Villager
https://myvillager.com/2023/01/24/i-was-a-stranger-too/
Drama relates the stories of people displaced and the humanity of those who have welcomed them
After four years in development involving scores of interviews with people seeking asylum and the people who help resettle them, I Was a Stranger Too will make its world premiere on January 26-29. Written by Cynthia L. Cooper and directed by Carolyn Levy of Ramsey Hill, the play will be performed at 7 p.m. Thursday through Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday in the Wellstone Center at Neighborhood House, 179 E. Robie St.
Actors Kirby Bennett and Nicole Joy Frethem rehearse a scene from I Was a Stranger Too under the direction of Carolyn Levy (right). Photo by Brad Stauffer
“The drama follows a woman named Rory as she attempts to navigate the asylum system and in the process encounters a rich mosaic of people who are fleeing persecution and others determined to welcome them,” said Cooper.
Rory’s mother escaped Nazi Germany in the Kindertransport. “You know about them?” she asks at one point in the play. “Children shipped out of Germany to England to save them, even though their parents were denied entry.” With Rory’s memories of her mother’s rescue at the forefront, the story unfolds in monologues by the characters she meets.
“The play shows the power and capacity of the human spirit and the hope that can emerge from a single act of caring,” said Levy. “What we’re trying to say is that, yes, asylum seekers face terrible situations, but there are people working hard to change this on the legislative and global levels. And there are people on the ground saying, ‘How can I do my share?’ People who do even small things can make a big difference.”
Shared interest in women’s issues
It was a shared interest in women’s issues that first brought Levy and Cooper together. Cooper had received a Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, and Levy was assigned to direct her first play. “It was a play about violence against women, and there weren’t that many women directors then,” Cooper said.
Levy, a former professor of theater at Hamline University, ran a company called the Women’s Theatre Project. She and Cooper continued to collaborate even after Cooper moved to New York and became an award-winning playwright with dramas produced off-Broadway and across the United States.
Genesis of the playWork on I Was A Stranger Too began four years ago. Levy had been struck by the number of people seeking asylum. “We’re in one of the greatest periods (of human displacement) since World War II,” she said. “People are having to flee their homeland because they’re going to be killed or put in prison. They’re having to go to a place that is unknown with minimal belongings and minimal access to their networks.”
Levy discussed her idea for the play with Cooper. “Cindy came out to Minnesota, and we did a lot of interviews with asylum seekers and the people who help them—lawyers, translators, all sorts of folks. Then Cindy went back to New York and continued doing interviews with people all over the country.”
Then came COVIDA script was developed out of those interviews, and Levy and Cooper were invited to present their production to Theatre Unbound. That was in March 2020, when the pandemic hit and the theater world ground to a halt. “But we were both very committed to continuing the project,” Levy said.
Cooper revised the script, and several virtual performances followed. “It got some nice pats on the back,” she said. I Was a Stranger Too was named a finalist for the Jewish Plays Project’s Trish Vradenberg Prize and a semifinalist at the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. It also received a grant from the Minnesota Jewish Arts Council and the Alliance of Jewish Theatres.
Legacy of aid to immigrantsAccording to Levy and Cooper, there could not be a more meaningful venue for the premiere of I Was A Stranger Too. Neighborhood House was founded in 1897 by the Sisterhood of Mount Zion Temple to assist Jewish immigrants from Europe. Since then, “it has evolved into a place that works with immigrants from all over the world,” Levy said.
Neighborhood House “has a beautiful new auditorium,” Levy added, “and they’ve donated the space to us.” As a result, Levy and Cooper are heading into the play’s opening financially sound, which is no small thing with a cast of nine, they noted. The actors are Bethmari Márquez Barreto, Kirby Bennett, Nicole Frethem, Mahmoud Hakima, Megan Kim, Jasmine Porter, Shona Ramchandani, Abigail Ramsay and Phasoua Vang.
