Discussion Series
Join us for a Script Club with the Portland Public Library. Check out your copy of the script and join us two weeks before opening of each Mainstage Production. Scripts are available at the reference desk at the Main Branch of the Portland Public Library. This year discussions will be held in the Rines Room at 1:30pm two weeks before a show opens. Feel free to come and chat about the plays with Literary Manager, Todd Brian Backus; his Directing and Dramaturgy Apprentices, and special guests. Visit portlandlibrary.com/programs-events/ for more information.
The Artistic Perspective, hosted by Artistic Director Anita Stewart, is an opportunity for audience members to delve deeper into the themes of the show through conversation with special guests. A different scholar, visiting artist, playwright , or other expert will join the discussion each time. The Artistic Perspective discussions are held after the first Sunday matinee performance.
Curtain Call discussions offer a rare opportunity for audience m embers to talk about the production with the performers. Through this forum, the audienc e and cast explore topics that range from the process of rehearsing and producing the tex t to character development to issues raised by the work Curtain Call discussions are held after the second Sunday matinee performance.
All discussions are free and open to the public. Show attendance is not required. To subscribe to a discussion series performance, please call th e Box Office at 207.774.0465.
HannaH Cordes, Paula Vogel, anita stewart, and todd Brian BaCkus in a talkBaCk, Portland stage ComPany
Madeleines
by Bess Welden
PlayNotes Season 51 Editorial Staff
Editor in Chief
Todd Brian Backus
Contributors
Charlie Bowen, Sadie Goldstein, Micki Demby Kleinman, Kimmarie McCrann, Larsen Nichols
Copy Editor
Adam Thibodeau
Cover Illustration
James A. Hadley
Portland Stage Company Educational Programs, like PlayNotes, are generously supported through the annual donations of hundreds of individuals and businesses, as well as special funding from:
The Simmons Foundation
Susie Konkel Harry Konkel
Harold & Betty Cottel Family Fund
Letter from the Editors
Dear PlayNotes Readers,
We're so excited to have you with us for the new year and our latest edition of Playnotes!
In this issue, we explore the world of Madeleines, this heartfelt play by Bess Welden tells the story of Debra and Jennifer, two sisters processing the death of their mother, a professional baker. When a secret hidden among their mother’s recipes is discovered, the siblings fracture, and their understanding of family is put to the test. A play about sweets, familial rivalry, and learning to let go, Welden’s work asks us to examine how, and what, we forgive.
Want to learn about this production of Madeleines? Head over to our "An Interview with the Director and Playwright: Annette Jolles and Bess Welden” (Pg. 9), and meet our actors in "About the Characters" (Pg. 8).
Are you curious about Jewish food? Check out "Food and Jewish Tradition" (pg. 24). Or are you wanting to learn more about modern Jewish history? Check out "The Jewish American Diaspora" (pg. 16), or "Jewish Argentinian Culture and History" (pg. 22).
When compiling each issue of PlayNotes, we strive to provide articles and interviews that give you insight into what the process has been like behind the scenes (see articles in "Portland Stage's Madeleines"), contain pertinent information about the play’s setting and major themes (“The World of Madeleines”), and provide deeper dives into specific subjects that compelled our literary department (“Digging Deeper”). We include a list of books, plays, recipes, and other media that we hope audiences will access for more cultural content that relates to the play (“Recommended Resources”).
We are delighted to have you join us for this familial adventure, and we hope you enjoy seeing the world premier of Madeleines
Sincerely yours,
The Portland Stage Literary Department
Todd Brian Backus
Micki Demby Kleinman
Kimmarie McCrann
Larsen Nichols
About the Play
by Kimmarie McCrann
Madeleines by Bess Welden is an exploration of strength, complex family relationships, and, of course, French tea cakes. In this moving and poignant tale, estranged sisters Debra and Jennifer Moritz come together to mourn the life and death of their powerful mother, Rose. Old tensions rise when they find themselves in the midst of their rustic childhood kitchen in Ohio, and the siblings part on bitter terms. That is, until they are thrust together three years later in New York City, with Debra hot off the press from the success of her recently published cookbook/memoir, featuring their mother’s cookie recipes. A mysterious poet from Buenos Aires, Lilia Kaminsky, arrives unexpectedly to shed light on the family’s deep-rooted and traumatic history. Madeleines asks questions of life, loss, and what it means to forgive each other—and ourselves. Baked with Jewish traditions, Spanish poetry, and Cole Porter songs, Madeleines has something for everyone with a recipe in their heart.
Portland usual suspect and playwright Bess Welden has been working on Madeleines for the past ten years. The piece has gone through numerous revisions, workshops, and staged readings. Several places where the play has previously been workshopped and read out loud include the Jewish Theatre of Bloomington in Indiana, the TheatreWorks Silicon Valley New Works Festival, and the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan. It also underwent a
developmental residency at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where Welden has been a Lecturer in Theater for the past 15 years. One of the pivotal monologues from Madeleines is even published in The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2024 (Smith & Kraus). Portland Stage’s production of Madeleines will be the play’s World Premiere, the first time it’s being fully produced and staged by a theater company!
Prior to finding its debut at PS, Madeleines won the 2022 National Jewish Playwriting Contest, hosted by the Jewish Plays Project (JPP) in NYC. The Jewish Plays Project’s mission is to put “bold, progressive Jewish stories on the best stages in the world.” Madeleines absolutely fits the bill. After winning the JPP Contest, Bess Welden told Colby News that she feels supported as an artist and connected to a large and vibrant Jewish cultural community. David Winitsky, Artistic Director of the Jewish Plays Project, spoke about Welden’s winner in a 2022 BroadwayWorld article, stating, "Her play is a deeply felt Jewish women's story at a moment when that is more vital than ever. Plus, it will be a tour-de-force for three amazing female-identifying actors when it gets its world premiere!" Winitsky’s words certainly ring true within the walls of Portland Stage. Stop by the theater from March 5-23 to see the actors deliver a marvelous and thrilling performance for the first time ever.
Madeleines dramaturgy Board By assistant direCtor and dramaturg kimmarie mCCrann.
Focus Questions
by Charlie Bowen and Sadie Goldstein
1. The story follows two sisters, Debra and Jennifer, as they deal with the loss of their mother, Rose. What similarities and differences did you notice between the two sisters? Do they become more similar or different as the show progresses?
2. The matriarch of the Moritz family, Rose, was a Jewish immigrant who escaped Eastern Europe during World War II. Read PlayNotes article “The Jewish American Diaspora” and learn about the story of Jewish immigrants to America like Rose. Have you learned about other times in history of mass immigration? Did anything surprise you about the Jewish story of immigration to America?
