WHY
The NJTF Remembrance Readings program honors the victims, survivors, and lessons of the Holocaust. May the unique power of theater in performance and education overcome the forces of bigotry, and Holocaust denial, and serve as an artistic moral compass for future generations.
WHEN
Holocaust Theater Production (HTP) features annual Remembrance Day Play Readings (RR) and performances of Holocaust plays, scenes, monologues, and verbatim testimony selected by participants from the Holocaust Theater Catalog. They are held in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27th, Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), and Kristallnacht November 9th & 10th. Organizations are also welcome to participate on another date (s) that are both feasible and beneficial to their collective constituencies and participants.
HOW
Remembrance Readings do not require lengthy rehearsals and expensive production values. They can be done in concert or staged reading formats, in a variety of settings by diverse participants of all ages. They have involved theaters, artists, libraries, Holocaust educators, schools, universities, places of worship, JCCs, memorial museums, and the general public. Remembrance Readings have been done by very experienced actors to those with limited or no formal theater training.
We suggest these readings be followed by a panel discussion. These conversations are meant to provide a deeper understanding of the play's content, context, themes, and contemporary relevance.
2024 Remembrance Readings
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Saturday, November 09, 2024 at 02:30 PM
Goodman Theatre in Chicago, ILGoodman Theatre and Illinois Holocaust Museum - 1st day
Reading presented by Goodman Theatre and Illinois Holocaust Museum
Play reading presented twice: November 9 at the Goodman Theatre and November 10 at the Illinois Holocaust Museum
Goodbye Marianne, by Irene Kirstein Watts
A talkback following each reading.
Panel Guests:
Johanna Saper was born in Vienna, where her family lived comfortably. After the Anschluss, her oldest brother began corresponding with a young Quaker woman in North Carolina, and in November 1938, her family agreed to sponsor him, allowing him to leave Austria. He advised their parents against sending Johanna on an organized Kindertransport, and instead, they took out an ad in the newspaper, offering her services as a “school girl’s companion.” The ad was answered by an Orthodox family in Manchester, England, and Johanna left Austria in December 1938. The family that took her in expected her to speak Yiddish, which she did not, but they managed. When her brother’s quota number for the US came up in 1941, he was able to bring her with him to the United States. Johanna will be joined by her son, Cliff Saper, who shares Johanna’s story as part of the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s Second Generation Speakers’ Bureau.
Ernst “Ernie” Heimann was born in 1929 in Mainz, Germany. During Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938, Ernie’s school and synagogue were destroyed. In the aftermath of these events, his parents knew that they had to get Ernie out of Germany. On February 1, 1939, Ernie was placed on a Kindertransport to England. His maternal aunt, who lived in England and sponsored him, arranged for Ernie to live with an English family just outside of London. In September 1939, Ernie and other children from his village were evacuated to the countryside because of the bombing in London. Ernie would remain in England for four years until he came to the United States in 1943.
A longer version of Ernie’s story is available here: https://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/profiles/ernie-heimann/
This program is part of the National Jewish Theater Foundations Remembrance Readings, a program honoring the victims, survivors, and lessons of the Holocaust. May the unique power of theater in performance and education overcome the forces of bigotry, and Holocaust denial, and serve as an artistic moral compass for future generations. This program is a collaboration between the Association of Holocaust Organizations, Theatre Communications Group, and the National Jewish Theater Foundation.
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Sunday, November 10, 2024 at 02:00 PM
Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, ILGoodman Theatre and Illinois Holocaust Museum -2nd day
Reading presented by Goodman Theatre and Illinois Holocaust Museum
Play reading presented twice: November 9 at the Goodman Theatre and November 10 at the Illinois Holocaust Museum
Goodbye Marianne, by Irene Kirstein Watts
Play reading at the Illinois Holocaust Museum
Goodbye Marianne, by Irene Kirstein Watts
A talkback following reading.
Panel Guests:
Johanna Saper was born in Vienna, where her family lived comfortably. After the Anschluss, her oldest brother began corresponding with a young Quaker woman in North Carolina, and in November 1938, her family agreed to sponsor him, allowing him to leave Austria. He advised their parents against sending Johanna on an organized Kindertransport, and instead, they took out an ad in the newspaper, offering her services as a “school girl’s companion.” The ad was answered by an Orthodox family in Manchester, England, and Johanna left Austria in December 1938. The family that took her in expected her to speak Yiddish, which she did not, but they managed. When her brother’s quota number for the US came up in 1941, he was able to bring her with him to the United States. Johanna will be joined by her son, Cliff Saper, who shares Johanna’s story as part of the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s Second Generation Speakers’ Bureau.
