arts & Life
Get Transported
A real girl's
experience with
Kindertransport
comes to life on
stage.
Fox, center, meets the cast of
the play based on her book.
My Heart in a Suitcase
will be performed at
9:45 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
Tuesday, April 21, at the
Macomb Center for the
Performing Arts,
Clinton Township.
$15 adults/$5 students.
(586) 286-2222;
macombcenter.com .
Celebrity Jews
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
STREAMING IN
Daredevil, a new Netflix series
based on the Marvel Comics
character created in 1964 by
Stan Lee, now 92, is set to
premiere, along with the entire
first season, on April 10. The
basic plot: Lawyer-by-day Matt
Murdock (played by Charlie Cox)
uses his heightened senses,
the result of being blinded as
a young boy, to fight crime at
night on the streets of New York
City's Hell's Kitchen neighbor-
hood as Daredevil.
62
April 16 • 2015
I
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
A
nne Lehmann Fox and
Edith Maniker did not
grow up together, but
they share a common background
and mission.
Fox and Maniker survived
the Holocaust because their
parents placed them with
Kindertransport, and both remain
committed to telling their stories
to younger generations.
Fox, living in Pennsylvania, told
her story through an auto-
biography, My Heart in a
Suitcase. Maniker regularly
tells her story as a docent
at the Holocaust Memorial
Center in Farmington Hills.
The two stories come
together during a stage
adaptation of Fox's book
to be presented twice on
Tuesday, April 21, at the
Macomb Center for the
Performing Arts in Clinton
Township. The play, which
is appropriate for audi-
ences in grades 4 and up, will be
supplemented with comments by
Maniker, who will answer audience
questions.
Through the play and the pre-
sentation, those watching will learn
how, starting in 1938 as the Nazis
rose to power, thousands of Jewish
children reached England after
being sent by Kindertransport from
Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia
and Austria.
They left behind their families,
homes and comfortable lifestyles
— with most never seeing their
parents again.
One of Daredevil's main
adversaries is Wilson Fisk, aka
the Kingpin, a powerful busi-
nessman in the same neighbor-
hood. Fisk is played by Vincent
D'Onofrio (Law and Order:
Criminal Intent). Fisk's love
interest, Vanessa Marianna, is
played by Israeli actress Ayelet
Zurer, 45. Her past co-starring
roles include playing Vittoria
Vetra in Angels
and Demons
and Lara,
Superman's
mother in
Man of Steel
(2013). Veteran
actor Scott
Zurer
Glenn, 74, has
The play is being brought to
Michigan by ArtsPower, a produc-
tion company focusing on theater
for children and their families,
run by founding co-directors and
identical twins Mark and Gary
Blackman.
"We wanted to create a produc-
tion that portrays the strength
of the human spirit:' says Mark
Blackman during a phone conver-
sation from his New Jersey office.
"This one portrays an important
event through the eyes of a family
who lived through it, and there's
a compelling nature to it. [We've
seen] strong audience emotions
much in the same way every time
it is staged.
"In order for Anne Lehmann Fox
to forge a productive and fulfilling
life, she had to survive the unthink-
able tragedy of leaving her parents,
who were eventually captured
and killed in concentration camps
when she was only 12 years old:'
The play spotlights four cast
members: Patrina Caruana (HBO's
Boardwalk Empire) as Anne, Katie
Fogarty (13th Street Repertory
Theatre's Wiseacre Farm) as
Dorit, Caitlin Mileon (NBC's Fatal
Encounters) as Mrs. Lehmann and
Nick Webster (ArtsPower com-
pany) as Mr. Lehmann.
"I have no family connections to
the Holocaust or Kindertransport,
but I'm Jewish and have friends
whose [relatives] were on the
Kindertransport," says Blackman,
58, who has become a member of
the Kindertransport Association
and was a board member of
Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield,
N.J.
My Heart in a Suitcase is among
a recurring role as Stick, a mys-
terious martial-arts expert and
Murdock's mentor.
AT THE MOVIES
Opening this week and other
notes: True Story, starring
Jonah Hill, 31, and James
Franco, 36. In November 2001,
New York Times journalist
Michael Finkel (Hill), then 32,
found out in the course of two
days that he was being fired
by the Times for presenting a
composite character as a real
person in a Times article, and
that a criminal, Christian Longo
(Franco), was using his identity
while evading the FBI in Mexico.
Other media outlets wouldn't
ArtsPower's nine touring shows
this season.
"Because this is a real story, I
think the impact of the production
is enhanced," says Blackman, who
reads young people's books to come
up with production ideas. "Most
of our plays are based on fiction.
This is our first production about
Judaism:'
The Blackmans have been pro-
ducing theater for nearly 30 years,
and will be working on their 29th
show this summer. "My mother
was an elementary teacher, and
my father was a college professor;
Blackman says of his background.
"They were supportive of the arts
and took us to a lot of theater:'
Both brothers majored in
psychology as undergraduates at
Columbia University before earn-
ing their master's degrees in music
education from the School of
Music at Florida State University.
While performing as jazz musi-
cians over 10 years, they started
ArtsPower. Greg Gunning joined
them as artistic director and
adapted and directed My Heart in
a Suitcase. Background music is by
Richard DeRosa.
"We don't usually have a supple-
mental program for our plays, but
when we bring in survivors, that's
powerful:' Mark Blackman says.
Edith Maniker will tell audiences
she was not hidden or hungry.
"I lived in so many places before
going to an uncle in Detroit:' she
recalls. "It's because of the bravery
of my parents, who let me go, that
I survived:'
Maniker, like Fox, was born
in Germany. She is not sure that
she could have sent her children
away in similar circumstances,
but there is a lesson she wants to
pass along from another survi-
vor: "Don't let anyone teach you
how to hate, and don't you teach
anyone how to hate:'
hire the disgraced Finkel and the
only journalist Longo would talk
to was Finkel. Needing the work,
Finkel did prison interviews with
Longo, accused of killing his wife
and three young children. After
Longo was convicted and sent
to Oregon's death row, Finkel
wrote a book about their inter-
views – the basis of this film.
Early in 2014, Hill and
Leonardo DiCaprio, fresh off
their successful collaboration in
The Wolf of Wall Street, began
work on a film project called The
Ballad of Richard Jewell – about
the security guard who found
a backpack containing a bomb
at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
His quick action minimized the
bomb's damage and saved lives,
but his hero status turned to
villain when the media reported
he was a suspect. His life was
in tatters by the time the FBI
cleared him. Hill is set to play
Jewell, and DiCaprio will play
Jewell's lawyer.
Oscar-nominated screenwriter
Billy Ray, 50, a Jewish guy with
a country-music name, has writ-
ten a script for the film. Recent
reports say that Clint Eastwood
wants to direct. Meanwhile, Hill
is filming a black comedy, Arms
and Dudes, about two Orthodox
Jewish "stoners" from Miami
who got a Pentagon contract
to supply the Afghan army with
ammunition.
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