3. This show has a cast of three female-identifying actors, who play a total of five characters, including the voice of one man. Have you ever seen a show with a small cast? Did it feel more personal than shows you’ve seen with larger casts?
Carine montBertrand (aea), Carmen roman (aea), & danielle leVin (aea) at tHe first readtHrougH of Madeleines. PHoto By aressa goodriCH
About the Characters
Actor: Danielle Levin (AEA)
Character: Debra Moritz
Debra Mortiz: Late 40s–early 50s. A struggling then successful food writer; sardonic sense of humor; a recovered alcoholic with an edge but deeply nurturing and warm.
Actor: Carine Montbertrand (AEA)
Character: Jennifer Moritz
Jennifer Moritz: Early to mid-50s. Debra’s older sister; highly accomplished medical school professor; a buttoned-up perfectionist; a mother whose own family is falling apart.
Actor: Carmen Roman (AEA)
Characters: Rose Moritz, Lilia Kaminsky
Rose Moritz: 70s. Debra and Jennifer’s mother; an exacting cookie baker and small businesswoman; stubborn, opinionated, strong.
Lilia Kaminsky: 70s. A vivacious Argentinian poet; colorful and robustly healthy.
An Interview with the Director and Playwright: Annette Jolles and Bess Welden
Edited for length and clarity by Kimmarie McCrann
Assistant Director and Dramaturg Kimmarie McCrann sat down for a chat with the director, Annette Jolles, and playwright, Bess Welden, of Madeleines. Jolles and Welden are longtime artistic collaborators and friends, and McCrann asked them a few questions about their process and thoughts on this World Premiere production.
Kimmarie McCrann (KM): What inspired you to start writing this play in 2015?
Bess Welden (BW): I was part of a playwriting group with Snowlion Repertory Company, which is still active here in Maine, and the artistic director of the company gave us a prompt to write a short play about food. It was just a wide open prompt, and then they were going to produce whatever we wrote as sort of a collection of short plays about food. So this idea of a character, a woman who is a professional cookie baker and someone who would have sort of cataloged her life through recipes, came to me, and I started from a place of, “Okay, what would happen if one of these recipes had a juicy secret attached to it? How would that get revealed, and how would it impact the family?” But I didn’t go in expressly thinking, “Oh, I’m gonna write a play about madeleines.” And then when I sat down to write, it was these characters that emerged. And then I realized that I wanted to really connect it to Jewish culture and how food and recipes and stories are all sort of wrapped up together.
KM: So, why madeleines cookies specifically?
BW: I think the answer is, it was intuitive. It was just something that came from the collective unconscious, imaginative swamp that gets sort of channeled down when you're in a space of creating story. So it wasn't because I had a personal, deep relationship with madeleines, and I did not grow up in a family where people did a lot of baking.
So this was a leap outside of my personal growing up story, but I’ve developed a real love of baking as an adult.
KM: When did Annette come into the picture?
BW: I had submitted the play to the Jewish Plays Project, the National Jewish Playwriting Contest, and it had been a semi-finalist one year, and it became a finalist for the 2022 year. And that's when I thought, “Oh, I really need to collaborate with a Jewish woman, director, dramaturg on this piece. And, I know who that is.” It was early fall of 2021, leading up to 2022, where I understood that there was going to be some future development of this play, and I really wanted to have a director that I trusted and that I knew would understand the story, and Annette was the perfect person.
Annette Jolles (AJ): She didn't have to do much convincing because number one, I would work with Bess anytime, anywhere. And also, coming out of COVID, I was really struggling to figure out what I wanted to say or do in theater. When I read Madeleines I felt like I knew these women, and immediately related to what the play was saying about family, illness, sisters, secrets and faith, and to the wonderful mystical elements that are woven in. For the first time since the pandemic I thought, “Oh, I can do this. I think this truly feels relevant, and I think it’s important.”
KM: I would love to know a little more about your longtime working relationship together. How would you describe it?
AJ: Joyful, above all. There is a freedom to say whatever we need to say. Ultimately, this is because we have an infinite amount of respect for one another as collaborators, and as friends. Everything rests on the fact that I love the work, I trust the work, and I love and trust the writer. We are comfortable enough together for me to share my gut responses.
It’s as if I’m her first audience member. I read and envision the text and can be honest at this delicate stage—“I was moved. That's funny. I'm confused here.” This is the beginning of an extensive process that is very fluid and very open.
BW: I would say it's a collaboration predicated on the deepest kind of trust. And we often say that our minds work very similarly artistically. Not the same, but very similar. We've developed sort of a shorthand of communication between the two of us, because we've known each other for so long, and we've worked on so many things, and we're close personal friends. I would imagine that if somebody from the outside were listening in on this conversation, they would be like, “We have no idea what just happened,” because, you know, we're completing each other's sentences. And we like to get into the super nitty-gritty, we're both very detail-oriented. There's not a lot of wiggliness because we both are really dedicated to the specificity. And, as a director, [she is] completely open to my ideas around the physical storytelling of the play, and there’s just a lot of open communication around that.
KM: Annette, can you describe more specifically some of the things that you are thinking about while staging this piece?
AJ: I’m mainly thinking about honoring and illuminating the text and making it threedimensional and dynamic. I do this by concentrating on the subtext and intention behind Bess’ really thoughtful dialogue. There are things you can do with a simple physical action that clarify and illuminate a moment. But I think in this particular work, there's the challenge of a lot of physical activity written into the fabric of the play itself. You are cooking on stage. You are writing on stage. You have a character who exists in reality and then on another plane in death. So how does that physically manifest onstage? On one hand, you have to think practically —how do you do the cooking scenes, what working props do you need? And on the other, you have to think theatrically—how do living and nonliving characters interact and how do they
impact one another? And most importantly, how do those two ways of thinking work together to bring this story to life? To be honest, the set designer is an important friend in these decisions. I don’t stage until I really understand what the design is and how the rules of the world of the play function.
KM: How do you think the characters’ Judaism and family history inform the world of the play?
BW: I remember when I was working on the play in 2020, I was in a playwriting group with Company One Theatre in Boston, and their playwright-in-residence said something that stuck with me, that this play was “the least self-consciously Jewish play she had ever seen” because there wasn’t a moment in which any of the characters were sort of explaining their Jewishness to us. They were just living in their reality, which is Jewish. And the Jews in this story are contemporary, adult women who are living in the United States, who have grown up in a Jewish family with some Jewish tradition. And I think for a lot of American Jews, myself included, [we] find so much connection to our Jewishness through cultural elements, such as music, food, art, as much as through the religious aspects which I choose to observe. I would also say, being able to write in a very culturally specific way ultimately ends up being the most universal way to tell a story. What I’ve heard over and over again is that there are
direCtor annette Jolles.
so many things about these moments [in the play], these years in this family’s life, that just tracks. There are so many points of entry for people of any different background, ethnicity, or religion. This is a family drama, this is just human struggle, and people find themselves connecting with and resonating with the story.
