Piven Theatre's NUMBER OF PEOPLE Set for Special Performance at Holocaust Museum & Ed. Center

Piven Theatre Workshop Educator and Ensemble Member Bernard Beck will perform excerpts from the World Premiere production of Number of People, written by his daughter Emilie Beck, during a discussion on memory, identity and loss among Holocaust survivors at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.

The discussion will be led by David Chack, President of the Association for Jewish Theatre and David Bier, MSW, Consultant for Holocaust Community Services and Jewish Child and Family Services. Playwright Emilie Beck will also participate. The discussion will take place on Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 1:30 p.m. at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, 9603 Woods Drive, Skokie, IL. Free with Museum admission. Call 847.967.4889 to reserve seats.

"The Arts Meets Social Services" will be the focus as David Chack, a Ph.D. student of Nobel Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel and David Bier, MSW, will respond to the topic of memory loss among Holocaust survivors, a central theme in the World Premiere production of Number of People, written by Emilie Beck, playing at Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston March 6 - April 11, 2010. Bernard Beck, resident Ensemble Member of Piven Theatre Workshop, will enhance the conversation by performing and discussing excerpts from Number of People as his character Leo Gold, a Holocaust survivor grappling with memory loss. Attendees of this special program will receive a voucher for complimentary admission to a performance of "Number of People" at Piven Theatre, Evanston.

About The Illinois Holocaust Museum
The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is a project of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois. The new world-class museum is dedicated to preserving the memories of those lost in the Holocaust and teaching current generations about the need to fight hatred, indifference and genocide in today's world.

About Number of People
Meet Leo Gold, an aging statistician and Holocaust survivor, who in this one-man show recounts his legacy and fading memories of the past. Number of People illuminates the nobility of one who struggles to hold onto his love, compassion, memory and identity out of one of the most horrible catastrophes in history. This moving one-man show is written and directed by Emilie Beck, who returns to Piven after her 2008 award-winning production, Because They Have No Words. The piece was written specifically for the playwright's father, Piven Ensemble Member Bernard Beck.

The cast of Number of People features Piven Ensemble Member Bernard Beck.

Bernard Beck (Leo Gold) is a Resident Ensemble Member at Piven Theatre Workshop and also attended classes himself. He appeared in the first Piven production, Chekhov: Some Family Portraits, and over 30 years later in What Dreams May Come. He began his Chicago acting life in Paul Sills' pioneering Story Theater and has been seen on stage at Piven (in countless shows including Three Sisters, King Lear, Mad Forest, The Mad Dancers, Piven alum Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice, and many story theatre presentations of the works of Chekhov, I.B. Singer, Malamud, and Faulkner), the Organic (Bleacher Bums, Jonathan Wild and ER: Emergency Room), Victory Gardens, Wisdom Bridge (Awake and Sing! and Only Kidding!), St. Nicholas (James Lapine's Table Settings under the direction of the playwright), Practical, Drury Lane South (The Odd Couple), Northwestern University Theatre (Lydie Breeze), and in Jewish-themed works at National Jewish Theatre (The Dybbuk, I Can Get It For You Wholesale, Bitter Friends, among others) and Chicago Jewish Theatre (Today I Am a Fountain Pen). Beck has appeared in more of Piven alum Alan Gross's plays than any other actor, including The Phone Room, The Man in 605 and La Brea Tarpits. Last season he was featured at the Silk Road Theatre Project in Motti Lerner's controversial prize-winning Israeli play Pangs of the Messiah. He is known to generations of Chicago Jewish children as Hershel in the Yiddish Theatre Ensemble's classic production of Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins. Beck, and his wife, Sherry were on the victorious Jonah team in the first Chicago Improv Olympics competition. Beck also appeared as Al Capone's lawyer in the TV series The Untouchables.

Emilie Beck (playwright, director) directed the Jeff Award winning, Because They Have No Words by Tim Maddock and Lotti Louise Pharriss at the Piven Theatre in Chicago in 2008. She developed the script with the playwrights, and directed the world premiere at the Lounge Theatre in Los Angeles. The production won a Jeff Award for Best Sound Design and was nominated for: a Jeff Award for Best Ensemble; Ovation Awards for Best Ensemble and Best World Premiere Play; LA Weekly Award for Best Ensemble; and Garland Awards for Best Director and Best Ensemble. As a playwright Emilie's script, Number of People, was presented at the Hartford Stage's Brand: NEW Festival (2007), with Edward Asner in the role of Leo Gold. The play was previously developed as part of Pasadena Playhouse's Hothouse Series (2006) and Piven Theatre's New Works Festival (2006), and has been given staged readings for benefits at the Peninsula Jewish Community Center, University Synagogue in Irvine (both performed by Mr. Asner), and the HartFord Foundation Conference on Aging. In 2003 Emilie wrote and directed And Let the Skies Fall at the El Portal Circle Theatre in an acclaimed Los Angeles premiere (Critic's Pick in BackStage West; Nominated for six Garland Awards, including Best Playwriting and Best Director). Emilie directed a workshop of Diane Rodriguez' Under Her Wings at Calarts, with Liz Torres in the leading role, and a workshop production of Samantha Bennett's Kiss the Monster. In the fall of 2008 Emilie co-directed and produced the Ovation Awards ceremony. She will direct Block Nine by Tom Stanczyk at the Elephant Theatre in LA in the summer of 2009. She currently lives in Los Angeles and is at work on her new play Invasion of a Sovereign Body.

Previews for Number of People are March 6 & March 7, 2010. The opening press performance is on Monday, March 8, 2010, at 7:30 p.m. Curtain times are 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; and 2:30 p.m. on Sundays.

Ticket prices are $15 for preview performances and $25 for regular run performances. Tickets are available at the Box Office, 927 Noyes Street, Evanston; (847) 866-8049 or online at www.piventheatre.org. Student and group rates are available by calling the box office at 847-866-8049 or visiting the website at www.piventheatre.org.

About The Piven Theatre
For over 35 years, the Piven Theatre Workshop has remained a nationally respected acting school and professional Equity theatre. Within recent history, Piven Theatre has received a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Sound Design, and an After Dark Award for Outstanding Ensemble. The theatre has also received several Joseph Jefferson Recommendations, a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Adaptation, and Jeff nominations for Best Original Score, and Best Ensemble. Co-Founders Byrne & Joyce Piven have trained countless theatre artists such as John and Joan Cusack, Kate Walsh, Aidan Quinn, Lili Taylor and Jeremy Piven, to name only a few. Stagebill honored the Pivens with the designation "Chicago's first family of acting."

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