They Came to the Castle at Theater for the New City

They Came to the Castle: Immigrants, a Tenor and Lola Montez is a historical play set in the mid- 19th century in a now landmarked building in Battery Park that was the entry point to the United States prior the facility on Ellis Island. Newly-arrived travelers share their reasons for immigrating and their hopes and dreams, finding love and success in a new land. An Irishman fleeing the potato famine; an Italian man who escaped from forced child labor in the sulphur mines of Sicily; the sole survivor of a pogrom (organized violence against Jews) in a Russian village; a woman who always felt different and ran from an arranged marriage; a Freeborn African American woman who works for the NYC Commission on Immigration. The building was briefly a prominent entertainment center. In a re-imagining of a night of entertainment at Castle Garden, the Italian tenor Lorenzo Salvi performs along with the infamous Lola Montez, dancer and courtesan, who recreates her notorious Spider Dance.photo credit: Joe Bly