Category — Viorika

Tovah Feldshuh in Irena's Vow

When I read the script to “Irena’s Vow,” I imagined it produced quite differently.  Since the directors beamed it’s a “one person show,” I imagined it to be acted by only that one character. However, it was relatively different. “Irena’s Vow” is a play by Dan Gordon, produced in the Baruch Performing Arts Center. It is about a Polish girl who hides twelve Jews during the Holocaust in the house where she works, the house of the highest ranked Nazi general, Rugemer. [Read more →]

Jeff Mermelstein is a street photographer, who prefers the title photojournalist.  He is not comfortable with the title street photographer because it implies different things to different people. Since he was five years old, he had a strong and vigorous interest in colors.  When he was 20, he fell in love with color photography. “Working in color is an additional ingredient in the juggling act of making an interesting photograph.” He is very interested in surprise and what one cannot anticipate, or plan. The literal proximity in which he has made most of his work is on the streets of NY, although he was quite prolific outside of NY as well. The American social content in general interests him, but he “just happens to live in NY.” [Read more →]

Francine Prose

Francine Prose has enjoyed a long and accomplished career as an author of unique novels and short stories for adults and also for children. She writes fiction that blends elements of reality with elements of the fantasy. She is the current Sidney Harman Writer-in–Residence at Baruch College. She wrote over 15 books of fiction and many non-fiction books, including the most recent Reading Like a Writer. [Read more →]

Frances Richey with son, Ben

Frances Richey is an author who writes poetry.  Her first book of poems was published for her father. The second book she promised to write to and for her son, Ben, who is in the army and who served two tours of duty in Iraq. He is an army captain and a Green Beret. Richey worked in business for two decades, and raised a child by herself, as a single mother. She started writing when she volunteered with people who had less than six months to live. This inspired her to write because these people told her to do what she wants to do, and not waste time, because in a single moment everything could disappear as if it was never there. [Read more →]

The Voices of Iraq Veterans

In Conflict is a play that gives voice to the stories of tragedy and triumph experienced by seventeen Iraq War veterans. They are the men and women from all over the country, of different backgrounds, various ranks, and different sexual orientations. These are the people that represent America. When I went to the play, I didn’t think I would be too interested since I thought I knew what war was like, from the action thrillers that get the top spots in box offices all across the world, and all the books that mention war.  I did not expect to be so moved by these real life stories of young men and women like me.  I also did not expect these stories to make me laugh or make me so sad. [Read more →]

Robert Oppenheimer in Dr. Atomic

The Manhattan Project was one of the most secretive projects in the history of the United States. It took place during World War II and its purpose was to create a bomb by splitting atoms apart. This project was a success and created one of the most devastating bombs ever used by mankind, the atomic bomb. John Adam’s Dr. Atomic at the Metropolitan Opera is an opera about the birth of the atomic bomb and the technology, science, power and responsibility of the whole world on the scientists’ shoulders. [Read more →]

Matt Sax in CLAY

CLAY is a one-man hip-hop musical written and performed by Matt Sax.  It is a story about a boy named Clifford whose mother kills herself and whose father finds another woman who Clifford gradually comes to have an affair with. He finally escapes the torments of his own home and finds a mentor in the back of a bookstore, Sir John, a man of words, a poetry slam. He teaches him how to use words, and how to express himself.  In one of the funniest scenes of the show, Sir John finds Clifford to be replicating the usual themes of rap songs rather than saying what’s really on his mind. “You ever met a prostitute before?” he asks after Clifford has ended a song.  “Um, no.” [Read more →]