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...
Shanghai Carousel: What Tomorrow Will Be
The theme of “Shanghai Carousel” is based on the popular song among refugees, Otto Reutter’s “Carousel, Carousel.” For Jewish refugees, the experience of rotating from one temporary home to another seemed like a carnival ride, perpetually going around in circles. Other popular music of the time, which refugees performed in Shanghai clubs such as The White Horse Inn, are interspersed throughout the play and serve as the music that propels the carousel forward.
Format: One-act drama
Character breakdown:
IDA: homemaker, seamstress, and milliner
REBECCA: a young girl growing into a young woman
DANIEL: doctor turned factory worker
ERIC: an infant growing into a young boy
MIRIAM MOCZAR: a Polish Jewish refugee and actress singer who flees to Kobe, Japan, and
ends up in Shanghai, China, performing in a café.
SHRAGA: Hebrew for “light.” In Judaism, light is often related to spirituality and Godliness.
Light is also used to bring warmth and happiness to Shabbat, festivals, and joyous occasions.
Shraga is older, 30-40’s.
ASHER: Hebrew for “Happy one.” Asher is young, possibly a teenager.
REBECCA: a young girl growing into a young woman
DANIEL: doctor turned factory worker
ERIC: an infant growing into a young boy
MIRIAM MOCZAR: a Polish Jewish refugee and actress singer who flees to Kobe, Japan, and
ends up in Shanghai, China, performing in a café.
SHRAGA: Hebrew for “light.” In Judaism, light is often related to spirituality and Godliness.
Light is also used to bring warmth and happiness to Shabbat, festivals, and joyous occasions.
Shraga is older, 30-40’s.
ASHER: Hebrew for “Happy one.” Asher is young, possibly a teenager.
Snapshot
Original or Prominent Production:
Studio Theatre, Valparaiso University Center for the Arts, May 7, 2020.
Studio Theatre, Valparaiso University Center for the Arts, May 7, 2020.
Original Source Material: Based on the popular song among refugees, Otto Reutter’s “Carousel, Carousel.”
Nationality of Author: U.S.
Original Language: English
Production Rights Holder:
Kari-Anne Innes and Kevin Ostoyich
Experience(s) Chronicled: Rescue | Allegoric or Metaphoric Representations | Survivors and Subsequent Generations | Women and the Holocaust | Liberation
HTC Insights
Views, reference and research of interest.
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.
Many Questions and a Few Answers
by Robert Skloot 2022 NJTF HTII Lifetime Achievement Award AHO Winter Conference, Miami, FL I’d like to begin my remarks by asking the question that all of us have been asked often: “Why do you do the work you do?” There are, of course, many answers, but I’d imagine...