1 minute read
PRODUCTION
from Rachel Calof
The show has been performed throughout America demonstrating a universal appeal.
Production History:
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Ensemble Studio Theatre West
November 2010
John Raitt Theatre, Pepperdine University
February 2011
New York International Theater Festival
August 2011
Jewish Theater Conference, UCLA
January 2012
Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company
August 2013
North Dakota Chautauqua Association
Devil’s Lake, North Dakota
June 2014
“ “
This piece should be seen by e veryone. I can’t recommend it highly enough.”
KATHLEEN MARSHALL,
Pepperdine University
Rachel Calof brings to life the pioneering immigrant story f lush with unimaginable hardship, perse verance, and pain. Yet with Ken LeZebnik’s tender writing and a performance of such specificity by Kate Fuglei, this 90-minute, colorful tour de force becomes a mesmerizing journe y of hope and triumph.”
BARBARA BROOKS, Producing Artistic Director
Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company
Fuglei begins the story in the 12-by-14-foot dining room of Rachel’s St. Paul home in 1936. The space is taped out on the stage f loor and she tells us that this was the size of the family’s first home in North Dakota.
Throughout the play, we look at these dimensions and imagine husband and wife, his parents and brothers, a couple dozen chickens and a cow all living in this dirt-f loor hovel. Always, there is the suffocating presence of others with no privacy. It boggles the mind.”
“
Fuglei creates the whole thing with her body, movement, and voice, all of which build a rich and vibrant world. Be yond that are the Steinweiss’s songs. The show is subtitled ‘ a memoir with music,’ and the selections have a lot more in common with classical art songs than rah-rah American musicals.”
CITY PAGES, Ed Huyck
