“The Conversion of Alice B. Toklas “
Playwright: Carol Polcovar,
Directed: by Louis Lopardi
Cast: Rosina Fernfeld.
The world knows Alice B. Toklas only as the “wife” of the famous and colorful experimental writer Gertrude Stein. Stein dominated her life and every wrote Alice’s “autobiography.” It is assumed theirs was a relationship that imitated the heterosexual model. In this play Alice has a chance to tell her about herself, her relationship and other subjects including the Nazi occupation of France which, while both Jews, they survived through the cooperation and help of their collaborating friends. Two lesbians from wealthy families living in a time when their sexuality , their gender decisions and their ethnic affiliation put them in danger, “The Conversion of Alice B. Toklas” tells a story of relationship, love over decades, fear and self-hatred.
Bios:
Carol Polcovar (playwright) is a poet, with an MFA in poetry from Brooklyn College where she studied with John Ashbery; a playwright whose plays have been produced Off Broadway and in Italy; a director of more than thirty shows; a producer whose best know production Ray Fox’s musical Take It Easy ran for 103 Off-Broadway performances; a teacher who has taught various subjects on grade levels from nursery school to post-graduate. Since the 1970′s Ms. Polcovar has been active in the LGBT and the Women’s Civil Rights Movement . She is the Founding Director of The Fresh Fruit Festival dedicated to fighting prejudice and homophobia through the arts.
Louis Lopardi Director) is also Artistic Director of the 30-year-old A Company Of Players. He has directed such staples as Equus, Wozzeck, Three-penny Opera, Die Fledermaus, Don Giovanni, considerable Shakespeare, Brecht, and Dutch, German, and Russian theatre & opera, both here and in Europe. At the Chekhov Theatre he has directed Fassbinder’s Petra von Kant, Bad Evidence, Lysistrata, Cyrano de Bergerac, and his own plays The Frankenstein Journals andVisiting Grishka. Louis has received awards for Lighting, Sound Design, Original Music, Playwriting, Direction, and has been awarded by the Musicians’ Union for “promoting live music for the dance.” Better known as a Director, Louis is a published poet and author whose other stage works include The Strange Case of Rudolph Hess, The Greatest Show On Earth, Aliens in Maspeth, a new translation and performing edition of Buchner’s Woyzeck, and the nationally acclaimed (and ongoing) Purgatory Project, in which the audience examines current mores by visiting great figures of the past in purgatories of their own creation. – Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers.
Rosina Fernhoff is the recipient of the Obie Award for her performances of Gertrude in Fashion and Betty/Anne in Geranium Hat. For almost three decades she has been touring nationally and internationally with 4 plays written and directed by her late husband, Av Inlender:Snow People, Shadows, Jerusalem Story and Mrs Davidson’s Story. Other highlights of her career include Fanny in Painting Churches, Grace in Grace and Glorie, Amanda in Glass Menagerie,Lola in Come Back Little Sheba, Mrs Clandon in You Never Can Tell, Molly in In the Summer House Emily in Our Town, Ophelia in Hamlet, Isabelle in Rendezvous in Senlis. She spent two and a half years in Israel with the Camerie Theatre in Tel Aviv, where she learned Hebrew and among other roles, played Juliet in their production of Romeo and Juliet. Her film credits include featured roles in Bobbie Dogs an independant film, Jinx an independent short, Man of The House,(shown at the Cannes film festival 2012) and Love Hunter an independant film( not yet released), She has directed 2 One-person plays. Susana Lei’ataua in her play Through Windows and Michael Horowitz in Glen Berger’s play Underneath the Lintel. She is a graduate of the Drama Department of Carnegie Melon University ( then known as Carnegie Tech)She studied with Lee Strasberg,George Di Cenzo and now with Sabra Jones of the Mirror Rep