SIGNS OF LIFE Gets Staged Reading at American University Tonight

Snap-Two Productions, Inc. and LimanAde Productions in association with Issembert Productions, Inc. will present a staged reading of the new drama with music, Signs of Life, at American University in the Katzen Arts Center Studio Theatre tonight, June 1 at 7:00 P.M. and June 2 at 1:00 P.M. The performances will feature American University alumni, current students and a student from BRAVO@KAT, the children's wing of Kensington Arts Theatre. This is the first academic production of Signs of Life.

Set in Terezin (Theresienstadt in German), Hitler's so-called "model city" for the Jews, Signs of Life is a new musical drama with book by Peter Ullian, lyrics by Len Schiff and music by Joel Derfner. Based on the true story of the Nazis' beautification attempts to deceive the Red Cross, the captives of Terezin, many of whom were artists and musicians, must choose whether to follow the Nazi orders to survive or risk everything by exposing the truth through their art and music.

"It is a story about what it is like to be caught in a web of tyranny and deception, and what people do mentally and emotionally to survive it; we want people to see this production not only as a Holocaust story, but as a human story," the show's commissioner, Virginia Spiegel Criste, said.

Despite their horrific circumstances, Terezin's inhabitants still created a variety of artwork, plays and music. Their work captures life in the ghetto and reveals how art and music played a vital part in their own survival. The show's director, Gail Humphries Mardirosian, studied the Terezin captives' perseverance for several years, beginning with her work as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Prague. She chronicled her research in her chapter, "Giving Voice to the Silenced Through Theatre," in The Power of Witnessing: Reflections, Reverberations and Traces of the Holocaust.

"Some say it was spiritual resistance. Others say it was a means of personal coping. I just want to say, 'Never Again,' and honor the victims of Terezin for their exceptional outpouring of artistry and manifestation of personal dignity," Humphries Mardirosian noted. In addition to Humphries Mardirosian's direction, Christopher Wingert, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Mary Washington, will music direct the weekend of staged readings.

There will be talkbacks after each performance, Saturday evening with the creative team and Sunday with special guest panelists: Bob Behr, a Terezin survivor, Warren Marcus, Education Specialist at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Robert Rehak from the Embassy of the Czech Republic. A reception will follow the Saturday evening performance.

The show will also perform in the DISK Theatre at the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU) Prague, Czech Republic in July and August as part of the International Psychoanalytical Association's International Conference entitled "Facing the Pain."

Admission is free, but reservations are required. To reserve a seat, email Laurie Levy Issembert at tllg22@gmail.com or phone (202) 360 7578. Parking is free and located in the underground parking lot beneath the Katzen Arts Center. For more information on the show's content and creation, please visit www.signsoflifethemusical.com.

Be sure to follow the journey of the production online via our Twitter (@AU_SignsOfLife), our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/SignsOfLifeAU) or YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/AUSignsOfLife).

Founded by Virginia Criste, Snap-Two Productions, Inc. is the original commissioner of Signs of Life, and has been developing the work since 2003. Signs of Life is now scheduled to be presented on a limited run September 18, 2013 through October 27, 2013 at Vacek McVay Theater at Victory Gardens in Chicago, Illinois. For more information about Snap-Two Productions, Inc., email Virginia at vcriste@aol.com.

Founded by Joan Liman, MD with the mission of "healing hearts through the performing arts,"

LimanAde productions will be presenting Joan's musical memoir, "A LimanAde Life," on June 9, 2013 at NYC's Metropolitan Hospital Center in celebration of National Cancer Survivor's Day." For more information about LimanAde Productions or any upcoming projects, email Joan at joanliman@hotmail.com.

The readings will take place tonight, June 1 at 7:00 P.M. and June 2 at 1:00 P.M. in the Studio Theatre at the Katzen Arts Center American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW Washington, D.C.

The book for this show, by Peter Ullian, was commissioned by Virginia Spiegel Criste in the year 2000. After completion of the book, Joel Derfner, composer, and Len Schiff, lyricist, were brought into the project.

The process of developmental readings began at New York University in June 2003. It was read again at Shetler Studios in October 2003. In April 2004, an abbreviated version was presented at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. It was then read again in August 2004 at New York University.

In December 2005, Jeremy Dobrish was added to the creative team as director for the mounting of another reading at the Zipper Theatre in New York. Thereafter, the piece was featured by Melting Pot Theatre Company in New York City as part of their series Preludes: New Musicals in Concert for three (3) nights during February 2006. The show's development then continued with another reading at the Village Theatre in Issaquah, Washington on June 2, 3, and 4, 2006.

