Playwright group to stage Holocaust play
Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative (CPI) and Cincinnati Arts Association continue the New Voices Series of staged readings by local actors, with another Holocaust-theme play.
Embers from the Ashes: A Girl's Holocaust Diary -
Written by Kalman Kivkovich
Directed by Tom Manning
Original Music, Kamionka 1942, by Kalman Kivkovich
"Embers from the Ashes: A Girl's Holocaust Diary" is loosely based on a recently found journal, Ruthka Laskier's. A 14-year-old Israeli girl discovers having a sister who had perished in the Holocaust. Decades later, in 2006, she learns that a Polish woman had found her sister's notebook, but kept it a secret for 61 years. . . . A flashback takes us to 1942, Nazi-occupied Bedzin, Poland. We stay with a family who faces foreseeable destruction. We witness the struggle of an adolescent coming of age in the foreground of formidable evil. It echoes the voices of a million and a half Jewish children who didn't live to tell their stories.
The story keeps making news around the globe. A third book will be published in April. The events took place 2 blocks from where Kalman's mother lived. Her family shared Ruthka's fate.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008, at 7:30 PM
Aronoff Center for the Arts, Fifth Third Bank Theater
Corner of Main and Seventh Streets
Tickets are only $7 ($4 students). Reservations may be made in advance at Aronoff Center Box Office, or by calling 513-621-2787, or online at
http://www.cincinnatiarts.org/event_detail.jsp?event_id=753
Tickets are limited!
The Cast: in order of appearance
Stephanie Brait as Ora & Ruthka
Michael G. Bath as Moishe
Alana Ghent as Sonia
Emily Matlack as Stasia
David Speer as Romek
Kate Wilford as Ora
Herb DuVal as Moti
Violinist: Alberta Schneider (KSO)
About the Director:
Tom Manning has directed over ninety plays in university, summer stock and off-off-Broadway venues. He has taught acting and directing courses at five universities, including Columbia University and Miami University. He served as president of the Ohio Theatre Alliance. Recently, he has focused on acting with roles in That Championship Season at the Covedale, Tuesdays with Morrie at the Ovation Theatre Company, and To Kill a Mockingbird at the Falcon. Other acting credits include the title role in King Lear with the Indianapolis Shakespeare Festival and School for Scandal with the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. He has worked with Cincinnati playwrights in performances of the CPI staged reading of Soldiers' Christmas and The Cincinnati 28 at the Museum Center.
About the Playwright:
Kalman Kivkovich is a retired architect, an artist, a writer and playwright. He is a man of many continents; born in Kazakhstan in 1945 to Polish nationals, lived in Poland, Israel, Italy and for the last 35 years right here in Cincinnati. Kalman published his first nonfiction in 1975, in Italy. He finished his first novel, In the Vise of Evils, in 2006. This is his second play to be selected by CPI; his first, In the Vise of Evils, based on his novel, was awarded the unprecedented two performances and offered a third. Kalman frequents the InkTank Writers' Salon and is a member of CPI, Cincinnati Playwrights' Initiative, chairing its Publicity and informal Cold-Readings.
For more information about this play, contact:
Kalman Kivkovich
513-861-0004
Kivi1@aol.com
Playwright Kalman Kivkovich resides in Cincinnati, OH 45220
About CPI:
The Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative is a grassroots organization of playwrights, directors and actors devoted to bringing plays written by local playwrights to the Cincinnati stage in the form of staged readings. Staged readings are an important step in the development of new plays. The audience is encouraged but not required to join in the collaborative process of bringing a new play to life. Staged readings allow playwrights, actors and directors to receive feedback from the audience about the play-in-progress. Plays originally presented in the New Voices Series have been produced locally as well as in New York and Los Angeles. For information about CPI, visit www.cinciplaywrights.org.
Embers from the Ashes: A Girl's Holocaust Diary -
Written by Kalman Kivkovich
Directed by Tom Manning
Original Music, Kamionka 1942, by Kalman Kivkovich
"Embers from the Ashes: A Girl's Holocaust Diary" is loosely based on a recently found journal, Ruthka Laskier's. A 14-year-old Israeli girl discovers having a sister who had perished in the Holocaust. Decades later, in 2006, she learns that a Polish woman had found her sister's notebook, but kept it a secret for 61 years. . . . A flashback takes us to 1942, Nazi-occupied Bedzin, Poland. We stay with a family who faces foreseeable destruction. We witness the struggle of an adolescent coming of age in the foreground of formidable evil. It echoes the voices of a million and a half Jewish children who didn't live to tell their stories.
The story keeps making news around the globe. A third book will be published in April. The events took place 2 blocks from where Kalman's mother lived. Her family shared Ruthka's fate.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008, at 7:30 PM
Aronoff Center for the Arts, Fifth Third Bank Theater
Corner of Main and Seventh Streets
Tickets are only $7 ($4 students). Reservations may be made in advance at Aronoff Center Box Office, or by calling 513-621-2787, or online at
http://www.cincinnatiarts.org/event_detail.jsp?event_id=753
Tickets are limited!
The Cast: in order of appearance
Stephanie Brait as Ora & Ruthka
Michael G. Bath as Moishe
Alana Ghent as Sonia
Emily Matlack as Stasia
David Speer as Romek
Kate Wilford as Ora
Herb DuVal as Moti
Violinist: Alberta Schneider (KSO)
About the Director:
Tom Manning has directed over ninety plays in university, summer stock and off-off-Broadway venues. He has taught acting and directing courses at five universities, including Columbia University and Miami University. He served as president of the Ohio Theatre Alliance. Recently, he has focused on acting with roles in That Championship Season at the Covedale, Tuesdays with Morrie at the Ovation Theatre Company, and To Kill a Mockingbird at the Falcon. Other acting credits include the title role in King Lear with the Indianapolis Shakespeare Festival and School for Scandal with the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. He has worked with Cincinnati playwrights in performances of the CPI staged reading of Soldiers' Christmas and The Cincinnati 28 at the Museum Center.
About the Playwright:
Kalman Kivkovich is a retired architect, an artist, a writer and playwright. He is a man of many continents; born in Kazakhstan in 1945 to Polish nationals, lived in Poland, Israel, Italy and for the last 35 years right here in Cincinnati. Kalman published his first nonfiction in 1975, in Italy. He finished his first novel, In the Vise of Evils, in 2006. This is his second play to be selected by CPI; his first, In the Vise of Evils, based on his novel, was awarded the unprecedented two performances and offered a third. Kalman frequents the InkTank Writers' Salon and is a member of CPI, Cincinnati Playwrights' Initiative, chairing its Publicity and informal Cold-Readings.
For more information about this play, contact:
Kalman Kivkovich
513-861-0004
Kivi1@aol.com
Playwright Kalman Kivkovich resides in Cincinnati, OH 45220
About CPI:
The Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative is a grassroots organization of playwrights, directors and actors devoted to bringing plays written by local playwrights to the Cincinnati stage in the form of staged readings. Staged readings are an important step in the development of new plays. The audience is encouraged but not required to join in the collaborative process of bringing a new play to life. Staged readings allow playwrights, actors and directors to receive feedback from the audience about the play-in-progress. Plays originally presented in the New Voices Series have been produced locally as well as in New York and Los Angeles. For information about CPI, visit www.cinciplaywrights.org.
And it’s cool that after 40 years of working with young people, helping them express themselves through words written and spoken, that the Watts Prophets would still be moved enough by the words of a teenager that they carry something like this around to share.
While getting the award, someone asked them what their name was.
