AFTER I'M DEAD, YOU'LL HAVE TO FEED EVERYONE Comes to United Solo
The performance is on Thursday, October 26, 2023, 7pm.
By: Stephi Wild Jul. 10, 2023
“After I’m Dead, You’ll Have to Feed Everyone,” is a daughter’s comical love letter to her immigrant mother, Ellen Straus, a European city kid who fled the Nazi, grew up in NYC, found love on a California dairy farm and emerged as an environmental pioneer and matriarch of the organic dairy movement.
In her portrayal of her mother and best friend, Vivien combines insightful glimpses into Ellen’s formative life events - fleeing from the Holocaust, witnessing racial injustice, and death-bed conversations about chicken salad - along with Vivien’s own whimsical cow-inspired wisdom and poetry. In a 75-minute mad-cap tribute, Straus portrays 13 characters (12 humans and 1 cow).
Ellen, whose family escaped Amsterdam just weeks prior to the Nazi invasion, soon fell in love with a German Jewish dairy farmer in West Marin. Then, when their stunningly beautiful, agriculturally rich region was threatened with sprawl development, Ellen dug in her heels (err, muck boots) and fought to protect it, soon emerging as one of the region’s most vocal environmental advocates. Of her many accomplishments, Ellen is perhaps best known as the co-founder of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, the nation’s pioneering agricultural conservation organization. Per the New York Times obituary, when honored as Steward of the Land by the American Farmland Trust, Ellen said World War II had taught her a lifelong lesson about standing up for one's beliefs: ''That we, as individuals, are responsible for what is happening in our communities, and that we must become activists.''
After I’m Dead debuted in Fall 2023, in the restored 160+-year old historic hay barn at Straus Home Ranch, with a 6-week run, 17 sold-out performances, 2,100+ attendees, and scores of rave audience reviews. (Read the reviews) In that same barn, Bill Straus had milked his very first cows; Ellen grew shiitake mushrooms (before they were cool); and Ellen & Bill celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary back in 2000. It was the first theatrical performance in the barn since 1971, when Ellen directed Vivien in 4-H skit called The Scooby Dooby Washtub Band. Ellen would sit way in the back, wiggle her right ear and call out in her strong Dutch accent, “I can’t heeeaaaar you!”
THE CAST (aka Vivien, in order of appearance)
- Tessie the Cow - There has to be a cow, of course!
- Vivien - Pretending to be herself.
- Mom – A Dairy Godmother to all.
In her portrayal of her mother and best friend, Vivien combines insightful glimpses into Ellen’s formative life events - fleeing from the Holocaust, witnessing racial injustice, and death-bed conversations about chicken salad - along with Vivien’s own whimsical cow-inspired wisdom and poetry. In a 75-minute mad-cap tribute, Straus portrays 13 characters (12 humans and 1 cow).
Ellen, whose family escaped Amsterdam just weeks prior to the Nazi invasion, soon fell in love with a German Jewish dairy farmer in West Marin. Then, when their stunningly beautiful, agriculturally rich region was threatened with sprawl development, Ellen dug in her heels (err, muck boots) and fought to protect it, soon emerging as one of the region’s most vocal environmental advocates. Of her many accomplishments, Ellen is perhaps best known as the co-founder of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, the nation’s pioneering agricultural conservation organization. Per the New York Times obituary, when honored as Steward of the Land by the American Farmland Trust, Ellen said World War II had taught her a lifelong lesson about standing up for one's beliefs: ''That we, as individuals, are responsible for what is happening in our communities, and that we must become activists.''
After I’m Dead debuted in Fall 2023, in the restored 160+-year old historic hay barn at Straus Home Ranch, with a 6-week run, 17 sold-out performances, 2,100+ attendees, and scores of rave audience reviews. (Read the reviews) In that same barn, Bill Straus had milked his very first cows; Ellen grew shiitake mushrooms (before they were cool); and Ellen & Bill celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary back in 2000. It was the first theatrical performance in the barn since 1971, when Ellen directed Vivien in 4-H skit called The Scooby Dooby Washtub Band. Ellen would sit way in the back, wiggle her right ear and call out in her strong Dutch accent, “I can’t heeeaaaar you!”
THE CAST (aka Vivien, in order of appearance)
- Tessie the Cow - There has to be a cow, of course!
- Vivien - Pretending to be herself.
- Mom – A Dairy Godmother to all.
- Therapist – She’s just had her hair done.
- Oncologist – He knows about steroids.
- Opa – An honest hero.
- Oma - Well, we’ll let her speak for herself.
- Dad - A much smaller role than the last show.
- Rancher - The one that spoke for all.
- Marica - pronounced “Maritha”
- Hospice Nurse - Came without the drugs.
- Rabbi - It had to be a man. Dad insisted.
- Cemetery Manager - Need one of these, don’t we?
- Oncologist – He knows about steroids.
- Opa – An honest hero.
- Oma - Well, we’ll let her speak for herself.
- Dad - A much smaller role than the last show.
- Rancher - The one that spoke for all.
- Marica - pronounced “Maritha”
- Hospice Nurse - Came without the drugs.
- Rabbi - It had to be a man. Dad insisted.
- Cemetery Manager - Need one of these, don’t we?
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