(Pittsfield, MA) Barrington Stage Company (Alan Paul, Artistic Director; Meredith Lynsey Schade, Managing Director) and Jewish Federation of the Berkshires will present a free panel on “Reflections on Antisemitism and the Cautionary Tale of ‘Cabaret’” on Thursday, June 29 at 10:00 a.m. at the Boyd-Quinson Stage (30 Union Street).
Join a discussion with Jewish thought leaders on the relevance of art and theater in promoting understanding and combating antisemitism. There will be a 10:00 a.m. coffee and bagel reception in the Boyd-Quinson Stage Lobby. The Panel discussion begins at 10:45 a.m. in the theatre.
This partnership with the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires will feature a panel including Alan Paul (BSC Artistic Director), Dr. Barbara Waldinger (Ph.D. Theatre, CUNY Graduate Center) and Dr. Roselle Chartock (author and artist, Professor Emerita of Education), moderated by Jeffrey Robbins (former US Delegate to the UN Human Rights Commission). Event Chairs are Rhoda Levitt, Hope Silverman, Zelda Schwebel.
About the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires:
The Jewish Federation of the Berkshires cares for those in need and nurtures and sustains the Jewish community locally, in Israel and around the world today and for future generations. As a resource and contact point for Jews throughout the Berkshires and its environs, we seek to create a dynamic community where all who desire Jewish interaction are welcomed.
About the Panelists:
Dr. Barbara Waldinger earned her Ph.D. in Theatre (CUNY Graduate Center) and taught at Queens College, Hofstra University and Marymount Manhattan College. Currently she teaches for OLLI in Pittsfield, where she co-founded the Performing Arts Initiative, serves as co-host of their Playreading Shared Interest Group and is a member of the Art Committee. She has lectured for the New York Council for the Humanities and served as a respondent for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. She has directed plays at university and regional theatres, local Berkshire venues, the Strindberg New York Festival, Queens Theatre in the Park, and LUNA Stage in West Orange, New Jersey. As Artistic Director of HRC Showcase Theatre (for which she has staged over one hundred new play readings over twenty years), and as a director for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival, and the Plays in Progress Annual Short Play Festival, she has enjoyed collaborating with playwrights on original scripts. Barbara is a member of the Berkshire Theatre Critics’ Association and writes reviews for Berkshire On Stage.
Dr. Roselle Kline Chartock is Professor Emerita of Education and a full-time artist and writer, having previously taught on all levels for forty-five years, most recently at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. She is the author of five books and several scholarly articles on topics related to education, American history and Jewish history and has spoken on those topics throughout the country. Chartock co-edited an anthology on the Nazi Holocaust, published originally as The Holocaust Years: Society on Trial (1978, Bantam Books and the Anti-Defamation League), later published under the title, Can It Happen Again: Chronicles of the Holocaust (1995 Black Dog and Leventhal). This interdisciplinary collection of readings was the foundation of the curriculum – the first of its kind in the country for high school students – developed by Chartock and her colleagues in the social studies department at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington, MA. Chartock resides in Great Barrington with her husband, Alan.
Jeff Robbins, a nationally syndicated columnist and an attorney specializing in First Amendment issues, served as Chairman of the New England Board of the Anti-Defamation League. A former Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Massachusetts, he was Chief Counsel for the Minority for the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and Deputy Chief Counsel for the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. In 1999 and again in 2000, President Clinton appointed him United States Delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. He is a litigation partner in the Boston office of the national law firm Saul Ewing. He serves on the New England boards of the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, and frequently appears as a guest commentator on ABC News Live.
Alan Paul is the Artistic Director of Barrington Stage and director of Cabaret. Before joining BSC, he was the Associate Artistic Director of the Tony Award-winning Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he directed productions of Our Town, Camelot, The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet, Kiss Me Kate, Man of La Mancha, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and the film of Patrick Page’s All the Devils Are Here, which was a New York Times Critic’s Pick. Along with his work at STC, Alan has directed productions at theaters across the country including Kiss Me, Kate at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre and The King and I at Chicago’s Drury Lane Theatre. Alan has been nominated for five Helen Hayes Awards and was awarded Best Director in 2014. He is a graduate of Northwestern University.