A nation that has welcomed and refused immigrantsBennett has found her role in the play especially meaningful, given the current state of refugees and immigrants in the United States and the world. “The play makes it personal,” she said, “as it is drawn from the stories of real asylum seekers. Behind the face of every refugee there’s a profound and personal story of loss, of family and of hope for the future. These stories connect us with our history as a nation that has both welcomed and refused asylum seekers.”
The play reminded Frethem of the link almost all Americans have to people who came to the U.S. as immigrants, if not asylum seekers. “There are echos of the past in I Was A Stranger Too that speak loudly,” she said.
Levy and Cooper will host a panel discussion after each performance of the play. On the panels, “we have asylum seekers, a lawyer, a Hmong woman who came over many years ago and now works in the Hmong community,” Cooper said. “We have people who are suffering asylum issues and people who are trying to help.”
Tickets for I Was A Stranger Too are pay-what-you-wish, with $10 suggested. For reservations, visit strangertoo.weebly.com.
— Anne Murphy
https://myvillager.com/2023/01/24/i-was-a-stranger-too/
Drama relates the stories of people displaced and the humanity of those who have welcomed them
After four years in development involving scores of interviews with people seeking asylum and the people who help resettle them, I Was a Stranger Too will make its world premiere on January 26-29. Written by Cynthia L. Cooper and directed by Carolyn Levy of Ramsey Hill, the play will be performed at 7 p.m. Thursday through Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday in the Wellstone Center at Neighborhood House, 179 E. Robie St.
Actors Kirby Bennett and Nicole Joy Frethem rehearse a scene from I Was a Stranger Too under the direction of Carolyn Levy (right). Photo by Brad Stauffer
“The drama follows a woman named Rory as she attempts to navigate the asylum system and in the process encounters a rich mosaic of people who are fleeing persecution and others determined to welcome them,” said Cooper.
Rory’s mother escaped Nazi Germany in the Kindertransport. “You know about them?” she asks at one point in the play. “Children shipped out of Germany to England to save them, even though their parents were denied entry.” With Rory’s memories of her mother’s rescue at the forefront, the story unfolds in monologues by the characters she meets.
“The play shows the power and capacity of the human spirit and the hope that can emerge from a single act of caring,” said Levy. “What we’re trying to say is that, yes, asylum seekers face terrible situations, but there are people working hard to change this on the legislative and global levels. And there are people on the ground saying, ‘How can I do my share?’ People who do even small things can make a big difference.”
Shared interest in women’s issues
It was a shared interest in women’s issues that first brought Levy and Cooper together. Cooper had received a Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, and Levy was assigned to direct her first play. “It was a play about violence against women, and there weren’t that many women directors then,” Cooper said.
Levy, a former professor of theater at Hamline University, ran a company called the Women’s Theatre Project. She and Cooper continued to collaborate even after Cooper moved to New York and became an award-winning playwright with dramas produced off-Broadway and across the United States.
Genesis of the playWork on I Was A Stranger Too began four years ago. Levy had been struck by the number of people seeking asylum. “We’re in one of the greatest periods (of human displacement) since World War II,” she said. “People are having to flee their homeland because they’re going to be killed or put in prison. They’re having to go to a place that is unknown with minimal belongings and minimal access to their networks.”
Levy discussed her idea for the play with Cooper. “Cindy came out to Minnesota, and we did a lot of interviews with asylum seekers and the people who help them—lawyers, translators, all sorts of folks. Then Cindy went back to New York and continued doing interviews with people all over the country.”
Then came COVIDA script was developed out of those interviews, and Levy and Cooper were invited to present their production to Theatre Unbound. That was in March 2020, when the pandemic hit and the theater world ground to a halt. “But we were both very committed to continuing the project,” Levy said.
