Theater For The New City To Present Leonard J. Lehrman’s SIMA And E.G.: A MUSICAL PORTRAIT OF EMMA GOLDMAN

Theater for the New City will present two operas by composer Leonard J. Lehrman, staging Sima and E.G.: A Musical Portrait of Emma Goldman in alternating performances at its East Village venue. Together, the works will trace a thematic journey from early twentieth-century Jewish displacement to the radical political life of Emma Goldman, examining histories of oppression and defiance across different eras. Both operas will run with a standard schedule of evening and matinee performances.

Sima, featuring music and libretto by Lehrman, will mark its New York City premiere and will be performed with a ten-piece orchestra. Directed by Lissa Moira and conducted by Lehrman, the opera follows the attempted adoption of a young Jewish girl orphaned during a 1905 pogrom in Ukraine. The production features Kira Neary and Bennett Pologe as Regina and Yakov Krasovitsky, with Perri Sussman as Manya, Samantha Long as the Orphanage Supervisor, and Hannah Grace Hollingsworth as Sima, alongside a children’s chorus. Set design is by Lytza Colon, lighting design is by Marsh Shugart, costume design is by Billy Little, and graphic and video design is by Roy Chang.

E.G.: A Musical Portrait of Emma Goldman will present a music-theater biography of Goldman, tracing her life from her youth through her deportation and later return to the United States. Caryn Hartglass will star as Emma Goldman, accompanied by Lehrman at the piano, who will also portray multiple historical figures. The work combines musical passages, monologues, projections, and audience interaction. Visual media will be overseen by Janet Kalish. Lyrics are by Lehrman and Karen Ruoff Kramer, with Lissa Moira serving as an advisor to the production.

Both operas explore interconnected narratives of displacement, political awakening, and endurance, highlighting Jewish and immigrant histories and the evolution of social activism.

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