insights & Revelations Performance Series," stated Anna Becker, Founding Producer. When Isaiah appeared in Symphony Space's acclaimed Thalia Follies, we sold out very quickly and received rave reviews from the audience that night. We look forward to seeing another side of Isaiah's artistic work with his fascinating theatrical peek at the life and work of Nobel prize-winning author, Isaac Bashevis Singer." 

PERFORMANCE AND TICKET INFORMATION:

Thursday, April 22 at 8:00 p.m.

Dreamers & Demons: The Three Worlds of Isaac Bashevis Singer | $25
For ticket purchases visit www.emelin.org or call (914) 698-0098.
Visit The Insights & Revelations Series web site for in-depth information Series offerings, as well as artist interviews, theatre-going recommendations and links, and more, at: www.TheDeepEndProductions.org.

UPCOMING SHOWS:

Thursday, June 10 at 8:00 p.m.: A Visit From The Goon Squad: an evening of short stories & live music. Two stories from best-selling novelist Jennifer Egan's (The Keep, Look At Me) forthcoming book, read by established actors, with a live musical interlude.

A discussion and reception with the artists follows every performance.

Isaiah Sheffer is co-founder and artistic director of Symphony Space and director and host of Selected Shorts live and on radio. His radio, television, theatre, and film credits are extensive and include work as a commentator on the arts for WNYC's weekly radio column Around New York; producer/writer for The Road to the White House, a 20-minute public affairs series for NBC-TV (Emmy Nomination); and writer/director, The Last Chapter, award-winning historical documentary film on 1,000 years of Polish-Jewish history. Mr. Sheffer wrote the book and lyrics for the musicals Yiddle with a Fiddle and The Rise of David Levinsky. His latest play is Dreamers and Demons: The Three Worlds of Isaac Bashevis Singer. He is currently creating the libretto for a modern-baroque opera-ballet about the making of the American Constitution, A More Perfect Union.
MARY BRIENZA - Leave It To Me (Off Broadway), Dance Dialogue Reflections with the A&G Dance Company (Dance Theatre Workshop), the self-penned solo comedy

A Women Possessed, the sketch comedy trio Girl Talk as well as productions of 42nd

Street, My One & Only, and Mame. At Symphony Space she has appeared in Wall-To-Wall Cole Porter, Wall-To-Wall Broadway, Bloomsday On Broadway, the Thalia Reading Series' Helpers, and is a recurring cast member and contributing writer for the Thalia Follies. For the past 15 years she has appeared extensively as her songwriting alter ego Judeen Chalk of the country music sister act The Chalks and has been seen and heard on Comedy Central's Premium Blend, radio markets across the U.S. as well as Belgium, Sweden and Guam, and stages throughout the country. Currently in development for the theatre: The Chalks: An American Family In 3 Chord, which was recently presented in a workshop performance at Bay Street Theatre courtesy of a grant from the Lucille Lortel Foundation. As an educator, she is a respected teach of tap dance, jazz, and theatre dance at levels novice through professional. She has served on the faculty for Broadway Dance Center, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Jacque D'Amboise's National Dance Institute, and American Theatre Dance Workshop. She has taught throughout the country for Dance Educators of America, Dance Masters of America, and Robert Christopher's Dance Teachers Seminars. She is currently an adjunct teacher and choreographer for New York City's High School for Performing Arts.

Kathryn Markey has appeared on Broadway in Three From Brooklyn (performer and contributing writer), and is a featured artist at Symphony Space in NYC; recently appearing in The Thalia Follies, Bloomsday, the epic Wall to Wall Broadway Musicals and Selected Shorts: Women in the News. Other theatrical credits include Parallel Lives and Dancing at Lughnasa (Northern Stage) the world premiere of Jumping Blind (Gayfest 2008), Ragtime (WPPAC), the Brighton Beach trilogy, Into the Woods, Pirates of Penzance (St. Michael's Playhouse) Thoroughly Modern Millie (NL Barn), Beau Jest (Pennsylvania Stage), Separation (English Theatre of Stockholm) and 3 seasons of Merkin Hall's "Broadway Playhouse" series. On screen: Law and Order, All My Children, Filmic Achievement, DutchWest TV, and dozens of feature film voice overs. Kathryn is one-third of the satirical country band "The Chalks" which has been featured on Comedy Central, the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon, The Toyota Comedy Festival, and in honky tonks from Palm Springs to Passaic.

