A Message from Arnold Mittelman After a career in not-for-profit and commercial theater spanning more than 40 years I was honored in 2007 to found the National Jewish Theater / Foundation and in 2010 to assume leadership of its Holocaust Theater International...
Cakewalk
Author(s): Nalsey Tinberg
Ma is the only survivor in her family of the Holocaust. Her daughter, mostly assimilated, learns of her mother's struggle and survivor guilt, as she survives a cancer diagnosis and her own survivor guilt. Not your typical Jewish mother-daughter tale, this play starts comfortably familiar then accelerates from zero to sixty taking on serious themes (war, illness, childbirth, family, faith, history) before you have a chance to recover from your tears or last laugh. These two women are, at their core, bonded inextricably. Their relationship? Anything but a “cakewalk.”
Format: Full length drama
Cast Size:2F
Character breakdown:
Ma (Sprintze), mother (75–85)
Barrie (Bersahla), daughter (35–45)
Snapshot
Original or Prominent Production:
Main Street Theater, Houston, Texas as part of the Main Stage Season, October 29–November 27, 2012. Cakewalk was also produced as a staged reading as part of the NY Chapter of the Television Academy's play reading series hosted by Arlene Dahl in 2004, and at the Manhattan Theatre in 2005. The play was also named a second place winner in the eighth national readers theatre playwrighting competition of The Open Book.
Main Street Theater, Houston, Texas as part of the Main Stage Season, October 29–November 27, 2012. Cakewalk was also produced as a staged reading as part of the NY Chapter of the Television Academy's play reading series hosted by Arlene Dahl in 2004, and at the Manhattan Theatre in 2005. The play was also named a second place winner in the eighth national readers theatre playwrighting competition of The Open Book.
Nationality of Author: U.S.
Original Language: English
Production Rights Holder:
Nalsey Tinberg
Experience(s) Chronicled: Survivors and Subsequent Generations | Women and the Holocaust | Reactions to the Holocaust | Rescue | European Jewry Before the Holocaust
HTC Insights
Views, reference and research of interest.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The National Jewish Theater Foundation presented its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Alfred Uhry. The presentation took place as part of the Lincoln Center Library event on January 27th 2025 in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
Lifetime Achievement Award
On September 30, 2024, French playwright, Mr. Jean Claude Grumberg received the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was presented by NJTF HTII President, Arnold Mittelman with Dominique Trimbur, PhD-Manager for the History of Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Teaching of the Holocaust of Fondation Pour La Memoir de la Shoah Project.