A Play Teaching the Holocaust, Tolerance, and Courage
The Team
Wendy Kout (Playwright) is an award-winning writer/producer of stage, film, virtual screen and television, whose work has been appreciated around the world.
STAGE CREDITS: SURVIVORS, inspired by the testimony of Holocaust survivors was commissioned by CenterStage Theatre of Rochester and Spring 2023 will be its third year of touring schools and stages in New York. The Holocaust Education Project of Philadelphia chose SURVIVORS to be produced by Theatre Ariel and tour schools in March 2022. Gratz College will be partnering with Theatre Ariel for the spring 2023 tour. The first international production and tour of SURVIVORS was fall 2022, by Bema Productions of Victoria B.C., Canada and will expand in 2023. The Los Angeles and West Coast tour will launch April 2023, produced by Arts for Change. Never is Now, had an acclaimed world premiere at Skylight Theatre Company in Los Angeles, September 2019 and was also performed at the USC Fisher Museum and the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. April 6, 2021, Quarantine Players of Washington, D.C., produced a virtual production of the play to honor Holocaust Remembrance Day. We Are the Levinsons world premiered at Six Points Theatre (previously the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company) and won BroadwayWorld Regional awards for Best Play and Best Ensemble Performance. It was set for its third production at the New Jewish Theatre in St. Louis when Covid struck. Naked in Encino world premiered at CenterStage Theatre in Rochester, NY, and won Marlowe Awards for Best New Play and Best Production, Comedy for its And Toto too Production in Denver, Colorado. Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for Helen Gahagan Douglas, co-written with Michele Willens, is an O’Neill Conference Finalist and has been produced as a fundraiser in NYC and L.A. for The Nation magazine, in L.A. for People for the American Way and in Washington, D.C. for National Women’s Law Center. Wendy’s virtual play credits produced by Skylight Theatre Company are Courage Takes the Stage, co-written with Michele Willens, Wake Up Call, cowritten with Jeff Reno and Wendy was part of the creative team who created, We the People, which served as a warning about our threatened democracy in 2020.
FILM CREDITS: Co-Writer and Co-Producer of Jacob the Baker, which is in post-production and will be distributed by Buffalo 8. Directed by Gev Miron, featuring Pulitzer Prize nominated poet/philosopher, Noah benShea and music composed by Grammy-award winner, Sharon Farber, the film was shot in Israel, Denmark, South Korea and Los Angeles and aspires to bring comfort and inspiration to audiences around the world. Dorfman in Love, produced by Leonard Hill Films and starring Elliott Gould, Sara Rue and Haaz Sleiman, won Best Film at the Hollywood International Film Festival and Marbella International Film Festival and Best Comedy at the Los Angeles and Miami Jewish Film Festivals. The film has received an average of four and a half stars on Amazon. Wendy has developed film projects for Barbra Streisand’s Barwood Productions and has also developed films for Producer Laura Ziskin at Touchstone Pictures and Director/Producer John Hughes at Universal Pictures.
TELEVISION CREDITS: Creator and Co-Executive Producer of the Golden Globe and ASCAP award-winning ABC series, Anything but Love, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis. Wendy was also on the writing/producing staffs of Robin Williams’ Mork & Mindy and Jane Fonda’s 9 to 5 and wrote a breakthrough episode for The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, where Molly falls for a Hasidic Jew. Wendy also developed television projects for Lifetime and Paul Reiser’s Nuance Productions.
PRODUCING CREDITS: In 2023, Wendy and Producer Genie Benson, cofounded Arts for Change, a production arm of the non-profit Keshet Chaim Dancers, Arts for Change creates, develops, produces and supports plays, film, dance, music and literature to encourage tolerance and inspire positive change in the world. Their first project is producing the schools and stages West Coast tour of SURVIVORS. Wendy serves on the Board of Directors of the award-winning Skylight Theatre Company in Los Angeles, the Outreach Committee of the Alliance for Jewish Theatre, and the Honorary Committee of the Boston Jewish Film Festival. She lives in Santa Barbara with her husband and favorite male writer, Dennis Koenig.
Learn more about Wendy at www.wendykout.com.
Literary Manager – Will Levine – [email protected]
Sandi Henschel (Original Production Director) is a New York City trained actress, director and writer. Sandi is a published playwright and poet and is currently a contributing editor to AudioFile Magazine. Her performance and directing credits include productions ranging from off-Broadway to regional theatre. She has also performed and directed for most of Rochester’s leading theatre companies. Sandi has been a TYKEs director since its beginning, directing many memorable shows including TYKEs most recent production, LLAMA, LLAMA, RED PAJAMA, The Musical. Sandi was the first ever director of Wendy Kout’s powerful drama, SURVIVORS, and has directed all four productions mounted for the JCC since. Sandi feels her work on SURVIVORS is her most important and meaningful work to date. She is honored to be a part of this life-affirming project.