Cooper revised the script, and several virtual performances followed. “It got some nice pats on the back,” she said. I Was a Stranger Too was named a finalist for the Jewish Plays Project’s Trish Vradenberg Prize and a semifinalist at the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. It also received a grant from the Minnesota Jewish Arts Council and the Alliance of Jewish Theatres.
Legacy of aid to immigrantsAccording to Levy and Cooper, there could not be a more meaningful venue for the premiere of I Was A Stranger Too. Neighborhood House was founded in 1897 by the Sisterhood of Mount Zion Temple to assist Jewish immigrants from Europe. Since then, “it has evolved into a place that works with immigrants from all over the world,” Levy said.
Neighborhood House “has a beautiful new auditorium,” Levy added, “and they’ve donated the space to us.” As a result, Levy and Cooper are heading into the play’s opening financially sound, which is no small thing with a cast of nine, they noted. The actors are Bethmari Márquez Barreto, Kirby Bennett, Nicole Frethem, Mahmoud Hakima, Megan Kim, Jasmine Porter, Shona Ramchandani, Abigail Ramsay and Phasoua Vang.
A nation that has welcomed and refused immigrantsBennett has found her role in the play especially meaningful, given the current state of refugees and immigrants in the United States and the world. “The play makes it personal,” she said, “as it is drawn from the stories of real asylum seekers. Behind the face of every refugee there’s a profound and personal story of loss, of family and of hope for the future. These stories connect us with our history as a nation that has both welcomed and refused asylum seekers.”
The play reminded Frethem of the link almost all Americans have to people who came to the U.S. as immigrants, if not asylum seekers. “There are echos of the past in I Was A Stranger Too that speak loudly,” she said.
Levy and Cooper will host a panel discussion after each performance of the play. On the panels, “we have asylum seekers, a lawyer, a Hmong woman who came over many years ago and now works in the Hmong community,” Cooper said. “We have people who are suffering asylum issues and people who are trying to help.”
Tickets for I Was A Stranger Too are pay-what-you-wish, with $10 suggested. For reservations, visit strangertoo.weebly.com.
— Anne Murphy
|
Broadway World:
New Play I WAS A STRANGER TOO Highlights Hope Amid Danger In Asylum System Asylum seekers and refugee needs in the U.S. and around the world fill the news. But what can one person do? by A.A.Cristi Asylum seekers and refugee needs in the U.S. and around the world fill the news. But what can one person do? 'I Was A Stranger Too,' a new play by Cynthia L. Cooper and directed by Carolyn Levy, tells the stories of people who are seeking asylum and those who help them. The play will have four performances, Jan 26 -29, at The Neighborhood House (Wellstone Center) in St. Paul. Drawn from dozens of interviews, 'I Was A Stranger Too,' is set in Minnesota, where refugee resettlement is among the nation's highest per capita. The play follows a woman who, propelled by the memory of her mother's rescue from the Holocaust, is drawn to help asylum seekers. In unfolding monologues, she encounters a rich mosaic of people who are fleeing persecution, anti-LGBTI violence, civil strife and other threats, and individuals determined to welcome them. "The play takes audience members beyond stereotypes to the power and capacity of the human spirit, sharing the hopes that can emerge from a single act of caring," said Carolyn Levy, director. Featured in the play are Bethmari Márquez Barreto, Kirby Bennett, Nicole Frethem, Mahmoud Hakima, Megan Kim, Jasmine Porter, Shona Ramchandani, Abigail Ramsay, and Phasoua Vang; Karina Hunt is the Production Manager and music is by Leslie Steinweiss. Carolyn Levy, director, is a former professor of theatre at Hamline University, where she founded a Social Justice Theatre program. She has worked at Theatre Unbound, Park Square, Penumbra Theatre Summer Institute and the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company. Playwright Cynthia L. Cooper is a two-time Jerome fellow at the Playwrights Center. An award-winning playwright with productions off-Broadway and across the country and plays in 17 volumes, Cooper lives and is active in the theater in New York. 'I Was A Stranger Too' was selected as a finalist in the Jewish Plays Project, for the Trish Vrandenberg Prize, a semi-finalist at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, and is a grant recipient of Rimon (Minnesota Jewish Arts Council), and the Alliance of Jewish Theatres. Performances will be Thursday January 26 and Friday January 27 at 7 pm, Saturday January 28 and Sunday January 29 at 2 pm at The Neighborhood House (Wellstone Center), 179 Robie Street East in St. Paul. Tickets are pay what you wish (suggested $10). Performances will be followed by talk backs with experts and community activists in the field. Read On Broadway World |
TC Talks at the JCC featured Carolyn Levy and Cindy Cooper, talking about I Was A Stranger Too.