Ernst “Ernie” Heimann was born in 1929 in Mainz, Germany. During Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938, Ernie’s school and synagogue were destroyed. In the aftermath of these events, his parents knew that they had to get Ernie out of Germany. On February 1, 1939, Ernie was placed on a Kindertransport to England. His maternal aunt, who lived in England and sponsored him, arranged for Ernie to live with an English family just outside of London. In September 1939, Ernie and other children from his village were evacuated to the countryside because of the bombing in London. Ernie would remain in England for four years until he came to the United States in 1943.
A longer version of Ernie’s story is available here: https://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/profiles/ernie-heimann/
This program is part of the National Jewish Theater Foundations Remembrance Readings, a program honoring the victims, survivors, and lessons of the Holocaust. May the unique power of theater in performance and education overcome the forces of bigotry, and Holocaust denial, and serve as an artistic moral compass for future generations. This program is a collaboration between the Association of Holocaust Organizations, Theatre Communications Group and National Jewish Theater Foundation.
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Sunday, November 10, 2024 at 07:00 PM
Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum in Dallas, TXDallas Theater Center and Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum
November 10, 2024 at 7:00 pm CT
Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum and Dallas Theater Center
Knocking on the Door of History: The Shanghai Jews by Dr. Kari-Anne Innes and Dr. Kevin Ostoyich.
Location of Reading: Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum 300 N. Houston,
Dallas, TX 75202Talkback to follow reading at Dallas Theater Center
Dallas Theater Center Chief of Education, Dr. Sara Abosch-Jacobson, to moderate conversation. Guest details coming soon.
Location of talkback: Dallas Theater Center 2400 Flora St, Dallas, TX 75201
This program is part of the National Jewish Theater Foundations Remembrance Readings, a program honoring the victims, survivors, and lessons of the Holocaust. May the unique power of theater in performance and education overcome the forces of bigotry, and Holocaust denial, and serve as an artistic moral compass for future generations. This program is a collaboration between the Association of Holocaust Organizations, Theatre Communications Group, and National Jewish Theater Foundation.
Past Readings
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Thursday, August 22, 2024 at 05:30 PM
St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum in St. Louis, MOThe Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum
August 22, 2024 at 5:30pm
Join the Museum, in partnership with The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, for a live staged reading of “Bad Jews”.Directed by New Jewish Theaters, Rebekah Scallet, “Bad Jews” with its provocative and satirical title, is a heartfelt and powerful exploration of Jewish values and what it means to be Jewish in today's global culture. Told through three cousins, the play centers on the night after their grandfather’s funeral. The cousins, engage in a heated discussion regarding the legacy of their grandfather, a Holocaust Survivor, and his Chai necklace. A heartfelt and hilarious brawl over family, faith and legacy ensues.VENUE: St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum
36 Millstone Campus Dr, St. Louis, MO 63146
This program is part of the National Jewish Theater Foundations Remembrance Readings, a program honoring the victims, survivors, and lessons of the Holocaust. May the unique power of theater in performance and education overcome the forces of bigotry, and Holocaust denial, and serve as an artistic moral compass for future generations. This program is a collaboration between the Association of Holocaust Organizations, Theatre Communications Group, and National Jewish Theater Foundation.
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Monday, May 06, 2024 at 07:00 PM
Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan in New York , NYRemember the Women Institute
7:00 PM on Monday, May 6 2024
Beit Midrash of the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan
Women, Theater, and the Holocaust, an evening of dramatic readings by professional actors, will be presented by Remember the Women Institute
This annual Yom HaShoah event features four readings that dramatize various aspects of women’s experiences during the Holocaust. They portray how women suffered and survived the horrors of the Nazi regime. Excerpts from Annulla, written and performed by Broadway veteran Emily Mann, are based on the true story of a Jewish woman who passed as a non-Jew in Nazi Germany. English Lessons is the premiere of a short play by Cynthia L. Cooper, inspired by a memoir by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s sister Gemma LaGuardia Gluck, held as a political prisoner in Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp. Excerpts from And the Rat Laughed, a novel by Nava Semel, deal with the sexual abuse of a hidden child in Poland. The reading from Letters to Sala by Arlene Hutton, adapted from the book Sala's Gift by Ann Kirschner, is from the true account of a young girl's survival in Nazi labor camps.
Following these dramatic presentations, there will be a talkback with the playwrights, as well as a reception.
We thank the generous sponsors of this project, Patti Askwith Kenner and the Five Millers Family Foundation.
