Strathmore Program
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WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION May 3 & 4, 2018 CONTEXT & CREATION CARRYING A LEGACY TO THE STAGE AND BEYOND A Letter from Composer & Lyricist Jeremy Schonfeld A Letter from Strathmore Artistic Director Joi Brown Between late April and early The resulting album is a very raw and personal collection How do we carry the legacy of The hundreds of people on stage tonight are matched by scores July 1944, the Nazis deported of songs illustrating the emotional landscapes I experienced those who came before us? How of others who nurtured this project from its first discussions approximately 426,000 Hungarian and perceived growing up amongst Holocaust survivors. A do we understand their resilience, almost two years ago. To our co-producers at Beth Morrison Jews to Auschwitz. My father, true labor of love, Iron & Coal cuts as close to the bone as any their purpose, and the ways we Projects, thank you for your brilliant stewardship and for Gustav Schonfeld, was a mere project I have ever created. Sadly, the urgency to create this are changed by their experiences? your unwavering support of artists and new work around ten-year-old boy when the Nazis work finally reached its inevitable conclusion on May 21, 2011, What part of their story becomes the world. To the Iron & Coal creative team, we are awed by marched into his hometown of the day my father finally lost his battle at the age of 77. The our own, and how do we pass your vision, talent, passion, and hard work. To our donors and Munkacs, Hungary in May 1944, day Iron & Coal was mastered. it along to our children and community promotional partners, please accept our gratitude forcing my Dad and countless communities? for your enthusiastic embrace of this work. To the very large others aboard the now infamous Cut to Edinburgh, Scotland August of 2016. My beautiful community of artists on stage, we are deeply grateful to have cattle cars bound for Poland. and talented wife, Sarah-Jane, is in a play with her theater If you are Jeremy Schonfeld, you this work in your capable hands and for your generous time Of the hundreds of thousands of Jews brought to Auschwitz company, One Year Lease, at the Fringe Festival. Joi Brown, write songs—beautiful, sweeping songs filled with reverence, and talent. Finally, to our composer and featured artist, Jeremy during those few months, 320,000 were immediately directed Strathmore Vice President of Programming and Artistic memories, contemplation, and soaring strength. And if you Schonfeld, thank you for inspiring us with this beautiful to the gas chambers by Hitler’s Schutzstaffel. All told, over one Director, whom I have had the distinct pleasure of knowing are in the arts industry and fortunate enough to be a part tribute to your family legacy and the universal story of love. million Jews were killed in Auschwitz alone. since her days at Omaha Performing Arts, is also attending of a supportive community with committed executive and the festival. Coffee? Sure! board leadership, generous donors, access to world class Strathmore was built to be a home for the arts that will My father often described his miraculous survival as being artists, and a deep pool of outstanding local talent, you have forever change the cultural landscape of our community— given “bonus time.” In his memoir, Absence of Closure, Dad Joi asks about Iron & Coal. I describe the long and bumpy the opportunity to bring to the stage ambitious, life-changing a place where big dreams come to life and artists are painstakingly outlined this incredible journey in vivid detail. emotional road I have travelled with this project since its projects such as this one. supported. Iron & Coal is a full expression of that commitment As he worked, Dad and I often discussed the important and quiet, solemn release in 2011. We agree to keep talking. and we are extremely proud to produce this world premiere. difficult process he faced in retracing his steps. On several Director Kevin Newbury and I have already been plotting a occasions, he would send me pages to look through for my course that leads us, in December of 2016, to a workshop of the Joi A. Brown notes and discussion. This was a big deal for me. For my father Iron & Coal album at the prestigious Winterreise Festival at Artistic Director, Strathmore to value my opinion not just as a son, but also as a friend and National Sawdust in Brooklyn. Joi attends and Strathmore is fellow writer, was a huge honor. And it was through these on board to produce. Beth Morrison joins as creative producer, discussions that I began to toss around my own ideas on and just like that—new life! adapting our story through music. Eight years ago, I set out on an adventure: to create an album But it wasn’t until a fateful phone call from Dad months after honoring the stories and history so richly