Isaac Bashevis Singer was one of the great storytellers of the twentieth century. Though his work often took the form of parables or tales based on a nineteenth century tradition, he was deeply concerned with the events of his time and the future of his people and their culture. Isaac Bashevis Singer was born on July 24, 1904 in Radzymin, Poland. By 1935 he had published his first book, SATAN IN GORAY (1935). In New York, Isaac Bashevis Singer began working for THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD, and in the 1940s published his work in a number of journals as well as serially in the THE FORWARD. In 1950 Singer produced his first major work, THE FAMILY MOSKAT-the story of a twentieth century Polish Jewish family before the war. He followed this novel with a series of well-received short stories, including his most famous, "GIMPEL, THE FOOL" One of his most famous novels (due to a popular movie remake) was ENEMIES: A LOVE STORY, in which a Holocaust survivor deals with his own desires, complex family relationships, and the loss of faith. Singer's feminist story YENTL has had a wide impact on culture since its conversion into a popular movie starring Barbra Streisand. Perhaps the most fascinating Singer-inspired film is 1974's MR. SINGER'S NIGHTMARE OR MRS. PUPKOS BEARD Beard by Bruce Davison, a renowned photographer who became Singer's neighbor. This unique film is a half-hour mixture of documentary and fantasy for which Singer not only wrote the script but played the leading role. Singer also wrote two novels about nineteenth century Polish-Jewish history before returning to more modern topics in the 1970s. Throughout the 1970s he wrote dozens of stories that were eventually collected into books, and published in Yiddish and English as well as many other languages. He branched out, writing memoirs and children's books as well as two other major novels set in the twentieth century, THE PENITENT (1974) and SHOSHA (1978). The same year as his publication of SHOSHA, Singer won the Nobel Prize in literature. In 1988 he published THE KING OF THE FIELDS and three years later, SCUM, a story of a man living in an early-twentieth-century Polish shtetl. 

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:

The Deep End Productions, producers of The Insights & Revelations Performance Series (a 2007 Best of Westchester Award-winner), was founded by Series Producer Anna Becker, and is dedicated to presenting world-class, professional artists in an intimate setting. Provocative and inspiring material and audience access to the artistic process are central to The Deep End's mission. Previous presentations in the Series include Symphony Space's Thalia Follies: A Political Cabaret, The New Group's A Spalding Gray Matter, The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's The Tempest, and Classic Stage Company's open rehearsals of The Merchant of Venice with Ron Leibman and Richard III with Michael Cumpsty. Anna Becker has produced for theatre, television and film for more than 20 years. She served as Theatre Program Director for the New York State Council on the Arts, and as a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, AT&T Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund for the Arts. Becker most recently produced Life in a Marital Institution at 59E59 Theaters and SoHo Playhouse.

The Emelin Theatre, located in Mamaroneck, New York, and founded in 1972, is the oldest continuously operating performing arts theater in Westchester County. Its mission is to bring the best in live performing arts to Westchester and other nearby communities and to promote a cultural life that entertains, educates, and invigorates. The Emelin, well-known for its high-quality and affordable programs, is one of the few performing arts venues in this region which offers a broad mix of entertainment appealing to all ages and tastes, produces its own theater performances, and attracts diverse audiences throughout Westchester County and beyond. Due to its strategic location in centrAl Westchester, the Emelin also attracts theatergoers from New York City, New Jersey, and lower Connecticut.