WOMEN THEATER AND THE HOLOCAUST to be Presented for Holocaust Remembrance Day

An evening of four dramatic readings of plays by women will be featured at "Women, Theater and the Holocaust," sponsored by Remember the Women Institute in recognition of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah. The performances will be in person at the Marlene Meyerson JCC in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam, New York City, on April 20 at 7 pm.

The program of short plays and dramatic readings includes two premieres that introduce the audience to historical women who should be better known.

Little Louis by Michael Angel Johnson is about jazz trumpeter Valaida Snow and her friend Josephine Baker, an American performer who was part of the French Resistance. The short play is directed by Adrienne D Williams and performed by April Armstrong and Justine J Hall, with Chris Tipp.

The Match by Cynthia L. Cooper, directed by Tasha Gordon-Solmon and performed by Steph Van Vlack and Nadia Diamond, tells the story of noted German-Jewish author Anna Seghers, whose books were burned by the Nazis in Berlin in 1933.

In addition, the program features The Last Dinosaur, written and directed by Tony-nominated actor, writer and director Eleanor Reissa about the life of a Holocaust survivor. It will be performed by Robert Zukerman.

The fourth performance will present excerpts from Laura Ferri's The Ruins of Memory: Women's Voices of the Holocaust, first presented in Seattle last fall. The performance is directed by Dr. Meghan Brodie, Associate Professor of Theater and chair of Theater and Dance at Ursinus College, and features Ursinus students Sophia Bush, Evan Chartock, Kate Isabel Foley, Abbie Painter, Zara Tabackin and Annie Zulick.

Following the performances there will a talkback with playwrights, moderated by Dr. Rochelle G. Saidel, founding executive director of Remember the Women Institute.

The evening will also include the launch of the interactive fifth edition of Remember the Women Institute's Women, Theater, and the Holocaust Resource Handbook, a free online guide to plays about the Holocaust written by or about women, co-edited by Dr. Saidel, Samantha McLaughlin, and Karen Shulman.

Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, is an annual commemoration that honors those murdered in the Holocaust, including six million Jews, and celebrates the lives of those who survived. Theatrical performances share vital stories at a time when harmful incidents of antisemitism and Holocaust denialism are on the rise.

This is the eighth theatrical commemoration of Yom HaShoah by Remember the Women Institute, https://www.rememberwomen.org. Based in New York City, Remember the Women Institute is a not for profit organization dedicated to including women's experiences in history, especially during the Holocaust.

Partners in this event include National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene and National Jewish Theater Foundation, in addition to the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan

Register at https://mmjccm.org/programs/person-women-theater-and-holocaust-dramatic-readings-book-launch. Pay what you wish, minimum $10. Proceeds benefit the cultural programs of the JCC. Audience members are invited to join a post-performance reception.

Questions about the program can be directed to Dr. Rochelle Saidel, rgsaidel@rememberwomen.org or 212-799-0887.

 

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