Faye castelow biography

Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt is a family drama spanning five decades, named for the district of Vienna, Austria that's been known for its Jewish population since the 17th century. Naturally, a show so epic in scope needs a cast to match. It's rare even for a Broadway mega-musical to have a huge cast nowadays, much less a play, but Leopoldstadt is a whopping 38 actors strong.

Some actors portray one character from childhood to adulthood, or young adulthood to older adulthood. Others play multiple parts, appearing at the end of the play as a grandchild or great-grandchild of a character they played at the beginning. Double-casting is sometimes a sign of a small-scale production, but that's certainly not the case here.

In Leopoldstadtit's a deliberate and hopeful choice, celebrating those that survive as the family gets fractured and whittled down by a brutal wave of history. The some years this family lives through in Leopoldstadt arespanning decades of horrors. The Merzes and Jacobovitzes may be fictional, but their experiences reflect those of many targeted in the Holocaust.

Each character has a different relationship with their heritage at the start of the show: Some are devout and see themselves as Jewish above all else, and some don't define themselves by their Jewishness at all. World War II forces them all to reckon with their identity. Some become even firmer in their positions, others change their views entirely, and either way, their choices shape how the next generations identify.

Stoppard can attest to that: He began writing Leopoldstadt after discovering his Jewish ancestry in His mother never shared that his grandparents died in the Holocaust, but a long-lost relative told him when he was well into his 50s. Leopoldstadt became Stoppard's way of publicly affirming his identity as his mother never had. Now, the play's Broadway cast have found tidbits of their own history in the story, too.

The Jewish majority of actors have as wide a range of relationships with their heritage as their characters do. Many had family members in the Merzes' position, though their ancestors came from and fled to many different parts of the world. As cast member Brandon Uranowitz said, "There are questions I've been thinking a lot about — my own family's attempts at assimilation, and what does assimilation mean?

And what does it mean to hold on to your pride, the pride of your family and your ancestors, while at the same time trying to survive in a world rife with oppressive systems that have made the Jews wanderers all over the world? The non-Jewish cast members still see their families' stories reflected in Leopoldstadtas fleeing persecution was, and is, not a uniquely Jewish experience.

Plus, amid its dark subject matter, Leopoldstadt also has many scenes showing the everyday chats, fights, and jokes shared between family members. Anyone on or off stage can relate to those moments. That's what makes this show universally captivating it sold out every performance of its Olivier Award-winning run in London's West Endthe cast repeatedly said.

Leopoldstadt is really about family. It's about tradition and deciding how much of it to hold on to. It's about survival in a hostile, scary world. It's about people of all ages and worldviews weathering these challenges. Get to know 12 Leopoldstadt cast members below, who represent a small slice of these ages, worldviews, and backgrounds.

These are edited excerpts from those conversations. Leopoldstadt marks his first return to Broadway in 30 years, since making his debut in Conversations with My Father. He now plays Hermann, Leopoldstadt 's "antihero," as Krumholtz's co-star Faye Castelow described him. Who he plays: Hermann is obsessed with his wife, who validates his conversion from Judaism to Christianity, which is something he struggles with in his family.

Hermann is a factory owner. He's a clothing manufacturer who took over the business from his father, and he has high hopes for his son to do the same. He's very positive about the future of his business and of Jewish people in Vienna inand that positivity gets thrown back into his face. There's nothing more heartbreaking than then a character so positive surrounded by such negativity.

Growing up, you are told never to forget and warned that it could happen again. The persecution complex is hard to avoid. My mother escaped Hungary in as a 9-year-old from the Russian Revolution; she was born directly after the Holocaust to a family of Holocaust survivors. Not all of them survived. She came to this country to start anew with her family, and so this will certainly be relevant to her experience.

My father's family also suffered greatly in Poland during that time. I think [some] Jewish people react to hearing stories of their own persecution in a way that makes them more fiercely devout. And then there are Jews like myself, who have decided it's best that I focus on my humanity over faith, and that is what Hermann is doing in the play.

He and I are of the same perspective to some extent. Why to see Leopoldstadt : It's a deeply heartfelt piece. It's slightly erudite. It's Hamilton without music, I guess. We are desperately trying to communicate a very important and relevant message: Life is precious. It's sadly relevant to our time and hopefully can enlighten people and be relatable to people who are feeling alone or frightened.