One year later, the piece's first full-scale regional production was completed at the Village Theatre in Issaquah, Washington, from June 1 through 17, 2007. Thereafter, the show in conjunction with Amas Musical Theatre received an NEA Grant. It then ran an Off Broadway limited run at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theatre in New York City from February 17 to March 21, 2010.

The show is now scheduled to be presented in a limited run September 18, 2013 through October 27, 2013 at Vacek McVay Theater at Victory Gardens in Chicago, Illinois.

BIOS

Gail Humphries Mardirosian (Director) : is a professor of theatre in the Department of Performing Arts and in the University College and University Honors Program, has directed more than 130 productions (including musicals, serious drama, classics, children's theatre, and cabaret performances) and more than 60 special events in venues across the United States and in Europe. She has received several awards for her college directing, including awards from the American College Theatre Festival. She has served as the vice president for professional development for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education since 2007, and as the past president of Theatre as a Liberal Art. She has worked as a consultant for multiple arts organizations, and serves as the principal investigator researching the impact of the use of arts- based teaching/learning for an evidence-based model entitled Imagination Quest (IQ). Mardirosian's articles include "Arts-Based Teaching: A Pedagogy of Imagination and a Conduit to a Socially Just Education" (Current Issues in Education, fall 2009); "Teaching to Reach All Children" (Chronicle of Higher Education, March 2009); "Transforming the Classroom Teacher into a Teaching Artist" (Teaching Artist Journal, summer 2007); and "The Quest to Captivate Hearts and Minds in the Classroom: Teaching to Reach All Children." Mardirosian is working on a book titled Exceptional Teaching, Exceptional Learning: Using the Arts Across the Curriculum, K-16. She recently completed a chapter entitled "Giving Voice to the Silenced through Theatre" featured in the book The Power of Witnessing: Reflections, Reverberations and Traces of the Holocaust. The chapter delineates an ongoing project that she developed in Prague, at the Nazi transit/forced labor camp of Terezin, implemented at American University and the University of New Hampshire. The project is ongoing with sponsorship during the upcoming year by the Florida Holocaust Museum. Other international collaborations include Project ARTS (American Russian Theatre Symposia in Yaroslavl and St. Petersburg, Russia); a Fulbright appointment at the Academy of Performing Arts, Prague, Czech Republic; and guest lectures/master classes at the European Cultural Centre (Delphi, Greece), Charles University (Prague), New York University (Prague), and the University of Goteborg (Sweden). She has hosted artists and professors from China, Korea, Norway, and Serbia. During the 2011-2012 academic year, she will continue to focus on AU's cultural exchanges in theatre collaborating with the St. Petersburg Theatre Arts Academy both in the U.S. and in Russia, working with the Center for Global piece on A Balkan Sampler, with readings from five different Balkan plays, and presenting at a Fulbright conference in NYC entitled "Academic Exchanges and Research Success-20 Years of Fulbright Between the USA and the Czech Republic."

Christopher Wingert (Music Director) : has performed, accompanied, coached, and taught throughout Washington, DC since 2005. He continues to direct and teach musical theatre, piano, and voice to all ages, including college students and adults. In 2006, he joined the adjunct faculty at the University of Mary Washington where he serves as music director and conductor for the Department of Theatre and Dance's musical productions (Forever Plaid; Nunsense; Bat Boy; Funny Thing...Forum; Elegies; Reefer Madness; 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee; RENT; Into the Woods). In addition, he teaches a performance techniques course and has helped develop the musical theatre program into a minor degree option for UMW's students. Mr. Wingert is a volunteer instructor at the Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts where he teaches piano and serves as music director or pit performer for the annual musical (Once Upon a Mattress; You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown; Beauty and the Beast; Hello, Dolly; Bye, Bye, Birdie; Joseph...Dreamcoat). He has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and throughout New York City as a member of The Washington Chorus since 2006. He served as music director and conductor for Ganymede Arts' production of Falsettos and has recently appeared at the piano in multiple cabarets with two-time Helen Hayes Award-winner Will Gartshore at Signature Theatre and Round House Theatre. In January 2013, he served as rehearsal and orchestra pianist for Broadway legends Chita Rivera and Rita Moreno at the Kennedy Center's Latino Inaugural concert gala in honor of President Obama's reelection. Chris can be contacted at christopher.wingert@gmail.com.

James Randle (Assistant Director) : is an actor and director in the DC area, specializing in classical theater. He was first introduced to Terezin and its history by Gail Humphries Mardirosian on an academic trip to Prague, CZ in the spring of 2011. Currently he is constructing a play about the life of Felix Kolmer, a survivor of Terezin, and hopes to mount a production within the year. He is an alumnus of the Department of Performing Arts at American University and the London Theater Program at BADA.