AJ: It’s also an immigrant story. It’s a story about family secrets, it's a story about aging parents. It's a story about food, sibling rivalry, a story about—
AJ & BW: Food—
BW: —cooking, and the stories that go with those things, because those are just basic things we’re drawn to as humans. Somebody recently asked me, “How do you feel about the fact this play is being produced now, when there’s been this real rise over the last several years in antisemitism?” I think that actually it matters even more that we're telling this story now. If you watch this play, hopefully you might think, “Oh, well, if that’s what Jews are like, then I’m just like them, right?” And I’ve noticed in Jewish circles, we do revert back to Holocaust stories, but that’s not the defining thing about what it means to be Jewish. There’s way more to Jewish life than the horrible genocide that our people endured. This play touches on the ghosts of those things, but it’s not a Holocaust play. This story is doing something different.
KM: My last question is a two-parter. One, how does it feel to finally reach this point of a [world] premiere? And two, what do you hope audiences will walk away with?
BW: It’s total excitement, massive amounts of joy, and some relief like, “Oh my gosh, this is finally happening, ” after all those years of effort and doing all of the work that’s necessary to develop a play long enough to be able to have an opportunity like this. So, I think it’s a combination of lots of things for me, but all of it is positive.
AJ: The audience is the final character in a play, right? So to me, when we add that final element we get to see the play through their eyes. When you write a novel, you can put it on a piece of paper, you publish it, and you’re done. But theater is something you experience with other people, in a specific place and within a specific amount of time. There is a constant back-and-forth between the playwright’s words and the audience’s experience. I hope that an audience will come and be moved, and be entertained, and leave thinking about the play. The communal experience of hearing a story can be very powerful, finding points of connection between the storyteller and the listener and between the listeners themselves. To me, what’s interesting is not that we're giving them answers, it's that we are telling a story that's going to make them ask new questions that they hadn’t thought of before.
BW: And, you know, the fact that we get to actually now step into it and do it, and that Portland Stage is willing to invest the resources and take the risk on doing a brandnew play. These things are not to be taken for granted at all. For me, it’s extra special to be able to have this first production happen in my home community.
PlaywrigHt Bess welden.
Community Connections: An Interview with Local Community Organizers
Edited for length and clarity by Larsen Nichols
Directing and Dramaturgy Apprentices
Larsen Nichols sat down for tea and mandelbrot with wife-and-husband team
Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz for a conversation about food, community, memory, and the recipes we leave behind.
Margaret and Karl have been goat farmers and homesteaders at Ten Apple Farm in Gray, Maine, for 20 years, where they run their family agritourism business with their three daughters. They have collaborated on seven books on food and farming including two volumes of the Maine Community Cookbooks. In the wake of the pandemic, the couple founded the nonprofit Community Plate, which addresses loneliness and social disconnection through potluck suppers and storytelling workshops for people all over Maine.
Larsen Nichols (LN): So it seems like food, family, and connection are very important themes across all of the work that you do. How did you both come to love food and cooking?
Karl Schatz (KS): It goes back to my greatgrandmother who was a kosher caterer in Portland, and my mother and grandmother, they were all really good cooks. Food is so important in Jewish traditions, but I didn't think about food in any serious way until I met Margaret. Margaret was really interested in the anthropology of food, and made me think more about the meaning behind it.
Margaret Hathaway (MH): I studied English and anthropology in college and was interested, from sort of an intellectual perspective, in domestic life and forgotten history, and food is definitely a key to that. I became interested in how food can hold so much more than just physical nourishment. When I converted to Judaism, I often came at it through the foods. I converted, in part, so that our kids would be raised in a Jewish home, without feeling
conflicted. And part of being raised in a Jewish home is—
KS: The food!
MH: Different smells and tastes. And now my daughter, who's at Wesleyan, makes challah every Friday for their Shabbat services using my recipe. So I feel really good about that. But we also raise pigs… we don't keep kosher. (laughs)
LN: Karl, I understand your great-grandmother Sadye Schatz was a kosher caterer in Portland, and contributed to several cookbooks. What was she like?
KS: All the great-grandchildren called [Sadye] “Cookie Nana” because there were always cookies when we went to her house. The jar was always full. By the time I knew her she was long retired, but still baking. She was part of the cooking crew at the Jewish Home for the Aged (now The Cedars). They would cook for people there, and did cooking lessons. When my parents got married in 1966, she catered their wedding, and then retired after that.
a family CookBook, tea, and Homemade mandelBrot at larsen niCHols Visit to ten aPPle farm
There was another woman who was also doing some kosher catering around the same time. I think there was a little bit of a rivalry. If you look in this early community cookbook from Temple Beth El in Portland, there's a knish recipe that's attributed to someone else, but it’s the same recipe she contributed to the community cookbook from the Jewish Home for the Aged which came out before that one. And in the margins of this book, handwritten, it says “mine.” It's a great example of what's really interesting about these community cookbooks. This is how recipes were shared and food traveled through communities. People would contribute recipes to these books and then someone else would make another person's recipe. Then that recipe becomes a family recipe for them.
LN: In Madeleines , the protagonist creates a cookbook and memoir based off of her mother’s traditional Jewish cookie recipes. You’ve released several cookbooks; how do you develop your recipes when you cook?
MH: With baking, I always follow the formula, because you have to, or it falls flat. With everything else, I'm like, “Oh, it needs more herbs, it needs more lemon.” I'm actually in the process of putting together a family cookbook for our kids.
KS: Specifically for our daughter at Wesleyan.
MH: It was supposed to be a graduation present for her in June, but I keep adding things and it’s probably like 100 recipes at this point. We have three kids, everybody has their own birthday cake and then we celebrate half-birthdays so everybody has a half-birthday cake. And Charlotte, our eldest, was a vegetarian for a while, so [the cookbook] leans into that, but then she wants to know how to make brisket and roast chicken and it just kind of snowballs. So I would say I cook by feel a lot. But I bake by formula. And I am always collecting recipes. When I make something, I'm always tinkering with it and the margins are always like, “plus a quarter teaspoon cardamom.” I think you have to have confidence in yourself as a cook to really feel like you own recipes.
KS: Thinking about the recipes that you're putting together for the girls, it's not just about food that you like. There's meaning behind each entry, probably someone could tell some sort of story about each recipe.
MH: And because we grow a lot of our own food, we make a lot from scratch and so that’s probably why there’s so many recipes.
