[Capdist-auditions] Auditions for A SHAYNA MAIDEL - In-Person Mainstage Production with The Two of Us Productions

[Stephen Sanborn]

The Two Of Us Productions, in collaboration with the Claverack Free Library,
is pleased to announce auditions for A SHAYNA  MAIDEL by Barbara Lebow.

*         Audition:  Thursday March 10th at 7pm

*         Audition:  Saturday March 12th 11am

*         Callback: Tuesday March  15th at 7pm (as needed)  

*         All auditions and callbacks will be at the Dutch Reformed Church,
88 Rt. 9, Claverack NY.

*         All roles are available.  

*         Sides will be provide at audition.  If potential auditioners would
like to look at sides in advance please write the director at
StephenSanbornPhD at gmail.com <mailto:StephenSanbornPhD at gmail.com> 

*         COVID vaccination is required in order to be cast.  Please bring
proof of vaccination to your audition.  

 

Performances are at the Claverack Free Library in Claverack NY on  May 13,
14, 15 & the following weekend of May 20, 21, & 22, 2022.  

 

SYNOPSIS

Barbara Lebow's play A Shayna Maidel, first produced in 1985, dramatizes the
saga of the Weiss family, Polish Jews whose lives are irrecoverably altered
by the HolocaustA Shayna Maidel is a memory play in that it is set in three
times: when Mordechai is born in 1876, when his two daughters (Rose White
and Lusia Weiss Pechenik) are reunited in
<https://www.encyclopedia.com/places/united-states-and-canada/us-political-g
eography/new-york> New York City during the present (1946), and when Lusia
has flashbacks of her life in Poland immediately before and after the
Holocaust.  Lusia has survived Auschwitz, and the
<https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/political-science-and-
government/international-organizations/red-cross> Red Cross and the Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society have contacted her father to inform him that she is
coming to
<https://www.encyclopedia.com/places/united-states-and-canada/us-political-g
eography/new-york> New York. Mordechai insists that she come to live with
her sister, Rose. This order from her father upsets Rose because she does
not remember her sister and thus feels uncomfortable about sharing an
apartment with her. In addition, Rose, having come to New York at the age of
four, has become fully Americanized and has even changed her name from
Rayzel Weiss to Rose White. Although she is not ashamed of being Jewish, she
has distanced herself from her past in Poland and her Jewish heritage; she
does not even keep kosher, which disturbs Mordechai. The main reason Rose
feels uncomfortable about living with Lusia is her guilt: she has enjoyed a
peaceful and uneventful life in New York while her sister suffered unspoken
atrocities during the Holocaust. Mordechai, his wife, and his two daughters
were supposed to leave Poland for New York, but before they could leave,
Lusia contracted
<https://www.encyclopedia.com/medicine/diseases-and-conditions/pathology/sca
rlet-fever> scarlet fever and had to remain in Poland with her mother.
Therefore, Mordechai had taken Rose (Rayzel) with him to New York and had
intended to have his wife and Lusia join them after the daughter recovered.
But when the war breaks out, mother and daughter cannot leave the country.
Lusia initially does not mind being left behind because she can remain with
her best friend Hanna and because she has fallen in love with Duvid. Lusia
marries Duvid, and they have a child (Sprinze) together, but eventually
Lusia, her mother, husband, child, and best friend are taken to Auschwitz.
Only Lusia and Duvid survive the ordeal, and Lusia, grieving for her mother,
baby, and best friend, arrives in New York to live with the relatives who
left Poland before the war and to attempt to track down Duvid, whom she
believes is alive and looking for her.

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