The October 15 Performance includes a post-show discussion on The Pianist with Professor Nancy Sinkoff, Academic Director of the Bildner Center for the study of Jewish life at Rutgers University.
This event is Cosponsored by The Bildner Center
Emily Mann is a director, playwright, and screenwriter.She served as the artistic director and resident playwright of the McCarter Theatre Center from 1990 to 2020
Daniel made his theatrical debut in London's Camden Fringe Festival in 2014. In 2019, he played Israeli gangster Danny Dahan in the HBO series Strike Back, and in 2020, he played Princess Diana's lover James Hewitt in the Netflix series The Crown. He released his first single "Cry By the River"; and his debut EP "Didn't I Say So," in 2019, and played his first club tour through Germany. He is the host and moderator of the talk show “Freitagnacht Jews” (Friday Night Jews) which was awarded the German Television Prize 2021 and The Grimme Prize 2022. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he tried to counter Russian war propaganda with the Russian song Net Vojne (“No to War”). He was the winner of season 7 of The Masked Singer in Germany and was the first Jewish entertainer to host the German Film Awards. The Pianist marks his American stage debut.
Claire Beckman recently produced and directed the acclaimed site-specific American premiere of Arthur Miller’s The Hook based on his never-produced screenplay, for BNW Rep, the Brooklyn-based company she co-founded, now in its 20th season. bravenewworldrep.org. Numerous off-Broadway credits include the title role in Bella Belle of Byelorussia directed by Christopher Ashley. Film includes The Door in the Floor with Jeff Bridges and The Thing About My Folks with Peter Falk. TV includes Law & Order. Grateful to Emily Mann for including me in this work of art, and by extension my great grandmother Anna Frankova, murdered in Terezin in 1942.
Ms. Benko recently performed in Sarah Ruhl’s play Becky Nurse Of Salem at Lincoln Center and Claudia Rankine’s play HELP at The Shed. Broadway includes: The Rose Tattoo, The Crucible, Macbeth,The Cherry Orchard, and Not About Nightingales. Select Off-Broadway: SpindleShuttleNeedle at Clubbed Thumb, Scenes From a Marriage and The Little Foxes both directed by Ivo Van Hove, John Guare’s Nantucket Sleighride, Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day, Rajiv Joseph’s Describe The Night, Julius Caesar for Shakespeare in the Park/Public, Elfriede Jellinek’s Jackie, Toni Morrison’s Desdemona. and Daniel Fish’s Who Left This Fork Here. Film and TV credits include: The Rehearsal ( EmmyAward/best supporting actress/ digital series), Mapplethorpe, Mother May I Have a Kidney, Life After You,The Sound of Silence, Can You Ever Forgive Me, The Scottish Play, Fair Market Value, Monsterland, The Other Two, Turn: Washington Spies, Flesh and Bone, Dr. Death, Kaleidoscope, The Adults.
Charlotte is honored to help tell this important story at George Street Playhouse! Regional theater: The Secret Garden (Mary Lennox, ACT of Connecticut), Sound of Music (Brigitta/Marta, Paper Mill Playhouse). TV: Law and Order SVU, Sesame Street. Film: Fish out of Water (Broken Mind Productions). Beyond thankful to Nancy Carson, Ashley Acarino, and Allen Fawcett. Love always to Mom, Dad, Ava, Mary, and Teddy.
Rachel is honored to be a part of this important story with the George Street Playhouse. Regional credits include Right to be Forgotten and Holiday (Arena Stage), Mrs. Warren’s Profession and Summerland (Washington Stage Guild), Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World (Mosaic Theater Company), Fun Home (Virginia Stage Company), Antigonick (Taffety Punk), The Merry Wives of Windsor (New Jersey Shakespeare), and the most recent national tour of Man of La Mancha. New York credits include This American Life - As Seen on Radio (BAM), numerous readings and productions with Ensemble Studio Theatre, and wRETCH - the final concert (Fresh Fruit Festival) which won the festival’s award for Best Musical and for which she composed the score and music directed. Rachel is an MFA graduate from the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting, trained in Meisner technique with Terry Knickerbocker and William Esper, and holds a Bachelor of Music degree in classical voice from the Mannes College of Music. She is delightedly looking forward to acting in Ken Ludwig’s gender bent Lend me a Soprano with Olney Theatre Center this winter as the titular soprano on loan! http://www.rachelfelstein.com/
Arielle was recently seen on stage in Lincoln Center's world premier play Let's Call Her Patty alongside Rhea Perlman and Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer. She wrote, directed and performs in the short film Kiss My Ass, a pro abortion inter-generational Yiddishy ghost story, which won the 2023 Team Choice Award at Through Women’s Eyes International Film Festival, and will be featured at the 2023 Bushwick Film Festival and the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival. Her first short film Day One was featured in The Future of Film is Female, Nitehawk Shorts Festival and was a finalist at JellyFEST 2021. She voices the character of Rose Winslow/Irene Adler in Audible's podcast series, Moriarty: The Silent Order alongside Helen Mirren, Anya Cholotra and Dominic Monaghan, and leads the upcoming film Consider the Lilies directed by Cristina Spina. Previous television credits include: Genevieve Everidge in The Knick directed by Steven Soderbergh, Fishkill directed by Bob Balaban, recurring as Eliana on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Arielle received her MFA from the NYU Tisch Graduate Acting Program and her BFA from The University of Michigan. She is a proud volunteer at The 52nd Street Project. May the memories of this play honor the souls we lost, and hold a mirror up to the ongoing brutalities of our world today.