KS: And so there’s an extra layer of meaning, too, for the chicken recipes. We raise all our own meat, and so the girls know that when they’re eating meat here that animal was raised here on the farm, and often
margaret HatHaway and karl sCHatz witH tHeir tHree daugHters at ten aPPle farm, gray, maine.
slaughtered here.
MH: The model we wanted [when we started the farm] was to close the circle between production and consumption. Any food waste goes to the chickens or the pigs, their waste goes into the garden compost. We really do try to close that loop. And I think our kids' relationship to food, because of the way they’ve grown up, is to see all the work that goes into each part of it.
LN: What’s the best way for people who are curious to learn more about your work?
KS: For Community Plate, just go to our website, it's communityplate.me. There’s an Events page that lists all the upcoming events. We host a monthly community storytelling night in Lewiston called The Corner, which takes place the second Thursday of every month. We’re doing one or two suppers each month, and we're also doing a storytelling workshop in March at the Prince Memorial Library. We lead storytelling workshops to give people the skills and support they need to be able to get up and tell a personal narrative story in front of a live audience. The people who take the workshops often go on to be storytellers at the suppers.
LN: The play deals a lot with legacy and the question of what we are leaving to our children. What’s the one thing that’s most important to you to pass onto your kids?
KS: The importance and value of community. All of these studies are coming out now about health, mental health and loneliness, and how it impacts our physical health, not just our mental health. There's this incredible Harvard research study that's been going on for generations where they've been studying the human experience. The one main takeaway from all the years of interviews is that what's most important is the relationships that we have. It's funny, my dad always had this saying when we were growing up, which was “It's not what you know, it's who you know.” And I always bumped up against it because it seemed a little bit anti-intellectual to me. But as we’ve been doing the community building work of Community Plate, I realize now it's really about relationships, that's what is important: the people that are in your life and the community that you're surrounded by.
sadye sCHatz' CookBook.
Community CookBook from tHe JewisH Home of tHe aged, Portland maine
Pre-Show Activities
by Charlie Bowen and Sadie Goldstein
1. In Madeleines, Debra compiles a cookbook of all of the recipes her mother would make. Does your family have any classic recipes? Brainstorm a list of some of these recipes.
2. Rose creates recipes for every major event in her and her children’s lives. For example, Jennifer and Debra mention her making “orange icebox license cookies” when Jennifer got her driver’s license. Pick an event you have coming up and come up with a baked good for that event! Put a recipe together and present it to a group.
3. Read PlayNotes article “Jewish Argentinian Culture and History” and think about the intersectionality of identity. Lillia, one of the characters, is a Jewish Argentinian. She brings together aspects of both of these cultures to her own identity. Consider the different ways you culturally identify: where do you see aspects of different cultures appear in your own life? Think about food, language, clothing, holidays, etc.
Post-Show Activities
by Charlie Bowen and Sadie Goldstein
1. In addition to the plot spanning many years, time in the show is sometimes non-linear, including flashback sequences. How are these moments conveyed onstage? What technical elements (lights, sets, costumes) did the show use to show passage or a change in time? Did you find any of these moments confusing? Would you have staged any of them differently? Discuss with a group.
2. Occasionally during the show, some characters sprinkle in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Spanish words throughout the English dialogue, without providing translations. How does the story give context to help you understand the details you may be missing? Did you ever get lost with words you didn’t know? Discuss with a partner.
3. In a conversation with her father about his love for music and Cole Porter, Rose says Cole Porter is “not just a songwriter, he’s a poet.” Think about the use of music and poetry in Madeleines. How do they parallel each other? Is there music, poetry, or another form of art that you listen to with your family or that makes you feel connected with another family member? Brainstorm and share your thoughts with a partner.
The Jewish American Diaspora
by Larsen Nichols
It's May of 1945. The last of the concentration camps has been liberated, and the German surrender to the Allied powers is official. World War II in Europe has come to a close. Approximately 700,000 people have survived the concentration camps by the end of the Holocaust, like Jennifer and Debra’s Zayde (grandfather) in Madeleines. An overwhelming 11 million people have been displaced from their homes across Europe. But in the wake of such an atrocity, with few survivors of the camps able or willing to return home, where do all the survivors go?
After the Holocaust, the United States became one of the largest immigration destinations for displaced persons, admitting approximately 400,000 people by 1952, approximately 96,000 of which were Jewish survivors. This mass immigration to America laid the foundation for the US to have the largest population of Jews outside of Israel. Madeleines shows us the legacy of one of these such survivors, and the impact his move to America had on his descendants decades after the Holocaust. But how did survivors like Jennifer and Debra’s Zayde reach the United States’ shores? What was life like in the years in between liberation and arrival in America? And how have those Jewish communities evolved today?
Long before the liberation of the camps and the end of the war, European Jews had attempted to immigrate to the United States, fleeing persecution and pursuing a better life. But due to strict US immigration laws, most could not. Immigrating to the United States was incredibly difficult. The process was complicated; several government forms and applications were required to obtain a visa, as well as a sponsor in the States. Even after would-be immigrants acquired these documents, their applications were often denied by the US government. In 1924, Congress passed a law that set immigration quotas by country, with a total yearly limit of 164,000 people. While there was no quota for North or South American immigrants, the quotas heavily limited Asian, African, and Jewish immigration in the name of “protecting” America’s “racial stock.” Between 1924 and the end of World War II, hundreds of thousands of people applied to immigrate to the United States. Many of these applicants were Jewish refugees, attempting to flee their homes as their rights and possessions were stripped away by the Nazi regime. Charlene Schiff, a Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust by hiding in the woods in Ukraine, said of her immigration process to the US, “I had to wait three long years. There were quotas. There were always quotas.” Schiff eventually made it to the United States, but many people like her were denied immigration visas, became trapped in Nazi territory, and were later murdered in the Holocaust.
Once the concentration camps had been liberated, the question for foreign governments became how to address and relocate the approximately 70,000 Jewish survivors of the camps and 250,000 total displaced Jews. Many concentration camp survivors were beyond saving by the time of liberation, and died shortly after the war was over. Few felt safe returning to their countries of origin, if it was even possible for them. Many of these survivors were relocated to urban centers in Germany, Italy, and Austria, or
JewisH disPlaCed Persons attend a memorial serViCe in tHe BuCHenwald ConCentration CamP, CirCa 1946.
displaced persons (DP) camps—many of which were former concentration camps or German military camps. Conditions in these camps, especially ones run by the American military, were horrific, with displaced persons being kept in crowded and unsanitary conditions and under armed guard. The Harrison Report from 1945 revealed the scope of the inhumane and concentration camp-like conditions of these American DP camps. The report recommended the resettlement of 100,000 of these DPs to Palestine, and eventually thousands of displaced persons did immigrate to the newly formed state of Israel. In 1948, Congress authorized 200,000 displaced persons to move into the United States, and by 1952, approximately 96,000 Jews had entered the country. Most of the DP camps across Europe closed in the late 1940s and early 1950s, with the last being closed in 1959.
