Past events

Zaglada - performed reading of a new play by Richard Vetere

Thursday, February 10, 2022, at 7:00pm

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Review of a performed reading of Richard Vetere's "Zaglada" - written by Roman Markowicz - read HERE

Interview with Maja Wampuszyc by Roman Markowicz - read HERE

The Kosciuszko Foundation invites you to a performed reading of 

Zagłada

A new play by Richard Vetere

featuring:

Jon Avner, Jennean Farmer, Iza Laskowska, Lou Martini, Jr. &  Maja Wampuszyc

directed by

Alice Jankell

Original music compositions by Rick Baitz

 A discussion moderated by Dr. Eva Fogelman will follow the presentation

Thursday, February 10, 2022, 7 PM 

The Kosciuszko Foundation: 15 E 65th Street, New York, NY 10065

Space is limited. Registration is required. Free and open to the public. In lieu of admission, a $15 donation towards the Kosciuszko Foundation is appreciated. Proof of vaccination is needed to enter. 

Zagłada is about a 90-year-old Polish man living in Maspeth, Queens, who is exposed by an African-American journalist as having been a Kapo in Buchenwald. The man shoots at the journalist, is arrested for firing an illegal firearm, and is held at the 112th Precinct by an NYPD Intelligence Bureau Officer. There he is forced to confront his past by a Federal Prosecutor who is driven by a personal vendetta.

JON AVNER is a Lifetime Member of The Actors Studio. Jon has appeared in films (Quality of Mercy, Dirt, Girl in The Watermelon, Queenie in Love, etc.), television (Guiding Light, As the World Turns, FTL Newsfeed, USA Up All Night with Rhonda Shear, etc.), commercials, radio and print and his voice can be heard in many advertisements and animes (Tokyo Godfathers, Berserk, Gokusun, etc.). He is also a voice actor for video games (Just Cause 3, Earth Defense Force, etc.) and has appeared on stages around the country (Amadeus, That Championship Season, All My Sons, etc.). As a writer, Jon is a member of The Dramatists Guild and his works include the many comedy-dinner shows and game shows he continues to write and perform in around the country. MORE

RICK BAITZ composes chamber, electronic, vocal, orchestral, and film music, as well as music for theater and dance. Innova Recordings recently released a highly-acclaimed CD of his electro-acoustic works, Into Light, which included the Juilliard-commissioned Hall of Mirrors, and his string quartet Chthonic Dances.  Film score credits range from 2019's award-winning documentary What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael to HBO's The Vagina Monologues.  Rick grew up in LA, Brazil, and South Africa, and currently works out of his New York City studio. He holds teaching positions at Juilliard and Vermont College of Fine Arts and is Director of BMI's Composing for The Screen. MORE

JENNEAN FARMER is a proud Memphis, Tennessee native. After being honorably discharged from the military, she moved to New York to pursue her life-held passion for the arts. She received her M.F.A in Acting from The New School for Drama and immediately began her expansive career. To date, she can be seen in New Amsterdam (NBC), FBI (CBS), That Damn Michael Che (HBO), and soon to be seen in the upcoming film, The Good Nurse (NETFLIX).   MORE

DR. EVA FOGELMAN is an internationally known, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author, psychologist, and filmmaker. A pioneer in the fields of post-traumatic stress disorder, intergenerational transmission of trauma, behavior in extreme situations, Holocaust child survivors, and the psychological consequences of genocide and racism. She was the co-founder and co-director of Psychotherapy with Generations of the Holocaust and Related Traumas, TIMH; Jewish Foundation for Christian Rescuers, ADL (ne Jewish Foundation for the Righteous); co-director Child Development Research. Fogelman's work has been informed by her experience as a second-generation descendant of Holocaust survivors and a founder of a second-generation Holocaust survivor movement and Hidden Child Foundation. Among her publications is the best-selling Conscience and Courage:  Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust.  She wrote and co-produced Breaking the Silence:  The Generation After the Holocaust and has been a guest on multiple television and radio shows, featured in a number of documentaries, and remains a frequent speaker for general audiences and at international conferences. She currently hosts Transforming Moments:  Second Generation of Holocaust Survivors at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.  MORE

ALICE JANKELL - For Disney, Alice helped to create and develop new Broadway musicals. As Associate Artistic Director of The Williamstown Theatre Festival, her directing work included AS YOU LIKE IT, DINAH WAS, and ENOUGH ROPE, the special event on Dorothy Parker starring Elaine Stritch. As Creative Director of The Barrow Group's F.A.B. (For, About, and By) Women, Alice helped generate and produce 48 new plays. She has worked in theaters around the country, including the Mark Taper, L.A. Opera, The Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, The Hollywood Bowl, La Mama, and City Theater, among many others, as well as in film and TV. She taught acting at Carnegie Mellon. Just before Covid, Alice directed AN ENCHANTED APRIL Off-Broadway, and most recently, she directed Craig Lucas' brand new play, MORE BEAUTIFUL. A founding member of Core Artists Ensemble, member of The Actors Studio PDW, National Musical Theatre Workshop, New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, and a co-founder of Putnam Theatre Alliance.  MORE 

