Unique blend of dance, opera and theater tells harrowing true Holocaust story.
July 14 - 31 at the cell theatre
Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre will present the premiere of THE FINAL VEIL, a unique blend of dance, opera and theater. It tells the true story of Franceska Mann, a Polish-Jewish dancer who demonstrated resistance and strength amid the horrors of the Holocaust. When Mann was brought to Auschwitz, she and the other arrivals were sent to the gas chambers and told to remove their clothing. According to eyewitnesses, Franceska performed a distracting striptease, after which she managed to grab a gun, shoot, and fatally wound one SS Guard and injure a second, before her own subsequent death. Her actions in Auschwitz tell the story of a woman desperate to spare her life and others, using the tools she gathered as a ballerina in occupied Poland.
THE FINAL VEIL is created by Cassandra Rosebeetle and JL Marlor featuring choreography by Katherine Crockett and Cassandra Rosebeetle and a score and libretto by JL Marlor using a live string quartet and four women singers to draw upon a rich history of Polish folk song and German cabaret music sewn together with contemporary classical music, underground jazz and 1930’s era Yiddish folksongs. It also includes text written by Kate Mulley. Rounding out the production team are Micah Gleason (Music Director / Conductor), Brian Reager (Assistant Director), Ayumu "Poe" Saegusa (Lighting), Dan Daly (Scenic Design), Matthew Yohn (Sound Design) and Carly Dorman (Assistant Dance Director). The all-woman and non-binary cast stars Cassandra Rosebeetle as Franceska Mann with an ensemble of 3 dancers (Hallie Chametzky, Lauren Pagano and Lauren Barette), 4 singers (Heather Michele, Katie Lipow, Abagael Cheng and Katherine Lerner Lee), and 4 live musicians (Connie Li on violin, YoonJung Hwang on violin, Katya Barmotina on viola and Camille Dietrich on cello.)
THE FINAL VEIL runs July 14-17, 21-24, 28-31; Thursday - Saturday at 8pm & Sunday 5pm. Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre is located at 338 W. 23rd Street, New York, NY. 10011. Running time is 60 minutes. Vaccination information, including booster shot info if eligible, will be screened at the door to ensure this performance meets safety regulations that match that of New York City's cultural establishments. All guests must wear masks unless actively eating or drinking. Tickets are $45 general admission / $75 VIP, available at www.thecelltheatre.org.
Cassandra Rosebeetle began performing at the age of 5, studying both ballet and competitive ice dancing. A World Arts and Cultures dance major at UCLA, she has been a principal member of Desert Sin Dance Company since 2001 and has toured extensively with them throughout the US and Europe. Since moving to New York in 2007 from Los Angeles, Cassandra Rosebeetle has also established herself as a producer of cutting-edge theatre and dance shows and has produced off-Broadway productions including Musée des Femmes at The Zipper Factory Theater, Twitchers at The House of Yes, Sex and Taboo which was featured at Galapagos Art Space and (le) poisson rouge, and We Want it Darker at The Slipper Room. She co-produced and co-directed, as well as starred in, a 30-minute film from 2017 called “The Erotic Dreams of the Chelsea Hotel.” In 2014 she was an original cast member of the immersive theater show Queen of the Night at the Diamond Horseshoe Theater at the Paramount Hotel. She collaborated with Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin as a principal ice skater in a production for Barney's NY. In 2018, she performed in Kevin Cunningham’s Not Knowing by Charles Mee at 3LD Art and Technology Center. In addition, she performs as a burlesque artist, combining her dance training with her theatricality and love of entertaining.
JL Marlor is a composer, performer, and educator living in Brooklyn, NY. Called “refreshingly bold” by Opera Wire, JL is a composer of avant-garde chamber music, opera, musical theater, and contemporary classical music. Known for her narrative-driven vocal works, JL has received commissions from PubliQuartet, Wet Ink Ensemble, OperaRox, LoftOpera, New Music Gathering, The Knights, and Vanderbilt Percussion Group and has had her works performed at the Boston Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, The Juilliard School, BANFF Center, Smith College, and BRIC Arts Media. She is a frequent performer in her own works, as an electric guitarist and a soprano in both classical and rock performance settings. In 2017, JL collaborated on a riot-grrl punk musical written by SeonJae Kim and inspired by Sophocles tragedy “Riot Antigone,” which received its premiere at La Mama and has subsequently been performed at Ars Nova as part of ANT Festival. JL is a passionate storyteller and has traveled across the continental United States with her ensemble, The Astrogrrl Ensemble, performing at research institutions, observatories, and museums telling the stories of forgotten women in astronomy and astrophysics through her critically acclaimed song cycle "And They Spoke Back Her Name." As an educator, JL currently teaches composition to middle schoolers with the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composer program.
Katherine Crockett is a performance artist and choreographer based in NYC. She was a Principal Dancer with The Martha Graham Dance Company for 21 years and was a Guest Artist with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Company The White Oak Dance Project. She recently starred as the Queen in the Off-Broadway Immersive show Queen of the Night. She has been featured in works by Robert Wilson, Susan Stroman, Anne B. Parsons, Lucinda Childs, Yvonne Rainer, Larry Keigwin, Richard Move, and many other collaborators. She performed as Helen of Troy in Trojan Women with SITIcompany and was Cate Blanchett’s dancer double in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. She performed Martha Graham’s iconic solo Lamentation as a guest artist for the Return Festival in Kosovo hosted by Vanessa Redgrave and the United Nations. Crockett has performed at special events and galas worldwide including the Cannes Film Festival with Dame Shirley Bassey, the VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards, and the Gala of the Stars, DAP Festival. She is the lead actor and an executive producer of the feature film Fall to Rise. She was the Creative director and choreographer for the Premiere Gala for the tv series “The Alienist” by TNT and Paramount Pictures, which was again performed for the FYC/ Vanity Fair Emmy Awards and awarded a BIZ Bash Award. Crockett’s dance film “Cloud Hidden” was chosen to screen this past July at the Lincoln Center and Dance Film Association’s 49th Dance on Camera Festival and will also screen in Seoul Korea in November at the SeDaFF Dance Now Film Festival.
Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre (Artistic Director Kira Simring) is a not-for-profit dedicated to the incubation and presentation of new work across all artistic disciplines that mine the mind, pierce and awaken the soul. Founded in 2006, the cell has provided a developmental home in the heart of Chelsea for works in progress by artists ranging from early career to established staples of the New York community. Originally established as a theatre space, the cell has gradually restructured into a cultural hub for food artists, cyborg theatre artists, musicians, installation artists, choreographers and more. Past installations include Dark Matter Immersive’s Garden of Eden, Rachel Rampleman's Life is Drag, Chauhaus and Steve Pavlovsky's Tranquility Base. Past performances include the revival of Elizabeth Swados’ Nightclub Cantata, What Keeps You Going? by HOLDTIGHT, Fruma-Sarah (Waiting in the Wings) (starring Jackie Hoffman), Persou by Ellpetha Tsivicos and Camilo Quiroz-Vazquez, Tolerance Party, Found, Hoard (co-produced with Off the Wall), The Evolution of Mann, Bastard Jones (a Drama-Desk Award nominee), Crackskull Row, Hey Jude, Rady&Bloom's Peter/Wendy, The McGowan Trilogy, Horse Girls, Hard Times: An American Musical (now the Tony-Nominated Paradise Square) and Dinner and Delusion. www.thecelltheatre.org / @thecelltheatre