But even if you were a Jewish displaced person admitted to the United States, the journey was a long and difficult one, and peace and safety were still far off. Passengers traveled by boat, the majority landing and settling in New York. Polish Holocaust survivor Aron Derman recounts his journey to the United States: “It was real, real hard. Small boat they gave us and a boat with no facilities. No, the conditions were not too pleasant. With bunks. And it was all stormy, and all of us were sick.” When passengers like Derman arrived in the United States, they were faced with the challenge of completely starting over a
new life. Few welfare programs like those we have today were available to these refugees. However, organizations such as the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA) did provide support and aid for Holocaust survivors in New York, promoting work and self-support as paths to successful integration. NYANA helped these immigrants find jobs and provided some financial assistance as they adjusted to new lives in New York. Many Jewish immigrants settled initially in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, which was the home of New York’s garment district, an overcrowded hub of economic activity during the mid-1900s. These recent arrivals worked hard in the garment industry, as well as industries like cigar manufacturing, banking, construction, and food production. Businesses started by Jewish European refugees have become beloved New York institutions, like 2nd Avenue Deli, started by Abe Lebewhol, a Ukrainian immigrant who arrived in New York in 1950 after fleeing the war.
Today, there are Jewish communities all over the United States, with the largest populations being located in major urban centers like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and DC, among others. Though the journey for a better life was fraught and complicated for many Jewish refugees after the Holocaust, the United States became a place of safety and opportunity for many, and the legacies of the survivors can be seen in many cities and towns across the country.
2nd aVe deli, originally on seCond aVenue in tHe east Village. CirCa 2022.
JewisH disPlaCed Persons reCeiVe Bread rations at tHe BindermiCHl disPlaCed Persons' CamP in linz, austria, CirCa 1946.
Role Reversal in Caretaking
by Kimmarie McCrann
This article contains spoilers for Madeleines.
What does it mean to care for someone? Madeleines by Bess Welden explores this very topic. When struggling writer Debra Mortiz moves back in with her aging mother, Rose, to provide care in the final 16 months of her mom’s life, she learns a great deal about their family’s history and has “the best time we ever had together.” As seen in Debra’s case, as parents age the child may assume the responsibility of homemaker, nurse, and accountant, all rolled into one. This creates an interesting relationship dynamic between the elderly parent and adult child, or a “role reversal” of sorts. When the child was in their youth, it was the parent’s job to provide all essential financial, physical, and emotional support for them. However, in old age, if a parent is unable to complete their day-today functions, the child becomes the one to assume these exact same responsibilities, only many years later.
Caretaking might entail many different facets towards the end of a parent’s life. The childturned-caretaker often completes many vital, tangible tasks for their aging parent. This can include things like cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, driving them to doctor appointments and hospital visits, and paying medical bills, to name a few. When the parent has a commonly diagnosed disease seen in elderly patients, such as Alzheimer’s or cancer, the child might also help their parent with basic health functions, like showering and using the bathroom. In such cases, the child may often temporarily move into their parent’s house (for months or years at a time) to provide 24/7 care. This can mean putting their jobs, personal relationships, and hobbies on hold in order to be the best caregiver possible. Additionally, the parent might be suffering from emotional distress or a declining mental state at the end of their life, and it becomes the child’s responsibility to listen, soothe, and assume a therapist-like role for them. This is comparable to the way that the parent previously quelled the child’s nightmares and tantrums, or
listened to their first heartbreak stories, when they were much younger.
The physical and psychological effects that becoming a parent’s full-time caretaker has on a child can be intense. According to the Family Caregiver Alliance in San Francisco, more caregivers are hospitalized due to burnout and stress-related illness than due to any medical conditions. Because the caregivers are prioritizing someone else’s health and wellbeing over their own for such an extended period of time, they might toss important selfcare tasks and needs to the side. After a while of not doing anything for their own health or enjoyment, caregivers often experience intense bouts of depression, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and exhaustion. These negative feelings are amplified by the conscious knowledge that
a senior resident and CaregiVer at st. JoHn of god Halswell, new zealand
their parent is going to pass away soon, and they are going to lose the person who used to care for them. These constant thoughts of death and loss are often accompanied by a sense of spiritual and existential dread, and a fear as to what comes after life.
All of these intense thoughts and emotions can create a sense of “ambiguous loss,” a term coined by Dr. Pauline Boss of the University of Minnesota, a Fellow in the American Psychological Association and a self-described “pioneer in the interdisciplinary study of family stress.” According to Dr. Boss, ambiguous loss describes the type of grief associated with feelings of confusion and uncertainty that arise when someone is mourning the loss of a loved one who is still alive. Especially seeing a parent in such a state of disarray, atypical of their healthy self’s personality, can trigger strong senses of ambiguous loss in their children.
So, why might someone choose to assume such massive responsibilities and become a caregiver to their parents in adult life? A primary reason is commonly due to cost of living concerns. In Ohio (where the Moritz house is located), the average cost of a private room in a nursing home is about $10,000 per month. This would accumulate to a total expense of about $160,000 for Debra to place Rose in a facility like that for a span of 16 months. For many people, this kind of extreme debt just isn’t feasible to incur in their lives. And those expenses don’t even include the medical bills, prescriptions, and other necessary means for parents like Rose to live somewhat comfortably in their final days. Additionally, a deep, emotional attachment to their parents and a heightened sense of responsibility can inspire people to want to spend as much time with their parents as possible while they still can. Sometimes, the parent even explicitly asks their children to care for them towards the end.
In order to avoid or diminish the negative impacts of caregiving, experienced geriatric social worker Suzanne Alexander recommends learning to ask for help. In a Franciscan Health article, Alexander says, “The American character is 'I can do it by myself.’ If people offer help, let them do so—even having
someone bring over a casserole one night. Offer specific things they can do, whether it's vacuuming, cooking, or watching your loved one so you can have some time to yourself.” Additionally, Alexander acknowledges that caregiving doesn’t always easily become a “you do this and I’ll do that” separation of responsibilities. She says, “If your siblings aren't pitching in, call a family meeting and talk about how you'd like to delegate tasks." This is certainly relevant to Madeleines, in which Debra spends sixteen months as Rose’s full-time caregiver, while her older sister, Jennifer, only comes home briefly for the funeral. A grieving and exhausted Debra confronts Jenn about this matter, and tensions arise between the two sisters. However, their mother’s death also brings them together for the first time in years, and forces them to confront their true feelings and show up for each other.
