OBU to Present A Shayna Maidel

March 29, 2004

The curtain on the 2003-04 Oklahoma Baptist University theatre season closes with Barbara Lebow's "A Shayna Maidel" April 22-24 and April 30-May 2 in Craig-Dorland Theatre.

Directed by Dr. Joyce Spivey Aldridge, assistant professor of theatre, the play will begin at 7:30 p.m. nightly, except on Saturday, the 24th and Sunday, May 2, which will have a 2:30 matinee curtain. A pafnel discussion will follow the April 22 and April 30 performances. Tickets go on sale April 12. For ticket reservations and information, call 405-878-2347.

"A Shayna Maidel" reunites a Polish Jewish family separated during the Holocaust. Mordechai Weiss (David R. Chadbourne) and youngest daughter, Rose (Sonia Justl), leave for Brooklyn in 1928, while his wife (Jenna Blanscet), daughter Lusia (Christy Hall), and friend Hanna (Elise Tavary) are deported to concentration camps, where only Lusia survives.

The play takes place in 1946 as Luisa rejoins her father and sister in America. Through flashbacks and dream sequences, Luisa incorporates her past with a life she hopes to have in America. The act of remembering replaces the family's grief with joyful reconciliation.

First released in 1985, "A Shayna Maidel" is literally translated as "a pretty girl." The term gains depth as the play unfolds.

"The play speaks to everyone through an image of a family memory box," Aldridge said. "The family's secrets are liberated through mementos of a sustained heritage: photographs of relatives lost long ago, a child's baby spoon that outlives a mother's touch, and a letter that connects a daughter to her unknown past."

The cast also includes Joshua Quinton Dodd as Duvid Pechenik and Jenna Blanscet as Mama.

The production crew includes Laura Byland, scenic and lighting director; Latricia Reichman, costume designer; Helena Newberry, sound designer; Blake Bolerjack, assistant sound designer; Shekinah M. Rogers, makeup designer; Rex Daugherty, assistant makeup designer; Rose Marie Packer, production stage manager; Stephanie Stewart, assistant stage manager; Matthew Packer, technical director and assistant lighting designer; John Keisling, assistant technical director; and Will Ledesma, dramaturg.

The technical and administrative crew includes Beth Kinney, properties mistress; Lee Matthews, assistant properties mistress; Breeman Ainsworth and Jesse Vinyard, properties crew; Michelle Burmeister and Tiffany Hadden, wardrobe; Laurel L. Green, light board operator; Travis Hayes, sound board operator; Colin James Smart, board swing; Aaron C. Kelly and Twila Griffin Johnson, public relations managers; Collin Blackard, public relations assistant; Andra Dunn and Tiffanie A. Pearce, house managers; Brad Nickerson, assistant house manager; Joshua Cain and Sherri Matthews, box office managers; and Mary Sanders, assistant box office manager.