Directors note
Community. It has shrunk recently to encompass only our friends, those we agree with and those who think exactly like us. But, community is more. There is an ancient Jewish teaching that all people are made in the Iimage of their Creator. This teaching holds that life is precious and humans are deserving of dignity and respect. Regardless of the tradition, custom, or our level of agreement with one another, a community makes a commitment to each other through life’s celebrations and challenges. Humans deserve this commitment from their community.
That is the essence of Shalom Aleichem’s 1905 story you are about to see.
This is a story about a family caught in the tension of tradition and change. In the middle of that tension, they are faced with the evil of genocide. This real community will really be forced from their land by a real government. They really will move to Warsaw and Krakow. Less than 30 years later, this real group of people will face a new government with the same agenda: extermination of an entire people.
Yet, their story endures. It is a story that needs to be told because we are prone to forget. We forget a community is made of people with inherent dignity. Even the marginalized have dignity. We forget how fragile community is. We forget our commitment to each other.
Our students seek to honor this story and the people who lived it in their production. They take the lives, customs and traditions seriously and intend to celebrate life that was almost lost. From the beginning of rehearsals, their focus has been community and empathy. We hope that heart comes through in this performance.
-Brandon Williams