At the end of the day, all we have are each other. Helping one another, and even a caretaking role reversal, is the ultimate return and exchange of love and care toward family members and friends. It’s important to remember that—even in the most difficult of times.
Mother and Child By CHristian kroHg
Glossary
by Kimmarie McCrann
92nd Street Y: A cultural and community center located in the Upper East Side neighborhood of New York City.
Barney Greengrass: A Jewish deli, founded in 1908, located in the Upper West Side neighborhood of NYC. Famous for smoked fish, fresh bagels, and other Jewish delicacies.
“Bei Mir Bistu Sheyn”: A popular Yiddish song written in 1932 by lyricist Jacob Jacobs and composer Shalom Secunda. The title is Yiddish for “to me you’re beautiful.”
Bialy: A baked yeast roll with a divot in the middle that is typically filled with onions and/ or poppy seeds.
Bris: Circumcision ceremony for Jewish boys which occurs when they are 8 days old.
Buenos Aires: The capital city of Argentina.
Dodge Hall: The building housing Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts.
DP camps: Displaced Persons camps that were established in 1945 at the end of World War II. Their purpose was to provide temporary residence to the one million people displaced from their home countries. Conditions in the camps were often unsafe, overcrowded, and unsanitary.
Estée Lauder: One of the world’s leading cosmetics, makeup, and skincare companies. Founded by Estelle Lauter (who later changed her name to Estée Lauder) in 1946 with her husband, Joseph Lauter.
Formica: A hard, durable plastic laminate used for countertops, cupboard doors, and other surfaces. Formica countertops were most commonly found in American kitchens in the 1930s–1960s, until granite countertops became popular in the 1970s.
Goyishe: A Hebrew term that is often used in a derogatory manner to mean “not Jewish.”
Hamantaschen: Jewish cookies. Shortbread in the shape of a triangle, filled with things like poppy seeds, jams, and chocolate.
“Hot House Rose”: A song written by Cole Porter in 1926.
Icebox cookies: An old-fashioned cookie where the dough is rolled into a log, stored and chilled in the refrigerator, and then sliced and baked in the oven.
Kaddish: The Jewish prayer for the dead. A 13th-century Aramaic language prayer in remembrance of the deceased, and to praise and honor God.
Kinahora: Yiddish expression that means “no evil eye,” to ward off bad spirits or bad luck.
Kosher: Fit or proper as it relates to Jewish dietary law. Refers to any foods that complies with the dietary law.
Madeleines: French tea cakes that are light, spongey, and buttery, with a golden color. Famous for their scalloped shell shape.
estée lauder aPPlies liPstiCk to a Customer, 1966.
Mandelbrot: A traditional, hard, Eastern European Jewish cookie with an almond flavor.
Manischewitz: A brand of kosher products best known for its matzo and its wine.
Matzah cake flour: A flour-like consistency baking base made from finely ground matzo (unleavened bread). Used in "kosher for Passover" recipes.
Mein(e) gute meydl: Yiddish term of affection meaning “my good girl.”
Mensch: Yiddish for “good person.”
Mi chica: Spanish for “my girl.”
Mishpocha: Yiddish for “family” or “family network.”
Ohio Rust Belt: An area of industrial decline centered in the Great Lakes region of the United States, specifically Northern Ohio.
Papas fritas: Spanish for "french fries."
Pesach: Hebrew for "Passover".
Provence: A region in southeastern France bordering Italy and the Mediterranean Sea.
Rugelach: Rolled pastry cookies that originate from Jewish communities in Poland. They are traditionally rolled around a sweet walnutraisin filling.
Seder: Hebrew for "order". Name for the traditional Passover feast.
Shabbat: A weekly day of rest, which occurs from dusk on Friday night to sundown on Saturay night. Also known as the “Sabbath."
Shiva: A period of mourning in Judaism that lasts seven days, starting when the mourners return from the funeral home. During shiva, a mourner typically stays at the home of the deceased or the home of fellow mourners, wears a black ribbon or torn clothing, and doesn’t go to work or school.
Shul: Yiddish for “synagogue,” a place of worship and services for Jewish peoples.
Sylvia’s: Famous Harlem restaurant, known as the “Queen of Soul Food,” serving southern comfort food since 1962.
Tuchas: A Yiddish slang term for “butt” or “rear end.”
West End Avenue: A fairly expensive neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It’s a few blocks west of Central Park, and to the east of the Hudson River.
Yahrzeit: A Yiddish word referring to the anniversary of a person’s death. Yahrzeit is observed by the deceased's loved ones and family lighting a special long-burning candle (often packed inside a glass jar) on the date.
Yiddish: A Jewish language which is a combination of German and Hebrew which originated around 1000 CE. Historically spoken by Eastern European Jewish people.
Zabar’s: A gourmet deli on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, specializing in Jewish foods and treats. Zabar’s was founded in 1934 by Ukrainian Jewish immigrants Lillian and Louis Zabar.
Zayde: A Yiddish word that means “grandfather” or “old man.”
HamantasCHen a traditional Cookie eaten during tHe JewisH Holiday Purim
Jewish Argentinian Culture and History
by Micki Demby Kleinman
In Bess Welden’s Madeleines, Lilia Kaminsky, an Argentine Jew, recounts her ancestors' flight from Eastern Europe to Latin America. After the Holocaust, what was left of Lilia’s family came to the Americas in search of a better life. Her immigration story may seem unusual, but it is far from the only instance in which a large wave of Jewish people immigrated to Latin America.
The earliest speculated immigration of Jewish people to Latin America was during the late 1400s. During the late 1400s the Spanish Inquisition raged throughout Spain and Portugal. Anyone who was not Catholic was either killed or forced to convert. Many Jewish people were murdered; some converted, but secretly maintained Jewish traditions to some degree in the privacy of their home. Some Jewish people sought refuge in Latin America, predominantly in places like Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. Although Latin America was under Spanish colonial rule during this time, the discrimination against non-Catholics was slightly less strict than in Spain proper. These immigrants were still often forced to hide their Judaism, and years later, through ancestry tests or personal revelation, Latin Americans have discovered secret family pasts of Jewish heritage. The next large wave of immigration occurred from the 1850s to the 1930s, when Eastern European Jews were facing antisemitic
laws, discrimination, and pogroms—violent and destructive raids that aimed to expel and ethnically cleanse Jews. During this time period, Jews immigrated to Latin American countries with open immigration policies, such as Argentina and Venezuela. An 1876 Argentine law offered generous incentives to immigrants. The law promised immigrants that the government would help with lodging, finding work, and a free train ride to their final destination. Under this legislation, Argentina received over 6 million immigrants, 200,000 of whom were Jewish.
