The cast includes Tony winner Nina Arianda, Emmy, Oscar and Tony winner Ellen Burstyn, Golden Globe winner and "Sex and The City" star Kim Cattrall, Obie winner Alvin Epstein, Obie winner Brian Murray, television stars John Pankow and Hunter Parrish and Obie winner Austin Pendleton.
Presented by the Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center and the Polish Cultural Institute New York and directed by Cosmin Chivu, the one-night-only reading will take place April 13. The presentation will also feature original music by Jesse Selengut.
Our Class is the winner of the Nike Literary Award and follows a group of ten classmates, Catholics and Jews, from 1925 to the present. According to press notes, "Victims and perpetrators are bound together and grow up in a country torn apart by the effects of war, betrayal, cruelty and repression." The play is inspired by true events and it is based on Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland by Jan Tomasz Gross.
Following the performance, award-winning writer Tadeusz Słobodzianek will speak about his creative process and will answer questions from the audience. A pre-show seminar will be conducted by Irena Grudzinska Gross, PhD., a Princeton University professor and celebrated scholar of Judaica, on issues of war, violence and nation-state ideologies in East-Central Europe of 20th century.
Playwright, director and theatre critic Słobodzianek is the recipient of many international awards, including the Fringe First Award won with the Wierszalin Society at the Edinburgh Festival (1993 and 1995), ‘Polityka’ Passport Award (1993), Stanisław Piętak Prize (1993) and the Kościelski Foundation Prize for lifetime achievements in drama and theatre arts. The Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center is located at 10 East 66th St., New York. Tickets are available by visiting emanuelskirballnyc.org or by calling (212) 507-9580.