Listen on YouTube here.
Listen on YouTube here.
Read about director Carolyn Levy in Voyage Minnesota. Link
Meet Carolyn Levy
https://voyageminnesota.com/interview/meet-carolyn-levy-of-st-paul/
Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolyn Levy.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am currently directing a new play, ‘I Was A Stranger Too’ by Cynthia L. Cooper, about asylum seekers and the people who help them, which premiered in St. Paul at the Neighborhood House (179 Robie Street East), January 26-29.
I have an MFA in directing and moved to the Twin Cities to work. I have done freelance directing for a number of Twin Cities companies including Theatre Unbound, Park Square, the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company, and many others. I also taught theatre at Hamline University where I founded and directed Making Waves, a social justice theatre troupe.
I was the artistic director and co-founder of the Women’s Theatre Project where we produced new plays by women about subjects important to women and tried to employ women in the production of these plays.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The Women’s Theatre Project grew out of one of the struggles I encountered in my career — the lack of representation of women. There were very few plays being produced in this country that were by women, and even fewer were directed by women. And so we started our own theatre!
Another “struggle” I encountered occurred earlier, in college, and had to confront it as I gained more insight. In college, I was involved in the Vietnam antiwar movement and after the bombing of Cambodia and the killing of students at Kent State, I decided to leave school and go to Washington DC to work on lobbying efforts in Congress. All of my professors were in total support of that decision except for my acting professor who said to me: “You can either be dedicated to your work in the theatre or to your politics.” And so for a long time, I carried that idea with me — that there had to be two entirely separate areas of my life.
Several years later, I read an article about a woman named Jennifer Patri who had been a victim of domestic abuse for many years. She killed her husband in desperation, but when she did that, he passed out drunk. Her lawyers argued a “battered women’s defense,” one of the first, claiming that this was in fact self-defense. They lost the case. As a woman, I was utterly horrified by her story. I had no idea of the magnitude of the issue of domestic violence. But some other little part of me realized that this would be an incredible subject for a play. I set out to learn a lot about the subject and I learned that the first Battered Women’s Shelter (that was the terminology we used then) was in St Paul, about three blocks from where I was living. Knowing nothing about their strict rule of safety and confidentiality, I naively walked up to the door and said something fairly uninformed along the lines of: “Hi, I’m a theatre director and I’d like to make a play about a shelter and I hoped that I could talk to some of you.” It was about 20 degrees below zero at the time, so she let me in.
I see that moment as a turning point in my life. From that day on, the trajectory of my career became using theatre to work for social change.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My work involves using theater for social change, the play that I am directing now in St. Paul, ‘I Was A Stranger Too,’ raises very important questions about asylum seekers and the people who help them and the hopes that can arise from a single act of caring and concern.
I’ve helped develop and directed plays about date rape, women’s suffrage, women and work, women in religion, nurses, war, immigration, pornography, racial injustice, LGBTQ issues, and many other topics. This work also became central to my teaching.