We thank our partners, Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, National Jewish Theater Foundation, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, and Jewish Theatre Circle. Our event is in cooperation with the annual National Jewish Theater Foundation- Holocaust Theater International Initiative Remembrance Readings.
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Saturday, May 04, 2024 at 07:30 PM
JCC La Jolla
May 4th @ 7:30pm
J Company Youth Theatre
Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
I NEVER SAW ANOTHER BUTTERFLY by Celeste Raspanti
4126 Executive Drive
La Jolla, California 92037
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Saturday, May 04, 2024 at 02:00 PM
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in Cincinnati, OHCincinnati Playhouse in the Park in partnership with the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center
May 4, 2024 2:00pm
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in partnership with the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center
The Chosen performed at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
A post show panel discussion is planned for after the discussion. The actors from the production will be joined onstage after the show by Henry Fenichel. He is a Holocaust survivor. He arrived in Brooklyn in the early 1950s and can provide a firsthand account of what the Jewish communities in Brooklyn were like around the same time as the setting of the play.
Henry Fenichel was born in The Hague in 1938. Shortly after the Nazi rise to power, sensing the danger to come, Henry’s parents, Pessel and Moritz, sent a request for their relocation to Palestine where his father’s family resided. After Henry’s father was deported to Mauthausen in 1942 and murdered by the Nazis several months later in Auschwitz, Henry and his mother still had no response to their request to immigrate. They then went into hiding. When Henry was four years old, he and his mother’s hiding place was discovered in the spring of 1943, and they were imprisoned in the Westerbork transit camp, one of two transit camps in the Netherlands. Shortly after arriving, Pessel learned of a prisoner exchange that would allow a select number of Jews to escape to Palestine. Through a miraculous series of events, Henry’s mother was able to get them on the list for “transport 222”. In February 1944, they were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and by June, Henry, his mother, and 220 other Dutch individuals left Bergen-Belsen, on their way to freedom in British Mandate Palestine. Upon arriving in Palestine, Henry was placed in a children’s home. His mother visited often and when she remarried, Henry lived with his mother and stepfather, Abraham. With the help of Abraham’s family, they came to America in 1953. Henry taught Physics at the University of Cincinnati for nearly four decades.
This program is part of the National Jewish Theater Foundations Remembrance Readings, a program honoring the victims, survivors, and lessons of the Holocaust. May the unique power of theater in performance and education overcome the forces of bigotry, and Holocaust denial, and serve as an artistic moral compass for future generations. This program is a collaboration between the Association of Holocaust Organizations, Theatre Communications Group and National Jewish Theater Foundation.
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Friday, May 03, 2024 at 04:00 PM
Round Lake High School Theatre in Round Lake , ILRound Lake High School's Ghostlight Readers Theatre
May 3rd, 2024 at 4PM & 7PM- two performances
Round Lake High School's Ghostlight Readers Theatre
No Fading Star by Celeste Raspanti
Round Lake High School Theatre
800 High School Drive, Round Lake IL
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Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 06:00 PM
University of Missouri Department of TheatreUniversity of Missouri Department of Theatre
Reading Occurred: Saturday, February 10, 2024
University of Missouri, Department of Theatre
Mizzou New Play Series
LA SINAGOGA DE SAN PABLO by David Crespy
A play about the Holocaust in Veria, Greece, exploring a visitation of St. Paul at the Barbouta Synagogue during the German Occupation of Greece in 1943, and the deportation of the Jewish community of Veria.A new play addition to our Holocaust Theater Catalogue. Please check back for time , it may change*
Following the reading a panel will consist of Rabbi Matt Darrenbacher, local Congregation Beth Shalom, Jeanne Snodgrass, Director of Hillel and and Dr. David A. Crespy , the playwright who did the Fulbright research in Veria, Greece, to write the play.
