The stage and television actress Kathryn Kates will play the title role in "Letters to Sala," Arlene Hutton's stirring drama about a New York woman's hidden Holocaust past. Lynn Cohen was previously announced to portray Sala Garncarz, who kept her story of survival from seven Nazi labor camps hidden from her family for nearly 50 years.
Co-produced by The Journey Company and F.A.B. Women@TBG, "Letters to Sala" will have its New York premiere at the TBG Theatre, 312 West 36th Street, in a three-week engagement from October 2 to 18. Directed by
Eric Nightengale, "Letters to Sala" will also feature Alice Jankell,
Kate McGonigle, and Laura Kamin who represent the family's second and third generation survivors.
Tickets are now on sale via Smarttix or at
www.Letterstosalany.com
"Letters to Sala" is based on the true-life account by
Ann Kirschner of her mother's remarkable ordeal surviving seven labor camps from 1941 to liberation in 1945. The trove of 350 letters, which Sala Garncarz, a Polish teenager, managed to hide and somehow spirit away from the camps, but that she also kept hidden in her home in New York City for close to 50 years, is now a permanent part of the Dorot Jewish Division at the NY Public Library.
Based on Kirschner's memoir "Sala's Gift," "Letters from Sala" dramatizes the fascinating family dynamics of a survivor's instinct to protect those around her from the horrors of the Holocaust, and the act of courage that it sometimes takes to share this legacy.
Kates has had many recurring roles on television including the current Netflix hit Orange is the New Black, two Seinfeld classics, and the new NBC series Shades of Blue. A founding member and producer of the award-winning
Colony Theatre in L.A. (where she lived for 25 years before returning to her native New York in 2006), Kates is a founding member of F.A.B. Women@TBG.
Kirschner, who is Dean of the Macaulay Honors College at City University, published "Sala's Gift" in 2007. Ms. Garncarz Kirschner still lives in New York City.
The Journey Company, which is co-producing "Letters to Sala," has produced Hutton's plays four times at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it earned Best Actress and Best Ensemble nominations; five times for the New York Fringe Festival, and has enjoyed an international festival presence. Hutton's "Last Train to Nibroc," was the first Fringe NYC production to move Off-Broadway, where it received a Drama League nomination for Best Play.
"Letters to Sala" has received two previous productions in development, both directed by
Eric Nightengale. This will be the play's professional New York premiere. F.A.B. has launched 48 new short plays written and produced by women. This is F.A.B.'s first full-length production.
Lee Brock, co-artistic director of The
Barrow Group, is F.A.B. Women's executive director. Hutton, Brock, Jankell and Christine Cirker (the show's producer) are all founding members of F.A.B.
