 FEBRUARY 27 • 2020 | 35

that started with tap dancing in kindergarten and moved into 
choreography, singing, acting, directing, teaching and explor-
ing photography and videography. 
“It took many years for me to do all that,
” Lazarov said. “It 
was not easy in the beginning because people did not under-
stand me. I think they can be afraid of inter-disciplinarian 
people (because it is expected) that a person needs to do one 
thing.
”
Lazarov, on the professional stage since age 12 and teaching 
since age 14, graduated from the Thelma Yellin Art School 
in Israel as a dancer and served as a singer in a military band 
before joining the renowned Bat Sheva Dance Company in Tel 
Aviv. To enhance his dramatic skills, he studied at the Actors’
 
Centre in London before working at the Gesher and Cameri 
theaters, both in Israel.
Many starring roles followed, in diverse productions that 
included The Threepenny Opera, Yentl and A Chorus Line. 
Along with stage work, Lazarov has played 
leading roles in more than 40 films and 
television productions. His voice appeared 
in Waltz with Bashir, a 2008 Israeli animat-
ed drama that won a Golden Globe Award 
for Best Foreign Language Film. 
Besides writing and directing short films 
shown in festivals, Lazarov has worked as 
a theater director who also adapts works, 
designs sets and choreographs. Productions 
have included Fathers & Sons, Alice and 
Falling Out of Time. His wife, Alin, a cos-
tume designer, has worked with him.
Delving into even more areas, Lazarov is the artistic director 
and co-founder of Studio Ankori Middle School and High 
School for creative thinking and entrepreneurship in Israel, as 
well as the initiator, art director and curator of AZA13, a Tel 
Aviv art venue. As a visual artist, he has exhibited photography 
and video projects. 
“Because I’
m an inter-disciplinarian artist, I’
m teaching an 
inter-disciplinarian way of living as a performer or as a creator, 
and my life is full of freedom and interests,
” Lazarov said. “I 
always feel I’
m on one big vacation because it’
s never boring.
“I can have rehearsals in the morning, meet with students 
right after I have meetings with teachers and go on to a show 
I’
m directing or an exhibition that I’
m curating. I’
m doing all of 
this because I truly love what I’
m doing.
”
As the Lazarov family tours the country, both parents home-
school their daughters (ages 16, 12 and 8) and take them to 
museums and other points of interest in each destination city. 
“It looks like my daughters have aspirations to go into enter-
tainment, and my advice is to have the inner freedom to try to 
be curious, test everything they love and be creative,
” he said. “I 
advise them to have the freedom to succeed and to fail, under-
standing that the only way to win a situation is to be in the 
process and not think about results.
” 

details
The revival of Fiddler 
on the Roof will be 
staged March 10-15 
at the Fisher Theatre 
in Detroit. Tickets start 
at $45. (313) 872-
1000, ext. 0. 
broadwayindetroit.
com.

#AnneFrank Parallel Stories

Documentary brings new layers to the famed 
Holocaust account.

A

nne Frank is perhaps 
the world’
s best-
known Holocaust 
victim, her life revealed to 
millions of readers world-
wide through her poignant 
diary written while in 
hiding with her family in 
Amsterdam during the Nazi 
invasion.
Now that diary is used as 
the basis of a documentary 
film, #AnneFrank Parallel 
Stories, which will have 
a one-day local showing 
Tuesday, March 3, at the 
Main Art Theatre in Royal 
Oak. 
Geared toward younger 
audiences, the film uses the 
pages of Anne’
s diary to tell 
the life story of this young 
girl who wanted to become 
a writer. From a reconstruct-
ed set that details every 
nook and cranny of her 
room in the secret annex in 
Amsterdam, Oscar-winning 
actress Helen Mirren tells 
Anne’
s story through her 
own words from her diary. 
Meanwhile, Anne’
s story 
is bound up with those of 
five Holocaust survivors 
— Arianna Szorenyi, Sarah 
Montard, Helga Weiss and 

sisters Andra and Tatiana 
Bucci — who, like Anne, 
were teenagers who lost 
their childhoods and faced 
persecution and deportation. 
They give voice to the life 
Anne might have lived if she 
had survived. 
Adding a contemporary 
twist to the film is a young 
girl, off “the set,” who wants 
to learn about Anne’
s life. 
She shares her thoughts 
with viewers through pho-
tos and posts as she visits 
the Bergen-Belsen concen-
tration camp in Germany 
where Anne and her sister, 
Margot, died, as well as 
other spots key in Anne’
s 
story. Eventually, she ends 
up at the secret annex in 
Amsterdam. 
#AnneFrank Parallel Stories 
is an Italian production 
directed by Sabina Fedeli 
and Anna Migotto, produced 
by 3D Produzioni and Nexo 
Digital in collaboration with 
Ann Frank Fonds Basel. 
With the 75th anniver-
sary of the liberation of 
Auschwitz this year, this film 
reinforces the educational 
value, especially to young 
people, of Anne’
s story. 

KERI GUTEN COHEN STORY DEVELOPMENT EDITOR

NEXO DIGITAL

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