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Sunday, February 04, 2024 at 02:00 PM
Theatre Jacksonville in Jacksonville, FLTheatre Jacksonville
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Sunday, January 28, 2024 at 02:00 PM
GableStage Theatre Company in Coral Gables, FLGableStage Theatre Company
January 28 2024
2:00pm
OLD WICKED SONGS
By Jon MaransRun time: 2 hours with a 15-minute intermissionIn 1986 Vienna, a young Jewish pianist arrives to study; but before he begins his piano instruction, he must first take singing lessons from the harsh, anti-semitic Professor Mashkan. As the play unfolds through the poetry of Heinrich Heine and the music of Robert Schumann, secrets are revealed, and these two men from different generations find they have much more in common than they think. Directed by playwright Jon Marans, this 1996 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize is a play with music that stars two actors who are classically trained pianists. Sponsored by Funding Arts Network.Mosaic Miami + GableStage: Can We Talk? Really, Can We Talk?Clarity and Sparks through Old Wicked Songs, A Fireside Chat with Maestro Gerard SchwartzFollowing immediately after the 2pm performance of Old Wicked Songs Open and free of charge to the public. Purchase your ticket to Old Wicked Songs. In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Mosaic Miami executive director, Matt Anderson curates a discussion with Maestro Gerard Schwartz – a conductor with seven Emmy Awards, 14 Grammy nominations and an overwhelming number of additional accolades, Schwarz is known all over the world for his reputation of developing world-class orchestras. Born in America to Viennese parents, Schwarz is the grandson of Holocaust victims. He began studying piano at the age of five and soon focused on the trumpet. A graduate of both New York City’s High School of Performing Arts and The Juilliard School, he joined the New York Philharmonic in 1972 as co-principal trumpet, a position he held until 1977. Amongst his many accolades, he holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Music; Conducting and Orchestral Studies of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and Music Director of the Frost Symphony Orchestra. Schwarz is a renowned interpreter of 19th century German, Austrian and Russian repertoire, in addition to his noted work with contemporary American composers -
Saturday, January 27, 2024 at 07:30 PM
Balch Arena Theater, Aidekman Arts Center in Medford, MA , MATufts University-Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
January 27, 2024 at 7:30pm
Tufts University-Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
And Then They Came For Me written by James Still
Directed by Dr. Barbara Wallace Grossman
Balch Arena Theater, Aidekman Arts Center
Following the reading a guided discussion will be led by Dr. Barbara Wallace Grossman, Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, Tufts University.
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Saturday, January 27, 2024 at 01:30 PM
NYPLibrary Lincoln Center
1/27/24
1:30pm-3pm
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts -Bruno Walter Auditorium
Commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day this year with an event that highlights the creative process behind current New York's Holocaust-related theater. In partnership with the National Jewish Theater Foundation's Holocaust Theater International Initiative, we are joined by producer, director, educator and NJTF President, Arnold Mittelman. He will interview the creators of current shows such as Harmony, Our Class, and Here There Are Blueberries. This program illuminates how artists use a variety of source material to create unique works that impact audiences and combat hate and antisemitism.
Mittelman speaks with bookwriter and lyricist Bruce Sussman and director Warren Carlyle who worked on Harmony, Igor Golyak, director of Our Class, and director Moises Kaufman and Amanda Gronich, the co-authors of Here There Are Blueberries.
The discussion will also include video from a past interview that features Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director of Manhattan Theatre Club, currently presenting Prayer for the French Republic.
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Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 07:30 PM
Campus Black Box Theatre in Milledgeville, GAGeorgia College & State University Department of Theatre & Dance
January 25, 2024 at 7:30pm
Georgia College & State University Department of Theatre & Dance
Face Forward: Growing Up in Nazi Germany by Brendon Votipka
Campus Black Box TheatreFollowing the reading a panel discussion will be led by Dr. Karen Berman
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Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 05:00 PM
San Diego State University Campus in San Diego, CASan Diego State University
Event postponed details to follow
San Diego State University
Traces in the Wind by Gail Humphries Mardirosian
The post-show dialogue will be co-lead by Dani Bedau, associate professor of Youth Theater at SDSU and Susanne Hillman, professor of Jewish History at SDSU.
The topic will be The Power of the Arts to Heal and Help Us Survive. Other departments involved: History Department, the School of Theatre, Television, and Film and the Anti-semitism Taskforce.
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Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 05:00 PM
San Diego State University Campus in San Diego, CASan Diego State University
Event postponed details to follow this fall
San Diego State University
Traces in the Wind by Gail Humphries Mardirosian
The post-show dialogue will be co-lead by Dani Bedau, associate professor of Youth Theater at SDSU and Susanne Hillman, professor of Jewish History at SDSU.
The topic will be The Power of the Arts to Heal and Help Us Survive. Other departments involved: History Department, the School of Theatre, Television, and Film and the Anti-semitism Taskforce.
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Sunday, January 21, 2024 at 04:00 PM
Temple Israel of Boston in Boston , MATemple Israel of Boston
January 21, 2024
Temple Israel Boston - Theatre@TI
The Glass Room by Ryan Craig
This reading will be performed by Bram Shapiro, Rainier Pearl-Styles, Chaim Wetmore, and Melissa Bacon, featuring Joelle Lurie and directed by Rachel Ollagnon. Following the reading please join us for tea, cookies, and a discussion.