IZABELLA LASKOWSKA holds a Master's Degree from the prestigious Theater Academy of Dramatic Arts of Krakow/Wroclaw with a concentration in Puppetry Arts. As an actress she was a company member of the Helena Modrzejewska Theater in Legnica and later the Współczesny Theater in Wrocław under the world renown Artistic Director Kazimierz Braun. Izabella has performed over 50 roles on stage and screen in Poland, Germany and the US. She has worked as a theatre producer, director, radio broadcaster, personality and is known for her unique work as a voice over artist. Since 2014 she is the President & Artistic Director of The Polish Theatre Institute in the US. The Institute's most recent launch under her direction is The Bobkowski Project; an international multi-voice experiment bringing to life Andrzej Bobkowski's Wartime Notebooks (Szkice piórkiem). This rare firsthand daily journal account of an outsider's perspective and experience of wartime Paris can now be listened to on https://www.polishtheatre.org/bobkowski-project.

LOU MARTINI, JR. has been working as an actor since 1964. He has amassed hundreds of credits in theater, film, and television. He is best known for his numerous recurring television roles, such as The Sopranos, Manifest, and currently as counselor Ron Freddo on NBC's Law & Order: SVU. Lou's latest film work includes Windows on The World with Edward James Olmos and Alto with Annabella Sciorra. Lou won the best lead actor at the prestigious Houston World Fest for the black comedy Suicide Notes. Theater credits include the original production of Tony N Tina's wedding off-Broadway, New York, and regional productions of, Wild Children (the life story of Vincent Pastore), Centennial Casting, and Richard Vetere's Gangster Apparel. Currently, Lou is workshopping a new Broadway musical about the life of legendary songwriter Doc Pomus.  MORE

RICHARD VETERE is most known for his novel The Third Miracle (Simon & Schuster) made into a film released by Sony Picture Classics, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, directed by Agnieszka Holland, and starring Ed Harris. His first produced original feature film Vigilante was named "one of the best indie films of the 1980s" by BAM. The Marriage Fool, starring Walter Matthau and Carol Burnet, adapted by Vetere from his stage play for CBS TV films, was the most viewed TV movie ever made. He has written features and TV pilots for George Clooney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, New Line, Fox, Disney, CBS, and ABC to name a few.  Vetere's published works include seven published novels, three published toms of poetry, and over twenty published plays, including the critically acclaimed Caravaggio. Most recently Caravaggio was awarded the Golden Palm for The Best Screenplay at the Beverly Hills International Film Festival 2021. Richard Vetere is a Lifetime Member of the WGA East, served a two-year term on its Council in 2012, and has an MA from Columbia University in Comparative English Literature. MORE

MAJA WAMPUSZYC has worked with Tony & Oscar Award winners. Film & TV credits include The Immigrant (Cannes & NY Film Festival); Mona Lisa Smile; Going Shopping; The Knick; Madam Secretary; Search Party. Broadway: Irena's Vow. Off-Broadway, NYC, & regional credits include Irena's Vow (Co-produced by The Directors Company & The Polish Cultural Institute); Lady Macbeth and Her Lover; House of Connelly; Foggy Bottom; An Oak Tree (Obie Award); The Pearl Theatre; Precious Stones, and pool (no water).  March 2020: Anna Akhmatova in Night Shadows Or: One Hundred Million Voices Shouting at Irondale. In 2021: Wampuszyc played the title role in Clytemnestra in Hades; made two solo shorts; contributed a recording from Szkice Piórkiem for the PTI Projekt Bobkowski and most recently played Ayn Rand in The Disciple for Thirdwing, LTD. A member of the PDW Actors Studio, she has collaborated as a director with Richard Vetere on four new plays, including the newly published Zagłada; and on Unknown Objects of Desire (a fantastical dramatization of Marie Curie Skłodowska's teen years) with Lanie Robertson (Lady Day at the Emerson Bar and Grill, Broadway 2014). Maja Wampuszyc graduated Summa Cum Laude in English Literature, BA. She studied acting with Uta Hagen, Robert X. Modica at Carnegie Hall, and Shakespeare with BADA at Balliol College, Oxford. A member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, she is represented by Bret Adams, LTD.   MORE 

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