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September 17, 2004/Tishri 2 5765, Vol. 57, No. 3
Tribute to family history
JENNIFER GOLDBERG
Staff Writer
Before America was a melting pot, it was a tossed salad: people of different races, religions and nationalities coexisting in a shared environment.
"The Immigrant," Arizona Theatre Company's first production of the 2004-05 season, examines one small component of the salad: two families - one Jewish, one Baptist - who share a complex and long-lasting friendship in early 20th-century Texas.
Based on the 1985 play by actor/playwright Mark Harelik, this new musical version of "The Immigrant" is derived from the real-life story of Harelik's paternal grandparents and their journey from Russia to Galveston, Texas, in 1909. The new musical, directed by Harelik's friend Randal Myler, features a score by Steven Alper and lyrics by Sarah Knapp.
For ATC artistic director David Goldstein, the story resonates on a personal level.
"All four of my grandparents came through (Galveston)," he says.
In "The Immigrant," Leah and Haskell Harelik have arrived in Galveston as part of the Galveston Movement, a program developed by the Jewish Immigrants' Infor-mation Bureau that diverted Russian Jewish immigration to the tiny port city. More than 10,000 Jews eventually found their way into America through Galveston.
When Leah and Haskell show up on the doorstep of Ima and Milton Perry, a Baptist couple who eventually takes them in, the two couples develop a close relationship. However, the differences between them eventually cause an irreparable rift.
To Harelik (who played his own grandfather in the original production of the play), "The Immigrant" is not only a dramatic retelling of his family's history, but a potent testimony of faith, memory and the mystery of family connection.
In his author's note that was written for the original play and can be found in the ATC play guide for the musical, Harelik writes that he was partially inspired to write "The Immigrant" after looking at his grandmother's photo album.
"In the early pages, my grandfather has a young man's face ... a face that resembles mine. ... As the pages turn, my father's face appears, a baby at first, then a high school graduate. I look a lot like him, too.
"And there is a feeling, after I begin to make an appearance, that there is a single spirit - ageless and unaffected by circumstance - that is born, grows old, is born again, grows old again; little then big, then little, like a beating heart that exists on the land."
Goldstein says "The Immigrant" was chosen as the season opener for a variety of reasons. In addition to his personal affinity for the musical, "I thought it would be good because right now we're having Celebrate 350. Also, I thought, this being an election year, it would be a particularly good time to do a play about what it means and why it is precious to be an American - the challenges and joys of that," he says.
Despite the transition to the musical format, Goldstein says the play still deals respectfully with the subject material, and everyone, Jews and non-Jews, will be able to relate to the story.
"In a way, almost all of us are immigrants here. Whether you're Jewish, Baptist, whatever, your ancestors are immigrants," says Goldstein.
In the end, Harelik has created a moving tribute to his ancestors and the millions of people who came and continue to come to America in search of a better life.
He writes, "The story of the American immigrant reveals a constant process of letting go. The most firmly held beliefs, those upon which life depends, are challenged as being mere superstition.
"And in the end, when even memory is gone, that which remains lives only in the telling. I must tell you this story, for it's all that remains of a good man's life, and all that's immortal in me."
Details
- What: "The Immigrant"
- When: Oct. 7-24
- Where: Herberger Theatre, 220 E. Monroe St., Phoenix
- Cost: $20-$54
- Call: 602-256-6995
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