She has dozens of credits on the London faye castelow biography scene, but this production marks her Broadway debut. Who she plays: I play Gretl, and I am married to Hermann. We meet this family in our home, and our home is the setting for our storytelling. Brothers, sisters, wives, sons, husbands, nephews, nieces are abundant, and we sit at the top of the family tree.

Her real-life history: My character isn't Jewish, and I am also not Jewish. It wasn't like this was new to me, but it has been an extraordinary privilege to share, now with three companies, so many people's stories, meeting their families and learning that, really, no one escaped. You don't have to try very hard or go back very far to find somebody that was touched.

There have been extraordinary personal moments brought to the show by the cast. In the opening scene, a couple characters are writing in a photo album, looking back at family members they can barely remember. She was writing [about] a great aunt that was lost, a cousin somewhere. They had come from Odessa and traveled across Central Europe and then eventually got lost along the way, but her immediate family made it to London.

He's now making his Broadway debut. Who he plays: I am a Viennese faye castelow biography. I play Otto, who comes into the family in He has business with Hermann, and that's my introduction into the family. Otherwise, he's just a Christian Austrian. His real-life history: My dad's side of the family are Ukrainian Russian Jews from the era of Eastern Europe that they talk about refugees coming from in the play.

My mom's side of the family are Italian Catholics. I grew up in England, but I live in the States now. The way that I connect with [the play] is, there's a lot about what heritage you keep and what heritage you let go of, what defines you, what parts of your family to keep, and what parts you forget. Why to see Leopoldstadt : I've seen Tom Stoppard shows before where I have to have done some faye castelow biography beforehand.

But the scenes [in Leopoldstadt ] resonate differently than some of his other work; it has more accessibility. It's about this one family across multiple generations, managing to find life and managing to keep going. Who she plays: Hermine is my main role. She is the niece of Hermann. Her identity is anomalous to the rest of her family members.

They're all very sophisticated and erudite and principled, and she really just wants to have security. She really wants to marry rich and be rich, and so she's very fun to play. Me feeling like I wouldn't describe myself as Jewish first, she feels the same way. She doesn't want that to be something that obscures all of the other life she has around her because of course, at this time, being Jewish was something to hide and be ashamed of.

I'm very proud to be Jewish, but I am able to imbue my own struggle with my Jewish identity into her expression of self. Her real-life history: My grandfather on my mom's side is Jewish, and he's a Freudian psychoanalyst. He comes from a family that fled the pogroms in Russia; they fled persecution. I am Jewish, but I'm not religious at all.

If I were to describe myself in five words, one of them would not be Jewish. It doesn't feel foundational to me. But this play [shows how] if you had lived at this time period, it wouldn't matter how you viewed yourself. The world viewed you as Jewish and therefore less than. My identity is what I make of it because the world has been kind to people that look like me in the past 29 years that I've been alive, but you can't take it for granted.

Why to see Leopoldstadt : The simplicity of the story of a family and their struggle, through a really challenging time historically, to find ways to be resilient is something that is so unfortunately present in our world right now. This isn't a play that hits you over the head, in that the themes are so heavy that you don't get a breath of fresh air and there's no levity.

There's so much joy and love and tradition and humor in this play that anyone will appreciate and fall in love with. Arty Froushan was in the original London cast of Leopoldstadt and now makes his Broadway debut in the show. Who he plays: I play two characters. I play Fritz, who is a Prussian military officer. He's a lieutenant in the Dragoons.

He is very much an antagonist. He meddles with the core family the play is about and is a thorn in the side of the patriarch. He's very naughty. Learn more about the cast here! If anyone can skewer the madness of the last few years, it is surely Iannucci. Well, it seems not. Directed by Mr Patrick Marber, the show will now run from 1 December to 13 January at the Soho Theatre, with tickets for the extended week available on the Soho website starting Friday 27 October at 11am.

Check out our photos from the event here! Cristi - May 23, Brandon Uranowitz narrates the true, moving and harrowing testimonies of Broadway audience members who have found their family history and themselves in the narrative of the epic drama, Leopoldstadt. Watch the video. See how to purchase tickets! See who is starring in the production, and how to purchase tickets!

We're chatting with Betsy Aidem of Leopoldstadt, who told us all about how she talks to the dead before hitting the stage, and more! Check out the video here!

Faye castelow biography

Today we're chatting with Jenna Augen of Leopoldstadt, who told us all about her favorite backstage moments, must-haves, and more! BroadwayWorld was there for the big night and you can check out photo coverage from the after party below! How many Broadway shows has Faye Castelow been in? Faye Castelow has appeared on Broadway in 1 shows.