CABARET IN CAPTIVITY Comes to Morningside Park, May 16

Cabaret in Captivity, an annual cabaret produced by Untitled Theater Company No. 61 in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, will have two LIVE performances on April 11 and 18.

The program includes songs and sketches written in Terezin/Theresienstad. Terezin was located an hour away from Prague, and during World War II it served as both an internment camp and a way station for the concentration camps during the Holocaust.

Full of satire, bitter humor, and hope, these pieces demonstrate how art became a vital survival technique for the inmates. Most of these pieces were recently recovered through the efforts of scholar Lisa Peschel, who also translated the majority of the work.

This is part of New York City's Open Culture program. All audience members are asked to bring their own seating, as the seats available will be limited. All audience members will be masked, and seating groups will be separated by six feet.

Conceived and co-directed by Edward Einhorn (NY Times Critic's Pick for The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein) and starring co-director Jenny Lee Mitchell, aka Mad Jenny ("Smart and theatrically savvy," NY Times review for Love Und Greed), Craig Anderson, Seth Gilman, and Katarina Vizina. Maria Dessano is on keyboard. This is the eighth year this production has been presented, having been previously seen at the Center for Jewish History, the Bohemian National Hall, Pangea, York Theatre, the Czech Embassy in Washington, DC, and The William Goodenough House in London, England.

Some of the authors of the original work, like Karel Švenk and Ilse Weber, were existing stars of the cabaret scene in Prague. Others were compelled by their circumstances to create. Some of the work is now anonymous, as the names of the authors have been lost. All were speaking to a small audience of fellow inmates, in the hope that one day their story would be heard by the world. On this anniversary of Yom HaShoah, we are proud to be able to present that work.

Learn more at http://www.untitledtheater.com/.

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