Robert has appeared on stage at The Guthrie, The Pearl, The Mint Theater Company, Yale Repertory Theater, Westside Theater, Northern Stage, Geva Theater, Barrington Stage Company, Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, Yale Cabaret and others. TV credits include recurring roles on Succession and The Orville. Robert is a lecturer in the Theater Department at Dartmouth and the Director of Education at Northern Stage, and holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife Izzie and son Baz, who are ridiculously awesome, and his dog Mac, who has his moments.
Jordan is pleased to be making his George Street debut. Collaborations with Emily Mann date back to 2000 when he performed in her production of Arthur Kopit’s BECAUSE HE CAN, her play HOODWINKED (McCarter Theatre), & EXECUTION OF JUSTICE (Playhouse Creatures Theatre Co.). He is a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company, and has performed in more than two dozen plays of co-founder David Mamet’s including AMERICAN BUFFALO, GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, SPEED-THE-PLOW, RACE, OLEANNA, & THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD. Drama Desk Award, SAG-AFTRA Award, CT. Critics Circle noms, Broadway World Regional Theatre nom, AUDELCO Award nom.
Ian last appeared at the George Street Playhouse in 2015 with Murder for Two. New York credits include Cradle Will Rock (Classic Stage), Murder for Two (New World), Nikolai & the Others (Lincoln Center Theatre), Day Before Spring (York), among others. Many regional theatres including Old Globe, Geva Theatre, Hangar Theatre, Bay Street, Capital Rep, Houston TUTS, Dorset Theatre Festival, Adirondack Theatre Festival, Bucks County Playhouse, etc. Film/TV: Pose (FX), Only Murders in the Building (Hulu), Succession (HBO), Girls on the Bus (HBO Max, upcoming), Sugar Plum Twist (Hallmark), lots of commercials. BA, Yale. Proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. For Rachel and Sadie.
Austin is an actor, a director, a playwright, and, at HB Studio in New York City, a teacher of acting. He has acted on Broadway many times, beginning with the original cast of Fiddler on the Roof, and has directed on Broadway almost as many times, most recently Spoils of War, by Michael Weller and starring Kate Nelligan. He has appeared in about 400 movies, notably What’s Up, Doc, My Cousin Vinny, Skidoo, Starting Over, and Billy Wilder’s The Front Page. His plays are Booth, Uncle Bob, and Orson’s Shadow, all in print and all having been produced all across the country and in Europe. .
Paul is a French-American actor based in Paris and New York. Theater: Merchant of Venice (Peak Performances, Arts & Ideas, Hopkins Center); Oreste Will Be Back (Paris & Naples), Sibylsessions (Naples); Les Yeux Ouverts (Avignon); The Gentleman Caller (Alexandria, Egypt); L’histoire du Soldat (Nice); On Ne Badine Pas Avec L’amour (Paris). Film & TV: On the Line; The Nun II; On the Basis of Sex; Marie-Antoinette seasons 1 & 2; Ovni(s) season 1; Après Mai (Something in the Air); Rêves de jeunesse (As Happy As Possible). Music: Oreste Will be Back the album, with Phil St George. Training: Yale (Theater Studies BA), Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique, Paris.
Georgia is honored to be a conduit for such crucial storytelling. Broadway: All My Sons. Off-Broadway: Napoli, Brooklyn (Roundabout), Lighthouse (SoHo Playhouse; director). Regional highlights include Of Mice Men at Pioneer Theatre Company and Bay Street Theatre, where she also did The Diary of Anne Frank; Equus (w. Alec Baldwin), The Cripple of Inishmaan, and Moby Dick, Rehearsed (dir. Tony Walton) at Guild Hall; Lyle Kessler’s House on Fire at PBD (world premiere); Northern Stage's The Crucible, Baltimore Center Stage's Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and CTG’s Vanya and Sonia...and Spike (dir. David Hyde Pierce). TV: Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, Law & Order: SVU, The Deuce, Younger, Madam Secretary, and others. www.GeorgiaWarner.com / IG: @VeryGeorgia
Based on the memoir “The Pianist” by Wladyslaw Szpilman
Original Score by Iris Hond
In a new adaptation for the stage, The Pianist is Wladyslaw Szpilman’s harrowing account of the annihilation of Jewish life in Warsaw during World War II and his remarkable survival through the transcendent power of music.
His memoir inspired an Oscar-winning film – and now acclaimed Playwright/Director Emily Mann has crafted an innovative, immersive play with music that delivers this terrifying and triumphant tale with soul-shaking power and thrilling theatrical immediacy.
The Pianist with runs for approx. 95 minutes with no intermission
Content Warning
The production uses HAZE. There are many sound moments with gunshots, bombs and explosions. There are prop rifles. Contemplation of suicide. Swastikas on costumes. Actors react to murders that are not seen onstage.
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