Jen Grunfeld (Stage Manager) : is a rising senior Theater design/production Major at American University. Previous AU credits: Cabaret (SM), Excerpts from The Good Doctor (SM), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (SM), The Who's Tommy (ASM), and Measure for Measure (ASM). Regional: Stage manager for Children of Eden and FAME (Bergen Performing arts Center), Stage Manager for Trespassing (Ambassador Theater).

Laurie Levy Issembert (Associate Producer) : is the Executive Producer of BRAVO@KAT, established in 2012 as the children's wing of the award-winning Kensington Arts Theatre. Laurie looks forward to expanding BRAVO@KAT's presence in dance, voice and acting as well as seeking ways to collaborate with other performing arts organizations in the Washington area. After a successful and varied career in the arts that includes feature films in Hollywood on the production side and news and documentaries for local, national and international television, Laurie is delighted to call BRAVO@KAT home, providing opportunities to talented youth. The last 14 years she has devoted to producing musicals of the Broadway repertoire (65!) with local lower, middle and high school students in the area, many of whom have gone on to work in the entertainment industry. She is currently developing projects both for Broadway and Off Broadway and divides her schedule between Washington and New York. Having become acquainted with Signs of Life through NYC Producer Joan Liman, Laurie devoted her enthusiastic energies to bringing this reading to the Department of Performing Arts at American University, giving college students the opportunity to explore a meaningful Holocaust-related drama with music. Laurie is a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women, Women in Film and a graduate of the Commercial Theatre Institute of The Broadway League, where she has also been a past Adjunct Member. Her "adult" works include shows for the New York International Fringe Festival (The Last Days of Cleopatra - 2005), the New York Musical Theatre Festival (The Children - 2006) and (The Yellow Wood, directed by B.D. Wong - 2007), Kennedy Center Page to Stage Festival, (Cleopatra directed by Joe Calarco - 2009) Equity showcases (NERDS - 2010) and investing in the Broadway productions of Dr. Seuss's The Grinch and Catch Me If You Can.

Virginia S. Criste (Producer) : who commissioned this show, is President of Snap-Two Productions, Inc. She received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and her J.D. from George Washington University. After the Berlin wall fell, and during Havel's first year as Chief of State of the then country of Czechoslovakia, Virginia went to Terezin to try to learn about her grandparents who spent their final years there. At that time, there were only a small exhibit and a depository of artifacts that they allowed her to view alone in the company of a Museum official. Spending a day with the remnants of hand-drawn posters announcing show performances, cabaret tickets, albums of dorm life, and so much more, was hard to forget. A stop at a London Theatre on her return to the United States helped form the thought . . if Les Miserables and Miss Saigon could be musicals, why not Terezin? After all, inhabitants of Terezin kept music and theater as a vital part of their life in captivity. Flash forward and you have the piece that is now presented with the talented artists whose biographies appear herein. When not working on this project, Virginia practices law in Palm Desert, California.

Joan Liman, MD, MPH (Producer) : made her producing debut with the off-Broadway run of Signs of Life. Joan is a graduate of the Commercial Theater Institute and has invested in several off-Broadway and festival shows (e.g., Little Ham, Zanna Don't, Slut, Soul to Keep.) She worked with the late Michael Frasier (Nunsense) on Eatonville, a theatrical version of Zora Neal Hurston's acclaimed novel, "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Currently, she is an associate producer to Frank D'Agostino for his new musical Cold as Ice, a backstage look at the world of competitive ice skating performed on ice, slated for a NYC workshop in Fall 2013. Joan's passion for theater dates back to SING at Brooklyn's James Madison High School. From there she "shuffled off to Buffalo," graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the State University of Buffalo with a B.A. in Psychology. She earned her MD and MPH degrees from New York Medical College. Her favorite extracurricular activity while there was writing and performing song parodies in the annual NYMC Follies. Joan entered academia after graduation, serving as a student affairs dean at three medical schools despite two bouts with cancer. She wrote about overcoming these as well as other obstacles in a quasi-autobiographical musical, A LimanAde Life, which has been presented at several cancer society and hospital benefits. It was also selected as a semi-finalist in The Network's 2012 Festival of New Plays. Joan is a board member of Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) as well as president of the board of directors of Amas Musical Theatre, NYC's award-winning, not-for profit organization dedicated to producing quality musical theatre that celebrates different cultural viewpoints while reaching out to underserved audiences. Her favorite role? "Nonny" to her grandchildren, Ryan and Marissa. Best collaborator to date? Larry, her husband of forty-three years!

To post a comment, you must register and login.