I Was A Stranger Too by Cynthia L. Cooper, will be having its first in-person on stage outing at the Neighborhood House (Wellstone Center) in St. Paul, Minnesota, on January 26-29, 2023. More information about the play and the production can be found here. Excerpts from the play were part of Remember the Women Institute’s Yom HaShoah Women, Theater, and the Holocaust event in April 2022.
Playwright Cooper said of her timely play: “As you know, news headlines continue to report on streams of immigrants – asylum seekers – amassed at the border, seeking entry to the United States. In New York City, buses loaded with immigrants shipped from Texas flood our TV screens and in my neighborhood, we see them out our windows. It’s my hope that I Was a Stranger Too breaks through the images of the thousands to tell the stories of frazzled and desperate individuals who have risked everything in the search for safety, and those who help them find sanctuary. With its unfolding monologues, I Was A Stranger Too uses Jewish values to tell the story of hope that can arise amid chaos, difficulty and trauma.”
Developed over a period of four years, I Was a Stranger Too, is the result of Cooper’s collaboration with director Carolyn Levy and is fueled by interviews and conversations with asylum seekers, volunteers, and the advisors who worked with them. The play has garnered positive responses – a finalist at the Jewish Plays Project, a finalist for the Trish Vrandenberg Prize, a semi-finalist at the O’Neill (a major theatre program), a two- time awardee of the Rimon Foundation (Jewish arts in Minnesota), and an awardee of the first grant program by the Alliance for Jewish Theatre.
The Twin Cities has a long history of working to welcome and support immigrants and asylum seekers. Cooper’s own grandfather fled the draft in Russia and ended up selling goods from a cart and then a general store in Minnesota. The Neighborhood House, where the performance will take place, has welcomed thousands of refugees and immigrants since its founding in 1897 by the women of Mount Zion Temple, who worked to help settle Eastern European Jewish families. After this initial live performance, the play will seek new venues and locations.
