BRATTLEBORO — New England Youth Theatre (NEYT) invites the community to share their family immigration stories as a part of their production of Rags, which opens on Thursday, Dec. 6.
“Everyone has a story,” NEYT Executive Director Hallie Flower said in a news release. “We want to open up our theater as a place for people to share how their ancestors came to this country.”
As part of the celebration of the immigrant experience with Rags, the youth theater's holiday musical, NEYT will post stories and photos on its “'What's Your Story' Immigration Wall” in the lobby as a part of the theater experience.
Rags tells the story of Jewish immigrants during the height of the great wave of immigration flooding into the United States from eastern Europe in 1910. As the newcomers struggle to make a new life in Manhattan's Lower East Side, they are faced with inequality, intolerance, and corruption.
“And while the city streets might not be paved with gold, they echo with the music of opportunity, optimism, and hope in this deeply moving and inspirational saga of awakenings and disappointments, of greed and power, and of strength and love,” Flower said.
With with a book by Joseph Stein, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and music by Charles Strouse, the story examines the issues of prejudice, violence, and hate that the immigrants experienced upon arriving in this country, and that still have relevance today.
To share a photograph or a short description of your family's immigration story, email manager Katrina Spenceman at katrinaspenceman@gmail.com, or bring them to the theater weekday afternoons or to a performance.