In addition to Eastern European, or Ashkenazi, Jews fleeing to Argentina due to pogroms, Middle Eastern and North African, or Sephardi, Jews also immigrated to Argentina around this time. Moroccan and Syrian Jews built essential structures for Jewish life in Argentina, including schools, temples, mikvahs (ritual bath houses), and kosher butcheries. In the latter half of the 1900s, and into the 2000s, Argentina struggled with absurd inflation and severe economic and political instability. Some citizens, Jews and non-Jews alike, sought immigration to other countries with better opportunities, while others chose to stay loyal to their country and persevere through difficult times.
Today, Jewish life in Argentina remains mostly in the capital, Buenos Aires, though Jewish citizens also live in the countryside. Argentina boasts the largest diasporic Jewish community in the world outside of the US and Canada. In Madeleines, Bess Welden examines the lives of Jewish immigrants to both the US and Argentina. Through her compelling characters, Welden provides a glimpse of the realities of the Jewish immigration experience and the way it affected families and subsequent generations. Just like anyone else, Jewish people live varied lives, hard lives, and joyful lives. They carry their religious and cultural traditions, no matter where they come from and where they settle.
a family of sePHardi Jews from misiones ProVinCe, argentina, CirCa 1900.
Grief Through Storytelling and Art
by Micki Demby Kleinman
When a loss occurs in one’s life, it can feel impossible to heal. The thought of resuming life can feel out of reach and unattainable. But there are tools at the disposal that can be used to process and ease the pain. As seen in Madeleines by Bess Welden, the power of words, art, and storytelling can be crucial for helping those in mourning. The characters of Debra Moritz and Lilia Kaminsky both use art to process tragedies in their lives. Debra writes a cookbook recounting her mother’s final days, which offers a glimpse into their complicated relationship. Lilia writes a poem about her upbringing, and the disappointments that color her world. These two women are examples of using storytelling and art to process some of the harder parts of life. The benefits of using art to process grief is often overlooked.
A common way to use words to mourn someone is by delivering a eulogy. A eulogy is a type of speech that dates back to the ancient Greeks. These speeches commemorated particularly esteemed individuals and their lifetime accomplishments and successes. The Romans made advances on this tradition, and normalized delivering eulogies during funerals for common people. These speeches focused on creating a narrative for the deceased’s life. Eulogies continued to evolve within different cultures and different eras, reflecting the values of the time. During the Middle Ages, there was often a religious theme, while current eulogies often focus on sharing memories and love for the recently deceased. In addition to a eulogy, there are elegies, or poems that focus on the emotions of sorrow, melancholy, or grief. Elegies can be a reflective way to process negative emotions, rather than just death, in an artistic way.
Research shows that forming a narrative and telling a story about someone's life can be tremendously helpful. Writing and telling a story can provide healing by offering a chance to say goodbye and create a story of their
lives, which can help synthesize and provide a sense of closure. Storytelling can help organize errant thoughts into cohesion, and give erratic emotions a structured narrative in which to live. This allows people to make sense of things and “carry forward” their relationship with the deceased, keeping the narrative relationship alive, even after they have passed away. In addition to those personal benefits, there are also interpersonal benefits when sharing these stories with others, like being seen, creating community, and releasing emotions. Psychologists are not quite sure why, but the act of retelling an incident, and attaching an emotion to it, can help people process emotions and achieve a sense of closure and tranquility.
Beyond poems and stories, art has the ability to act as a healing tool. Psychologists have observed that when engaging with art, multiple brain systems are engaged, including visual and sensory systems, emotion processing, and memory and higher-order thinking. Having multiple brain systems activated at once allows the brain to reckon with a piece of information in multiple ways, creating pathways for understanding and providing a sense of closure. Additionally, when interacting with visual art, a medium without words, individuals can process emotions that they may not be able to put into words and articulate. Other mediums, such as dance and music, have also been proven to help strengthen social bonds, understand emotions, and heal.
Having a space to process emotion that is distinct from the verbal space is beneficial for people processing difficult emotions. Lilia Kaminsky and Debra Moritz have both struggled in their lives, losing loved ones and hope, but they use art as a way to process their grief and share their emotions. These characters are a testament to the healing power of art.
Food and Jewish Tradition
by Micki Demby Kleinman
They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat!
This famous and hard-to-attribute quip is often said about Jewish people and their relationship to food. Every tragedy and victory and survival the Jewish people encounter is a chance to celebrate and eat food. Beyond their love of eating, feeding loved ones, and foodcentered rituals, the Jewish people are known for their delicious cuisine. When thinking of Jewish food, bagels, kugel, or latkes (fried potato pancakes) may initially come to mind. However, there is more cultural variety, and historical significance to these foods, than most Americans may know. What makes Jewish food “Jewish”? And why is it so tasty?!
When ancient Jews lived in biblical Israel, they had a holy temple in Jerusalem, the “Beit Hamikdash.” In 70 CE the Romans conquered Israel, destroyed the Beit Hamikdash, and expelled the Jews from their homeland. This loss of a Jewish autonomous kingdom forced these people to settle all over the world, and a loss of cultural unity and community connection occurred. However, this diaspora led to culinary innovations and shaped the Jewish food world as it is seen today.
One of the most recognizably Jewish foods are bagels, which are shaped by Jewish
immigration and history. Jewish Poles were inspired by obwarzanek, a ring-shaped Polish bread, and from there created the smaller, single-serving bread now recognized as the bagel. After being inspired by Polish bread, Jewish immigrants brought the bread with them to the United States and shared that food with their new communities.
Lots of food that would now be considered “Jewish” has its roots in kashrut (kosher laws), historical customs, and cultural exchange with where the Jews were living. A strong example of this is challah (braided brioche bread), which is recognizably Jewish, Biblical in origin, and inspired by the region Jews were living in at the time. According to the Bible, when the Jews were wandering the desert, God provided them with sustenance and nutrition in the form of “manna,” which would fall from the sky daily. In honor of Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, God would provide a double portion of manna for each family to sustain them on this special day. This is now presently mirrored on Shabbat tables, where each meal has two loaves of bread. These
CHallaH.
latkes witH lox and sour Cream. PHotos and food By Beka Bryer
two loaves are virtually exclusively challah, originally inspired by breads in Germany and Austria, then brought to the United States with Jewish immigrants, and made sweeter by newly available ingredients such as commercial yeast, sugar, and non–whole wheat flour. The evolution of challah as it is known today has been influenced by the location and rituals of the Jewish people as they have spread across the globe.
