Ellis Island is a story about courage, hope and the challenges of coming to a new nation for a new life. It is playing this Tuesday and Wednesday at the Kimmel Center.
Ellis Island follows a group of immigrants as they board a ship and embark on their journey to America.
The show is an original production of the American Theatre of Arts for Youth, in its 41st year of programming geared specifically towards school students.
"It's one of the best teaching tools ever. It's a way of bringing to life history and literature and current event and making them real on stage," said Laurie Wagman, Founder & Chairman of ATAFY.
The show is set in the 1st half of the 20th century and two of the characters are artist Marc Chagall and composer Igor Stravinsky, both of whom emigrated to America from Paris during that time to escape religious and political persecution. The moral of the story is that art and freedom go hand in hand.
Wagman says, "One of the characters sings a song that ends this way. It says, 'and when I come to America, I'm going to say to America, I'm going to stay in America because I'm home.' So this country has the ability to lay it on a platter. Here it is. Let your courage translate into dreams".
Ellis Island: Gateway to a Dream is playing this Tuesday and Wednesday in the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theatre. Go to http://www.atafy.org.