In my conception of theatre and social change, it is not my intention to make the audience depressed or immobilized. I want the work I do to educate and inform, but also to make audiences think and talk to people, to learn more and intimately to act. I want them to know that there is hope and that the actions of one person can be meaningful and effective. I always try to provide information in post-show discussions and in literature in the lobby to direct people to the ways they can help make a change.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I think you need to go to the physical places where people gather and get to know them. Who are they? What are their values? Are you simpatico? Understand what you can learn from them, and ask yourself, what you have to offer to them. Mentorship is a relationship in which both sides give and take. So think about how you can offer something that fills a gap for them.
Contact Info:
Meet Carolyn Levy
https://voyageminnesota.com/interview/meet-carolyn-levy-of-st-paul/
Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolyn Levy.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am currently directing a new play, ‘I Was A Stranger Too’ by Cynthia L. Cooper, about asylum seekers and the people who help them, which premiered in St. Paul at the Neighborhood House (179 Robie Street East), January 26-29.
I have an MFA in directing and moved to the Twin Cities to work. I have done freelance directing for a number of Twin Cities companies including Theatre Unbound, Park Square, the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company, and many others. I also taught theatre at Hamline University where I founded and directed Making Waves, a social justice theatre troupe.
I was the artistic director and co-founder of the Women’s Theatre Project where we produced new plays by women about subjects important to women and tried to employ women in the production of these plays.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The Women’s Theatre Project grew out of one of the struggles I encountered in my career — the lack of representation of women. There were very few plays being produced in this country that were by women, and even fewer were directed by women. And so we started our own theatre!
Another “struggle” I encountered occurred earlier, in college, and had to confront it as I gained more insight. In college, I was involved in the Vietnam antiwar movement and after the bombing of Cambodia and the killing of students at Kent State, I decided to leave school and go to Washington DC to work on lobbying efforts in Congress. All of my professors were in total support of that decision except for my acting professor who said to me: “You can either be dedicated to your work in the theatre or to your politics.” And so for a long time, I carried that idea with me — that there had to be two entirely separate areas of my life.
Several years later, I read an article about a woman named Jennifer Patri who had been a victim of domestic abuse for many years. She killed her husband in desperation, but when she did that, he passed out drunk. Her lawyers argued a “battered women’s defense,” one of the first, claiming that this was in fact self-defense. They lost the case. As a woman, I was utterly horrified by her story. I had no idea of the magnitude of the issue of domestic violence. But some other little part of me realized that this would be an incredible subject for a play. I set out to learn a lot about the subject and I learned that the first Battered Women’s Shelter (that was the terminology we used then) was in St Paul, about three blocks from where I was living. Knowing nothing about their strict rule of safety and confidentiality, I naively walked up to the door and said something fairly uninformed along the lines of: “Hi, I’m a theatre director and I’d like to make a play about a shelter and I hoped that I could talk to some of you.” It was about 20 degrees below zero at the time, so she let me in.
I see that moment as a turning point in my life. From that day on, the trajectory of my career became using theatre to work for social change.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My work involves using theater for social change, the play that I am directing now in St. Paul, ‘I Was A Stranger Too,’ raises very important questions about asylum seekers and the people who help them and the hopes that can arise from a single act of caring and concern.
I’ve helped develop and directed plays about date rape, women’s suffrage, women and work, women in religion, nurses, war, immigration, pornography, racial injustice, LGBTQ issues, and many other topics. This work also became central to my teaching.
In my conception of theatre and social change, it is not my intention to make the audience depressed or immobilized. I want the work I do to educate and inform, but also to make audiences think and talk to people, to learn more and intimately to act. I want them to know that there is hope and that the actions of one person can be meaningful and effective. I always try to provide information in post-show discussions and in literature in the lobby to direct people to the ways they can help make a change.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I think you need to go to the physical places where people gather and get to know them. Who are they? What are their values? Are you simpatico? Understand what you can learn from them, and ask yourself, what you have to offer to them. Mentorship is a relationship in which both sides give and take. So think about how you can offer something that fills a gap for them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://strangertoo.weebly.com
- Instagram: @strangertooplay
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088305128376
