The B'nai Torah Cultural Arts Series Presents Faye Sholiton's THE INTERVIEW

The B'nai Torah Cultural Arts Series 2020 theatrical presentation, The Interview will be presented for one performance only on February 26th at 7:30 pm in the Eleanor and Paul Weiner Cultural Center at B'nai Torah Congregation.

Faye Sholiton's deeply moving memory play about the legacy of human suffering, courage and humanity, mothers and daughters, and forgiving and being forgiven, The Interview is at once a powerful documentation of a horrific historical event and one artist's deeply felt response to it. Written with clarity and feeling, it resonates on all levels. The Interview will be directed by Shari Upbin.

Fifty years after her liberation from the Nazi death camps, Bracha Weissman still suffers the aftermath of her old trauma. When she allows Ann Meshenberg, the child of other survivors, into her suburban Cleveland home to take testimony for an archival videotaping project, Bracha reviews the legacy she has left her own daughter. The Interview is a story about mothers, daughters and memory. It is about forgiving and being forgiven.

"I chose this play for B'nai Torah Cultural Arts Series especially for this commemorative 75th year of the liberation of Auschwitz," Upbin explains. "This story must be told and seen by all audiences. In keeping with the theme of mothers and daughters and forgiveness - a theme running through most of the plays I have presented for the past four years - this one perhaps is the most poignant," she continues. It is told with pathos, pain, and humor, which is our Jewish heritage. The theme of The Interview will resonate with all of us who must remember and honor our past, as we look to forward to the future of our next generation."

Fern Katz will play Bracha Weissman, who has transformed herself into an emotional recluse - her identity defined by the loss of her family in the Nazi death camps she miraculously survived.

Peggy Linker will take on the role of Ann Meshenberg, who arrives one day to record Bracha's testimony for a video archive. Ann, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, has her own agenda: the need to ask a stranger what she could not ask her parents.

Nancy Turetsky will play Bracha's estranged daughter Rifka, and Jason Pierre will take on the role of videographer Chris Macdonald.

Playwright Faye Sholiton developed her work in the Cleveland Play House Playwrights' Unit from 1996-2011 and is a charter member of Dobama Theatre's Playwrights' Gym. Her full-length works have been read or produced in more than four dozen venues worldwide and have won more than 20 national honors. She is a four-time winner of Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council. Her work has been published by Applause, ArtAge, Meriwether, Smith & Kraus, Speert Publishing and the International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP). Prior to writing plays, she was an award-winning journalist for local, regional and national publications. She teaches writers of every description, including high school and college students, community groups and cruise ship guests. Professional affiliations include the Dramatists Guild, which she served as Regional Representative for Northern Ohio 2009-2016; the Alliance for Jewish Theatre; and ICWP. She is Founding Artistic Director of Interplay Jewish Theatre, a company that produces staged readings of Jewish themed works. Most recently, she has written a screenplay based on the life of Howard Mechanic, the last prisoner of the Vietnam War.

The Interview will be performed on February 26th at 7:30 pm. Tickets are on sale now, and can be purchased on line at www.btcboca.org or by phone at 561-392-8566. Tickets $36 ($25 for B'nai Torah congregants). B'nai Torah Congregation is located at 6261 SW 18th Street, in Boca Raton (33433).

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