In addition to being inspired by biblical stories, Jewish food is also influenced by the resources and ingredients available in the region in which it is made. Charoset is a traditional Passover dish made to symbolize the mortar for bricks that Jewish slaves in ancient Egypt were forced to use. In order to represent the mortar, the dish is typically quite thick. Different Jewish cultures make the recipes differently. Eastern European tradition involves fresh apples, walnuts, and grape juice, while Middle Eastern and North African charoset uses dried figs and nuts. There are many Jewish cultures with recipe variations in between. Another example of cultural variation on Jewish recipes is latkes. Latkes are historically Eastern European and are made with potatoes, but in El Salvador, latkes are made with yuca due to its abundance. Traditional, slow-cooked Shabbat stew is called “cholent” in Eastern Europe and contains meat, beans, and potatoes, while it is called “hamin” in Middle Eastern North African communities and contains wheat berries, eggs, beef, and different spices.
Contrary to popular perception, not all Jews have Eastern European heritage. Therefore, not all Jews have Eastern European traditions or customs or food. If Jewish culture is not a monoculture, what is Jewish food? Bess Welden’s Madeleines illustrates that food and location and history and family stories are all wrapped up into one and are inextricably linked. Perhaps Jewish food is food with a story attached, a sentimental significance, one that pays homage to the local environment and a communal history. Jewish people and food are constantly evolving and being influenced by other circumstances. To be influenced by others’ cultures, or to invite others to share in something as sacred as food and nourishment, suggests that Jewish
people are adaptable and resilient, with strong roots in tradition, a firm grip on the present, and an eye towards innovation and the future. Perhaps that is what makes Jewish people and Jewish food what they are.
seder Plate. PHotos and food By katHryne lyons.
Watch
Recommended Resources
by Editors
The Persecuted (short documentary about DP camps) by George Kadish
The Hours by Stephen Daldry
Read
Recipe for Madeleines in The Joy of Cooking 1964 Edition by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker
Jewish Buenos Aires, 1890–1939 by Victor Mirelman
Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon
Maine Community Cookbook by various authors
Maine Bicentennial Community Cookbook by various authors
Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Sami Tamimi and Yotam Ottolenghi
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Listen
Cole Porter’s Anything Goes “Bei Mir Bistu Sheyn” by Jacob Jacobs and Sholom Secunda
Get Involved
Community Plate communityplate.me
Carine montBertrand (aea), Carmen roman (aea), PlaywrigHt Bess welden, direCtor annette Jolles, danielle leVin (aea), and assistant direCtor kimmarie mCCrann on tHe first day of reHearsal. PHotograPH By aressa goodriCH.
Portland Stage Company Education Programs
Student Matinee Series
The Portland Stage Student Matinee Program provides students with discounted tickets for student matinees. Following the performance, students participate in a conversation with the cast and crew, which helps them gain awareness of the creative process and encourages them to think critically about the themes and messages of the play.
Play Me a Story
Experience the fun and magic of theater on Saturday mornings with Play Me a Story! Ages 4 – 10 enjoy a performance of children’s stories followed by an interactive acting workshop with Portland Stage’s Education Artists for $15. Sign up for the month and save or pick individual days that work for you. Build literacy, encourage creativity and spark dramatic dreams!
Shakespeare Teen Company
In April and May of 2025, students will come together as an ensemble to create a fully-staged Shakespeare production in Portland Stage’s studio theater. Participants in grades 7-12 take on a variety of roles including acting, costume design, marketing, and more!
Vacation and Summer Camps
Dive into theater for five exciting days while on your school breaks! Our theater camps immerse participants in all aspects of theater, culminating in an open studio performance for friends and family at the end of the week! Camps are taught by professional actors, directors, and artisans. Students are invited to think imaginatively, critically, and creatively in an environment of inclusivity and safe play.
PLAY Program
An interactive dramatic reading and acting workshop tour for elementary school students in grades pre-k through 5. Professional education artists perform children’s literature and poetry and then involve students directly in classroom workshops based on the stories. Artists actively engage students in in small group workshop using their bodies, voices, and imaginations to build understanding of the text while bringing the stories and characters to life. PLAY helps develop literacy and reading fluency, character recall, understanding of themes, social emotional skills, physical storytelling, and vocal characterization. The program also comes with a comprehensive Resource Guide filled with information and activities based on the books and poems.
Directors Lab
Professional actors perform a 50-minute adaptation of a Shakespeare play, followed by a talkback. In 2025 we will be touring Hamlet to middle and high schools. After the performance, students engage directly with the text in an interactive workshop with the actors and creative team. In these workshops, students practice effective communication, creative collaboration, rhetoric, and critical analysis. The program also comes with a comprehensive Resource Guide filled with information and resources about the play we are focusing on. Directors Lab puts Shakespeare’s language into the hands and mouths of the students, empowering them to be the artists, directors, and ensemble with the power to interpret the text and produce meaning.
Portland Stage Company
Anita Stewart Artistic Director
Martin Lodish Managing Director
Artistic & Production Staff
Todd Brian Backus Literary Manager
Jacob Coombs Associate Technical Director
Ted Gallant Technical Director
Myles C. Hatch Stage Manager
Meg Lydon Stage Manager
Elliot Nye Props Coordinator
Mary Lana Rice Production Manager, Lighting Supervisor, & Resident Lighting Designer
Seth Asa Sengel Asst. Production Manager, Sound Supervisor, & Resident Sound Designer
Susan Thomas Costume Shop Manager
Administrative
Staff
Paul Ainsworth Business Manager
Covey Crolius Development Director
Erin Elizabeth Marketing & Communications Director
Cassie Endicott Assistant Box Office Manager
Lake Marshburn-Ersek Audience Services Associate
Allison Fry Grants Coordinator
Aressa Goodrich Marketing and Graphic Design Associate
Lindsey Higgins Development Associate
Katie Hodgdon House & Concessions Manager
Savannah Irish Marketing Assistant
Jennifer London Company Manager, Apprentice Coordinator
Carrigan O'Brien Audience Services Associate
Stacey Salotto-Cristobol Education Assistant
Don Smith Audience Services Manager
Julianne Shea Education Administrator, Apprentice Coordinator
Adam Thibodeau House Manager
Michael Dix Thomas Education Director
Apprentice Company
Charlie Bowen Education Apprentice
Kevin Commander Stage Management Apprentice
Renata Cortés Costumes Apprentice
Sadie Goldstein Education Apprentice
Micki Demby Kleinman Directing & Dramaturgy Apprentice
Kimmarie McCrann Directing & Dramaturgy Apprentice
Larsen Nichols Directing & Dramaturgy Apprentice
Casey Pitts Company Management Apprentice
Jessica Podemski Costumes Apprentice
Sierra Riley Electrics Apprentice
Grάinne Sheehan Props Apprentice
Charlotte Teplitz Stage Management Apprentice
