GOOD JEW Arrives at Norris Center Auditorium in April

Direct from its New York premiere at the Museum of Jewish Heritage last summer, drama Good Jew comes to the Norris Center Auditorium. Based on multiple interviews with co-playwright Murray Changar's father, the play takes the audience to 1986 in Henry's den as he reveals his extraordinary adventures of surviving the Holocaust.

Henry did not survive war by being good. He escapes Treblinka twice, becomes a smuggler, resistance fighter, grave robber and agent to ladies of the night-all before the age of 20. He navigates World War II using false papers, guile, and the blessings of luck. Henry's escapes take him out of Poland and through Russia, Denmark and Berlin on the night it was bombed. Yet, Good Jew offers hope and humor while keeping listeners on the edge of their seats.

The play is helmed by New York-based director Jamibeth Margolis, granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. This celebrated director of operas and professor at Pace University maintains a local connection as her parents reside in Naples. Margolis met co-author Frank Blocker in as an actor in New York when she directed a reading of the musical Warsaw. They later collaborated on the musical Alice by composer William Wade for which Blocker wrote the book. Together, they join forces to keep Henry's stories alive.

Co-author and star Blocker, now based in Naples, is a New York Drama Desk Award-nominated actor who performs throughout the United States and Canada. In addition to his life as a playwright and actor, he is the Assistant Pastor at Jubilee Fellowship of Naples. Blocker is also onstage at TheatreZone in March for their production of Jersey Boys, after closing a run of his comedy Southern Gothic Novel, also at the Norris Center.

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