Women, Theater, and the Holocaust
Annual Yom HaShoah Event
Dramatic Readings about Women, Theater, and the Holocaust:
Remember the Women Institute’s May 6 Yom HaShoah Program
Remember the Women Institute’s annual Women, Theater, and the Holocaust dramatic readings will be presented on Monday, May 6, 2024, at 7:00 PM, at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, Amsterdam Avenue and West 76th Street, New York, NY. This year’s annual Yom HaShoah event features readings about various aspects of women’s experiences during the Holocaust. They dramatize how some women suffered but survived the horrors of the Nazi regime. Tickets are available at
The four poignant readings by professional actors all give women their place in Holocaust history:
Excerpts from Annulla, written and performed by acclaimed Broadway theater director and playwright Emily Mann, based on the true story of a Jewish woman who passed as a non-Jew in Nazi Germany.
English Lessons, the premiere of a short play by award-winning playwright Cynthia L. Cooper, inspired by a memoir by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s sister Gemma LaGuardia Gluck, held as a Jewish political hostage in Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp, with Shauna Bloom as Gemma and Jimmy Georgiades as Fiorello, directed by Janice L. Goldberg.
Excerpts from And the Rat Laughed, a novel by esteemed Israeli writer and educator Nava Semel that deals with the sexual abuse of a hidden child in Poland, performed by Broadway and film actor Neva Small (Chava in the original Fiddler on the Roof film), and directed by Lisa Pelikan, award-winning actor and director.
Excerpts from Letters to Sala by prize-winning playwright Arlene Hutton, directed by noted director Eric Nightengale, adapted from Sala’s Gift by Ann Kirschner, a true account of a young girl’s survival in Nazi labor camps, featuring Judy Hiller as Sala, Dana Brooke as Ann, Kleo Mitrokostas as Elisabeth, and Sofia Ayral-Hutton as Caroline.
Following these dramatic presentations, there will be a talkback with the playwrights and others, as well as a reception.
The Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, National Jewish Theater Foundation, and Jewish Theatre Circle are our partners for this event, which is in cooperation with the annual National Jewish Theater Foundation-Holocaust Theater International Initiative Remembrance Readings.
