Live Streamed Reading of EIGHT NIGHTS Starring Tessa Auberjonois & More to Benefit RAICES' Families Together Fund

A very special live-streamed reading of EIGHT NIGHTS, by award-winning playwright Jennifer Maisel, reunites the critically acclaimed director and cast from the play's world premiere at the Antaeus Theatre Company to raise awareness and funds for the work of RAICES, a nonprofit organization that provides legal representation and comprehensive case management services to migrant families. Today more than 666 detained children remain separated from their families, who cannot be located- a heartbreaking situation among so many other ongoing difficulties.

Maisel said "Recently I saw an op ed about how in our pandemic year there should be a 9th night of Hanukkah where we acknowledge and support the helpers, and producer Rachel Leventhal and I are doing just that with a live-stream of my play EIGHT NIGHTS to benefit RAICES' FAMILIES TOGETHER FUND on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18th at 5pm PST/8pm EST. We felt the connection of the play's themes to the FAMILIES TOGETHER FUND'S mission - "No one should be separated from their loved ones"."

Set during eight nights of Hanukkah over eight decades, Eight Nights is about Holocaust survivor Rebecca Blum who arrives in America at 19 to forge a new life with the father from whom she was separated for ten years. The play calls out the trauma experienced not only by concentration camp survivors, but also by African American descendants of slavery, interned Japanese Americans, the LGBTQ+ community and current refugees from Africa and the Middle East. Its story resonates today in our own backyard, where 666(plus) children have been separated from their families at the border - not knowing what life will be like for them if and when they are reunited with their parents.

Director Emily Chase and the stellar cast including Tessa Auberjonois, Arye Gross, Devin Kawaoka, Karen Malina White, Christopher Watson, Zoe Yale and Josh Zuckerman garnered significant accolades -- the L.A.Times named EIGHT NIGHTS their Critics' Choice - "a deeply personal window into the refugee experience and its generational repercussions in Jennifer Maisel's insightful and moving new play.... Director Emily Chase and her cast bring the human reality of persecuted refugees to life with breathtaking emotional impact."

For tickets to the live-streaming performance, or to make a donation to RAICES' FamiliesTogether Fund: https://www.classy.org/event/eight-nights/e317101

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