This week, the Theatre and Dance Department is mounting a production of Barbara Lebow’s A Shayna Maidel, a play depicting the difficult reunion of two sisters, separated in childhood. One came to America, the other stayed in Europe and endured the horrors. Playwright Barbara Lebow is on campus all week. She will participate in a talkback after each performance. Performances, in the Hennessy Theatre Friday, December 5, 7:00 p.m. Saturday, December 6, 7:00 p.m. Sunday, December 7, at 2:00 p.m. There will be a staged reading of Barbara’s new play, Killing Spiders, Saturday, December 6, 2:00 p.m. Hennessy Theatre. Barbara Lebows “A Shayna Maidel” introduces us to a few of the victims of the most ghastly and unspeakable crime of the twentieth century. Her Killing Spidersintroduces us to a few of its perpetrators. In the mid-thirties, as the Nazis are strengthening their hold on power in Germany, and as they are dazzling the world with the Olympics in Berlin, we meet an attractive and sympathetic German family: mother, uncle, son. The father has been killed in the Great War; the mother fears that her son may meet the same fate in the next war. The uncle, an army officer, does what he can for the mother and the son--and for himself. As the years darken, this family gets caught up in terrible choices. Can one serve in the German army in the 30s and 40s without becoming an accomplice to crime? Is resistance possible? Can resistance do any good? And can even resisters, in spite of their best intentions, find themselves doing terrible things? In a searing depiction of this familys struggles and crimes over nine dark years, Killing Spiders urges audiences to confront the most uncomfortable questions of that time--which are, of course, the most uncomfortable questions of this time. At plays opening, the mother screams when she sees a spider. By plays end, she may have other reasons to scream.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 15:07:28 +0000
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