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March 25, 2010 - Tovah
Feldshuh in Golda's Balcony and The Multi-cultural Theatre
of Galilee from Israel bookend one-day Jewish Theatre Festival
at Bristor RIvershide Theatre Sunday, April 25
Bristol Riverside Theatre presents a one-day Jewish Theatre Festival, in partnership with Theatre
Ariel on Sunday, April 25. Highlights of the Festival, which will explore the contemporary Jewish experience as seen by Jewish performing artists, will be Tovah
Feldshuh recreating her award-winning performance in Golda’s
Balcony and the only area performance of the Multi-Cultural
Theatre of the Galilee performing Sofia’s Drawings. In addition to a special performance of The
10 Imaginings of Sarah and Hagar by Theatre
Ariel, there will also be an exhibit of the history of Jewish theater as well as smaller, family-oriented programming.
Tickets to Golda’s Balcony beginning at 7:00 PM range from $60-$150. Daytime passes for all other events are $20. All tickets are available by calling the BRT Box Office at 215-785-0100 or visiting brtstage.org. Bristol Riverside Theatre is located at 120 Radcliffe Street in Bristol, PA. Tickets will go on sale February 15.
“We are delighted to be filling a void in Bucks County by offering this culturally-specific arts festival to the community,” said Bristol Riverside Theatre Founding Director Susan Atkinson.
Golda’s Balcony by William Gibson follows the trajectory of the life of Golda Meir, from Russian immigrant to American schoolteacher to a leader in international politics as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. Tovah Feldshuh, who won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance and was nominated for the Tony Award, made Golda’s
Balcony the longest-running one-woman show on Broadway.
The Multi-Cultural Theatre of Galilee is comprised of actors, musicians, artists, environmentalists and human rights activists, representing the diverse population of Jews and Arabs from the Galilee region in Israel. Presenting a unique visual theater incorporating objects, puppets and their bodies, they utilize non-verbal forms of communication so that language is not an obstacle. Sofia’s
Drawings, winner of the First Prize for Best Play and Music at Haifa’s International Theatre Festival, is based on a series of drawings by Sofia, a 16-year old girl, made while hiding in Holland from the Nazis. Sofia was the daughter of Clara Asscher-Pinkhof, a known children’s author. Before Clara was sent to the concentration camps and Sofia when into hiding, they published a series of children’s stories, written by Clara and illustrated by Sofia, in the weekly Jewish newspaper in Amsterdam. Efrat Hadani, Sofia’s daughter, acts in the play and relates her mother and grandmother’s story.
Theatre Ariel’s original production of The
10 Imaginings of Sarah and Hagar explores themes of womanhood, family and community, both ancient and contemporary. Founded in 1990, Theatre
Ariel remains Philadelphia’s only professional theater dedicated exclusively to exploring the Jewish experience. With a commitment to regional and world premieres of new Jewish plays, Theatre
Ariel has commissioned and produced 48 new works. The three-year success of Theatre
Ariel’s Ten-Minute Play Festival, resulting in thirty ten-minute plays, has served as a model for similar festivals at several theaters in the United States, Canada and Israel. The company’s touring productions, which often use improvisation and socio-drama to explore Jewish identity, has brought new works of Jewish content to traditional and non-traditional performance venues, schools, synagogues, community centers, churches, conferences and museums.
Since 1986, BRT has brought consistently acclaimed professional theatre to Bucks County and maintained a long-term commitment to finding and developing new plays. The theatre is the recipient of over 50 Barrymore Award nominations for Excellence in Theatre, given annually by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. In addition to its mainstage productions, the theatre serves as a cultural hub for the community, with such programs as children's theatre, community concerts and exhibitions of local visual arts. Currently under the direction of Artistic Director Keith Baker, Founding Director Susan D. Atkinson, and Managing Director, Amy Kaissar, BRT enters its 23rd season. For information, visit www.brtstage.org.
For Further Press Information:
Deborah Fleischman
215-735-7356
email: debbie@fleischmangerber.com |
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August 13, 2009 - Update: Let
My People Go!
 “It was really inspiring to me to hear how people fought for the freedom of others elsewhere ,…. it is right to publicize the good deeds of the past, especially when our world seems so cynical and critical. I'm glad to be involved with the project.”
--- Thomas Viola, Temple
University
We are capturing in word and on video the personal stories of Philadelphia’s leaders and activists in the Free Soviet Jewry Movement. 16 student oral historians and videographers from Temple University and University of Pennsylvania are presently conducting interviews and will continue to gather stories throughout the summer. These stories will inform a play which we intend to produce in 2010, shining a light on a moment in American Jewish history that for most Americans is an unknown story.
Over the winter, we recruited a multiracial, multiethnic,
interfaith team of students to serve as our oral history interns
and videographers. The interns were trained in oral history
interviewing techniques, learned about history and background
to the Free Soviet Jewry movement, and pertinent Jewish concepts
and terminology from Dr. Nancy Isserman, Associate Director
of Temple University’s Feinstein Center.
Since March, our interns have completed 23 interviews
with leaders and participants in Philadelphia’s Free Soviet Jewry Movement. Over the summer we hope to complete at least 25 more interviews.
The students are learning a great deal and finding
this process to be invaluable:
“As a non-Jew, I have already benefited substantially
by hearing the stories of those involved in the Movement. Their
stories are profound and powerful, uplifting and inspiring,
to all people. I hope that these stories will be shared with
as many people as possible. It is important not just to remember
and honor the past, but to inspire and teach future generations.
That the Free Soviet Jewry Movement is not common knowledge
makes this project even more important.”
--- Lisa Hann, Temple University
Support LET MY PEOPLE GO!
Underwrite an interview for 40.00
Underwrite transcribing an interview for $100.00
Underwrite the transferring of an interview to DVD - $100.00
Underwrite part of the playwrights’ commission - $1500
Your support big or small makes a difference!
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February 14, 2009 - Soviet Jewry Project
From 1963 through 1989 hundreds of thousands
of Americans engaged in political and grassroots actions
to bring about the liberation of Refuseniks, oppressed Soviet
Jews whose applications for exit visas had been refused.
Theatre Ariel's Let My People Go! project
intends to capture in word, on video and on stage the personal
stories of Philadelphia's Free Soviet Jewry movement.
Theatre Ariel's production will illuminate the
political action taken in kitchens, classrooms, offices, synagogues,
and churches throughout the area, that succeeded in achieving
the release and freedom of Jews in the
Soviet Union. This liberation story is a shining, yet
unknown moment in American Jewish history. At
a time when young people seek models for change, Theatre Ariel's
production will commemorate an era of community activism when
individuals like you joined together to change the world.
Theatre Ariel is seeking interns to help with
this project:
Interviewers to conduct oral history interviews
with former leaders and participants in the Free Soviet Jewry
movement (view
opportunity), and Videographers to
record the oral history interviews with former leaders of
the Free Soviet Jewry movement (view
opportunity).
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Jim
Gardner of Channel 6 ABC) (left),
and special musical guest 
Actors in Theatre Ariel's perfromance
of Wordsmiths: 