engrained in the the book was completed, that I finally felt compelled to attack fabric of my family and the Jewish experience at large. I am this subject matter. My father suffered from a rare form of immensely proud of Iron & Coal as a stand alone album, but I leukemia called myelofibrosis. For several years, the disease am even prouder of its remarkable evolution into the concert was manageable, so it came as quite a shock when Dad called event we are presenting at Strathmore. Expanding on its roots, to tell me he had been considering hedging his bets and diving deeper and more specifically into the relationships of joining a clinical trial—a double blind study—for a promising father and son to the past and to each other, Iron & Coal is now new experimental medication that had been showing some an exciting theatrical collaboration of sight, sound, movement, success in fighting the symptoms of myelofibrosis. For my and emotion. I am in awe of my collaborators, and incredibly father, a brilliant scientist who administered these kinds of grateful for the opportunity to share this piece with you. studies regularly throughout his storied career, to choose risk and uncertainty over available, albeit marginally successful, I would also like to thank Beth Morrison and the BMP team, methods of treatment, was truly frightening. For the first time, Joi Brown and the entire Strathmore team, Kevin Newbury, I felt a clock begin to tick. David Bloom and Contemporaneous, Natalie Lomonte, Tom Seltzer, Paul Vershbow, Katy Tucker, Tyler Kieffer, The Milch As I labored to create Iron & Coal, I was faced with several Foundation, Mike Cassling, Josh Schonfeld, Miriam Schonfeld, difficult decisions: What is the story I am trying to tell here? Heidi and John Farkas, Jill Steinberg, Cantor Josh Breitzer, POST-CONCERT DISCUSSION Is it mine? Is it Dad’s? Why am I doing this, and for whom? Rabbi Seth Wax, Martin Gellner, Werner Stranka, Rod Milam, Join us for a post-concert discussion in the Concert Hall with members of the Iron & Coal creative team immediately And how on earth am I supposed to play a song about a son and, of course, my amazingly patient and supportive wife, following the Thursday, May 3 performance. mourning the death of his father, for my very-much alive Dad? I Sarah-Jane Casey. agonized for months over these kinds of questions, searching for a path forward, until the obvious finally hit me: If you plan less Thank you, and write more, the answers will reveal themselves in time. Jeremy Schonfeld Composer and Lyricist 2 | Strathmore Presents 2017–2018 STRATHMORE.ORG | 301.581.5100 | 3 SPECIAL THANKS FROM STRATHMORE LEADERSHIP SUPPORT The Estate of Henry J. Schalizki Presents the World Premiere Production SPONSORS Cathy S. Bernard Santos, Postal & Company LEAD PATRONS Starr and Fred Ezra Ellen and Michael Gold Judy and Sheldon Grosberg Tina and Arthur Lazerow Karen Lefkowitz and Allen Neyman Joshua and Suzanne Schonfeld Wendy and Donald Susswein Thu & Fri, May 3 & 4, 2018 HOTEL SPONSOR Canopy by Hilton Produced by Strathmore and Beth Morrison Projects PRODUCER TICKET HOLDERS Creator and Performer Terri and John Adams Jeremy Schonfeld Carole Aitchison Director Louise Appell Kevin Newbury Robert G. Brewer Jr. and Constance B. Lohse Frances Burka Music Director and Arranger Charles Cooke David Bloom Larry Goldbaum Judie and Harry Linowes Projection Designer Animation Designer Florentina Mehta S. Katy Tucker Tom Seltzer Alfred Munzer and Joel Wind Michael Murphy Lighting Designer Sound Designer Wardrobe Designer Mary and Robert Nisbet Japhy Weideman Tyler Kieffer Paul Carey PROMOTIONAL PARTNERS Movement Production Stage Manager The Defiant Requiem Foundation Natalie Lomonte Lindsey Turteltaub Bender JCC of Greater Washington Video Engineer and Programmer Video Assistant MEDIA PARTNER Paul Vershbow Michael Clark Washington Jewish Week Featuring Jeremy Schonfeld SPECIAL THANKS FROM BETH MORRISON PROJECTS Rinde Eckert Lincoln Clauss The Dr. David M. Milch Foundation Contemporaneous Miriam Schonfeld Alexandria Harmonizers Jill & Bill Steinberg Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras of Strathmore Jeanne Blaustein & Peter Bokor Young Artists of America Joshua and Suzanne Schonfeld Strathmore Children’s Chorus 4 | Strathmore Presents 2017–2018 STRATHMORE.ORG | 301.581.5100 | 5 CAST ABOUT GUSTAV SCHONFELD Jeremy Schonfeld Son Gustav (“Gus”) Schonfeld, the father of Iron & Coal’s Dr. Schonfeld joined the Washington University School of composer, Jeremy Schonfeld, was born May 8, 1934 Medicine faculty in 1972, becoming a full professor in 1977. He Rinde Eckert Father in Munkacs, Hungary, which is now Mukachevo, Ukraine. was internationally known for his research in heart disease Lincoln Clauss Young Father When he was 10 years old, his family was taken from their prevention and cholesterol. In 1996, he became Chairman home by cattle car to Auschwitz and separated.