Ray Manard (Producer/Director, Editor, Cinematographer) has worked in the film and video production business for over 35 years. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, Ray is currently co-owner of Crystal Pix, Inc. with his wife, Caroline. For the past 27 years, Crystal Pix has been a nationally recognized film and video production facility in Western New York. Besides producing numerous national and regional commercials and marketing films for Fortune 500 companies, Ray has had the opportunity to participate in a variety of documentary, short film and feature film projects. He served as both Cinematographer and Editor on SIGNS OF THE TIME, utilizing his storytelling experience to impact both the visual style and pace of the film. SIGNS OF THE TIME was the winner of 3 NY Emmy® Awards, including Best Documentary and Editor (Ray Manard). Ray was also the Co-Director, Cinematographer and Editor on another NY Emmy Award-winning documentary, TURN THE PAGE. Ray continues to leverage his storytelling skills to benefit several non-profit organizations in the area, which is some of the most rewarding work of his career. He resides in Fairport, NY with his wife and 2 daughters, Abigail, and Ava.
Ralph Meranto (Co-Producer) was inspired to commission SURVIVORS as a way to ensure the stories of Rochester’s Holocaust Survivors would continue to be told after their deaths. As a Producing Artistic Director of CenterStage Theatre at the JCC his passion and national reputation for new work developed has led to multiple new plays created locally and in conjunction with the National New Play Network and Alliance for Jewish Theatre. Recent new works include Tracy Jones by Stephen Kaplan, Division Street and On the Market (Jason Odell Williams), RuPaul’s Drag Race star Mrs. Kasha Davis’ There’s Always Time for a Cocktail (Off-Broadway Premiere at Beechman Theater), Bruce Sabbath’s Searching for Tevye, Wild Horses by Allison Gregory and the annual popular music series Hitmakers. Ralph directed the world premiere of Jason Odell Williams’ Church & State which made its NYC debut at New World Stages (OBA Nominee Best New Play). Church & State has been licensed by Dramatist Play Services for over 65 productions across North America.
Freyda Schneider (Co-Producer) TYKEs’ founder and director has 25 years of professional theatre management experience. She also works with aspiring young actors each summer at TYKEs’ KidStage to write and perform original on-stage productions, and writes for adults as well including Writers & Books’ 24 Hour Plays and the original production of A Sharing Stone based on the Stone Soup fable. A local JCC member since childhood, she has strong connections to the Jewish community, maintaining a focus on pinpointing and addressing audience needs. Passionate about children’s theatre, her goal is to spark creativity and out-of-the-box thinking among young people to inspire upcoming generations of thoughtful, caring theatre performers and patrons.
THE CAST
Jackie Madejski (Woman 1) is honored to be a part of Survivors. Past credits include 2nd witch in Macbeth (PG Shakespeare in the Parks), Linnea Cassian-Hunt in Body of Work (MNCPCC), Cynthia/Chaya in Triangle (Free Range Humans) and Luce in The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Baltimore Shakespeare Factory). Once a Purple Eagle, always a Purple Eagle! Follow @jdayskee on Instagram and Tik Tok.
Miranda Rose Blood (Woman 2) is thrilled to be returning to the JCC stage in Survivors. This is an extremely important educational opportunity for Rochester area students, and she is honored to be a part of it. Previous credits include Dino in Llama Llama Red Pajama (TYKEs), Debbie in Groundhog Day (The Barn Theatre), and Sister Mary Leo in Nunsense (CAP21 Conservatory/ Molloy University). She would like to thank her incredibly supportive family, especially her grandfather who was very supportive of the message of this show, though he never got to see it.
Sarah Malek (Woman 3) bio coming…
Evan J. Miller (Man 1) is a singer/songwriter living in Rochester, NY. Before his performance in Next to Normal (Henry) at Blackfriars, Evan had not been in a theatre production since his high school production of Seussical (Sour Kangaroo). Since then, he has performed with RCP and The Company Theatre in productions of Much Ado About Nothing (Claudio), Antony and Cleopatra (Menas/Proculeius), and Richard II (Mowbray/Salisbury/Exton), and in Pittsford Musicals production of Beauty and the Beast (Monsieur D’Arcque). He’s honored to help share the stories of Henry Silberstern, Arthur Herz, and the eight other survivors portrayed in Survivors. These stories are heart wrenching and hopeful, and it is imperative that they are remembered. Their memory is the best way to stop hatred from growing into widespread policies of oppression, propaganda genocide. We are all responsible for each other; our lives, our freedoms, and the world around us, all depend on the human race as a whole to build, defend, and nurture them.
Ged Owen (Man 2) graduated from Nazareth College with a BFA in Musical Theatre. He performed in the Rochester Irish Player’s production of Long Day’s Journey Into Night in an Irish Play Festival hosted in Ireland and was awarded Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Edmund. Other favorite credits include: Gravedigger/Labourer in Geva’s A Christmas Carol, Henry Bolingbroke in The Company Theatre’s Richard II, Terrence the Blood Mage in The Company Theatre’s Cell Outs, and Tybalt in Red House Arts Center’s Romeo and Juliet. Ged would like to thank his wife, Jordyn Rose, and his family for their support.
Alessandro Martellaro (Man 3) is extremely honored to be a part of the cast of Survivors. Originally hailing from Mishawaka, Indiana, Alessandro is a recent graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology. Previous credits include Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Blackfriars Theatre, Pirates of Penzance with the JCC, and Twelfth Night with Rochester Community Players. He would like to thank all of his friends and family for molding him into the person he is today, but sends special thanks to his partner, Corrina, and their cat, Sheriff.
Survivors was developed with support from the The William & Sheila Konar Foundation with additional support provided by the Cornell Weinstein Family Foundation, the Zachor Holocaust Remembrance Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, The Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation, ESL Charitable Foundation, and many individual donors.