BRADLEY BEACH — The Bradley Beach Arts Council is proud to have obtained the rights to once again produce “Ellis Island: The Dream of America.”
Created by American Composer Peter Boyer, “Ellis Island: The Dream of America” is a work that uses a combination of actors and an orchestra to celebrate the historic American immigrant experience and the American dream. The work combines elements of the theater and multimedia to evoke emotions, while employing actors and projected historical images from the Ellis Island archives.
The spoken texts from the work come from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, a historic collection of interviews with actual immigrants about their experiences coming to America.
The Bradley Beach Arts Council will be using an orchestral download in lieu of a live orchestra. The owners of the work are providing us with the actors’ oral history scripts, conductor’s score, and original projections.
The cast of actors includes Laura Walter [Helen Cohen, emigrated from Poland, 1920], Thomas Cox [James Apanomith, emigrated from Greece, 1911], Arianna Paz [Lillian Galleta, emigrated from Italy, 1928], Lloyd Fitzsimmons [Lazarus Salamon, born 1904; emigrated from Hungary, 1920], Nicole Hayes [Helen Rosenthal, emigrated from Belgium, 1920, originally from Poland], Kevin Jasaitis [Manny Steen, emigrated from Ireland, 1925], Julia Sandra Rand [Katherine Beychock, emigrated from Russia, 1910].
These performances are dedicated to the brave people of Ukraine. The performances are Friday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, Jan. 29 at 2 p.m.; Friday, Feb. 3 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m.; and Sunday, Feb. 5 at 2 p.m.
Each performance will be followed by a Q&A with the cast and crew, moderated by Rebecca Flemming and Joanne Papaianni.
The six performances will take place in the auditorium at the Bradley Beach Elementary School, 515 Brinley Ave. It is handicap accessible.
For more information contact bradleybeachartscouncil@gmail.com. See the group’s Facebook page for updates.
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