Divide the Living Child

FREE!
Food and Drinks!

Please join the Dramatists Guild for an SF Footlights reading of DIVIDE THE LIVING CHILD written and directed by Terry Baum

Starring:
Gwyneth Richards, Paula Barish, Katie Robbins, Carolyn Myers, and Amber Sommerfeld

Time: 1943, in Nazi-occupied Holland. Place: The living room of a small apartment in Amsterdam. Torrie, a devout Christian welcomes two Jews into her home: Miriam and her 14-year-old daughter, Hannah.

Miriam must stay in the apartment, invisible, while Hannah goes intothe world with a new identity as Helen, Torrie's niece. Tension between the three builds as Torrie pressures Hannah to convert to Christianity.

To make matters worse, a nosy neighbor who supports the Nazi Occupation suspects that Hannah is not the Christian niece she pretends to be.

Hannah is torn between her Jewish identity and her life as Helen in a Christian world. Miriam must decide what is best for her daughter's survival -- even if it means Miriam must leave the the only safe place she knows.

TERRY BAUM's most recent work as playwright and actress was HICK: A Love Story, The Romance of Lorena Hickok & Eleanor Roosevelt, which had a sold-out run at the Eureka Theatre in July, and received critical acclaim. She has written fifteen plays and co-written four. Her work explores gay rights, immigrant rights, feminism, anti-Semitism, medical-ethical dilemmas, and the pursuit of true love. Four of her plays have been published, produced all over the world, and translated into French, Dutch, Italian, and Swedish. DOS LESBOS, a Play by, for, and about Perverts (1981, with Carolyn Myers) inspired the first anthology of lesbian plays (Places, Please 1985). An Italian production of Dos Lesbos offended the Pope during World Pride 2000 in Rome.

Since 2008, Baum has been one-half of The Crackpot Crones, performing subversive feminist comedy and improvisation throughout the U.S with Carolyn Myers. Last year was a banner year for The Crones, with four productions, three of them new work: a workshop version of HICK, BRIDE OF LESBOSTEIN, and CRONES FOR THE HOLIDAYS: The Sequel. Baum was the Green candidate for Mayor of San Francisco in 2011.