For Immediate Release: January 1, 2007
Media Contact: Megan Wendell, for The Wilma Theater, 215.242.6393

The Wilma Theater proudly presents the World Premiere of Enemies, A Love Story, a stage adaptation of the novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, one of the twentieth century’s greatest storytellers and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Adapted for the stage by New York playwright and novelist Sarah Schulman and directed by the Wilma’s co-Artistic Director Jiri Zizka, the production runs February 7 – March 11, 2007. It will be featured in the Philadelphia New Play Festival: Where Theatre Begins, a program of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, taking place February 8 – 18. Enemies, A Love Story finds New York City in 1949 blushing with excitement. The war is over, and new hope rises. Herman, a Holocaust survivor falls in love again, and again, and again. Overcome with guilt and facing the intricacy of pleasing his three wives, he questions his spirituality and God’s order on the Lower East Side, Coney Island, and in the Bronx. Enemies, A Love Story is a bittersweet, yet humorous tale of a man stumbling towards enlightenment, striving to escape his past but unable to escape his women. Enemies, A Love Story begins previews February 7th, opens on February 14th and closes on March 11th. Tickets are $35 to $50, with $10 student rush tickets available the day of performances and half-price general rush tickets available 30 minutes before performances, both subject to availability. Tickets can be purchased at The Wilma Theater Box Office (265 South Broad Street), online at www.wilmatheater.org or by phone at (215) 546-7824. The cast of seven features (in alphabetical order) Robert Ari as Visitor, Kati Brazda as Yadwiga, Laura Flanagan as Tamar, Elizabeth Rich as Masha, Morgan Spector as Herman, Barbara Spiegel as Shifrah, and Tom Teti as the Rabbi. The design team includes three Wilma veteran designers: set designer David P. Gordon, costume designer Janus Stefanowicz, and lighting designer Jerrold R. Forsyth. Jorge Cousineau designs the sound in his first collaboration with Jiri Zizka. First serialized in the Yiddish language The Jewish Daily Forward in 1966, Enemies, A Love Story was translated to English in 1972, and was adapted as an award-winning movie by Paul Mazursky in 1989. The novel marked a new step in Singer’s work as his first story set after the Holocaust and in New York. It is Singer’s best known work, written at the height of his fame, and was praised by The New York Times as "rich and marvelous… one is forever suspended between laughter and tears.” “I first read Enemies, A Love Story in the mid-70s and fell in love with its poetic style, detailed characters and subversive humor,” says director Jiri Zizka. “Revisiting this novel and staging a World Premiere of Sarah Schulman’s vibrant adaptation gives us many opportunities to examine the consequences of unresolved trauma. It is extremely inspiring to me that both Singer and Schulman tackle this theme with warm-hearted humor that exudes love for their characters.” As a native of the Lower East Side whose grandmother emigrated from Poland and lived with her family, Schulman was exposed to Yiddish all her life, often attending the Yiddish theater on 2nd Avenue with her grandmother and studying Yiddish at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. “I grew up surrounded by people with numbers on their arms, and went to high school with plenty of kids whose parents were survivors,” says Schulman. “Enemies, A Love Story ironically depicts human beings who are not heroic, not enlightened, struggling to cope with inexplicable experiences. As a result, the work is edgy, unpredictable and – most importantly –deeply funny.” Schulman’s plays include Manic Flight Reaction (Playwrights Horizon) and Carson McCullers (Sundance/Playwrights Horizons), and she is the author of eight novels including Shimmer, Rat Bohemia, and People in Trouble, as well as two nonfiction books; My American History: Lesbian and Gay Life During the Reagan/Bush Years, and Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America. Schulman is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for Playwriting and a Fulbright Scholarship in Judaic Studies. She is currently a professor at the City University of New York. Theatergoers will have the opportunity to discuss the adaptation with Schulman when she participates in a post-show chat, following the February 15th, 7:30pm performance. Isaac Bashevis Singer was one of the most beloved and renowned chroniclers of the postwar Jewish experience. Born in 1904, he came from a long tradition of Hasidic rabbis and grew up speaking Yiddish in a poor Jewish quarter of Warsaw. In 1923, he began working as a proofreader for the Literarishe Bleter, edited by his brother Israel Joshua, who was also a major Yiddish writer. His first novel, Satan in Goray, was published in 1935. As the Nazis gained power in Germany, his brother arranged for Singer to come to the U.S., where he became a journalist for The Jewish Daily Forward and received American citizenship in 1943. His published work includes 18 novels, 14 children’s books, several memoirs, essays and articles, but he was most celebrated for his short stories, such as the collection Gimpel the Fool. In 1978, Singer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in 1991. Coventry First and The Sporting Club at The Bellevue are 2006-2007 Season Sponsors. Corporate Synergies Group Inc. is the Production Sponsor. Enemies, A Love Story is a featured production in the Philadelphia New Play Festival: Where Theatre Begins. The Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia will present the inaugural year of the Festival from February 8 – 18, 2007. A multi-organizational and region-wide effort, the two-week festival will feature nine main stage World Premieres by the region’s leading theatre companies, as well as several readings, symposia, and discussions that share the thrill of giving birth to a new play and celebrate Philadelphia as a hotbed of new play activity. For information, interviews and tickets requests, please contact: Megan Wendell, Canary Promotion + Design megan@canarypromo.com, 215-242-6393

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