The Los Angeles premiere of Making Light in Terezin, a documentary by LA Filmmaker/Playwright Richard Krevolin, will occur on Sunday, November 24 at 7 pm at the Museum of Tolerance, 9786 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90035. This remarkable film tells the true story of how, in the darkest days of WWII, Jewish prisoners fought back against the Nazis…by singing, dancing and laughing.
The screening will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with writer, director and producer Richard Krevolin and producer Carole Beams.
The 87-minute long documentary is the culmination of two years of work by Krevolin. For 10 days in 2011, he lived in the Terezin ghetto outside of Prague (in the Czech Republic) where he wrote, directed and produced Making Light in Terezin. About his approach, Krevolin says, “First, I wanted to tell the story of the discovery of a Czech Cabaret that was created and performed only once in an attic ‘theater’ in Terezin in 1943, and then presented there again by a company of American actors almost 70 years later. Second, I wanted to tell the story of survivors who still remain in Prague and how the cabaret helped them to endure. And third, as the narrator of the film, I wanted to tell my own story…how I initially questioned the value of being a comedy writer, but after going to Terezin and talking to the survivors I was transformed by the inherent value, power and unquestionable importance of comedy and the arts in people’s lives.”
Richard Krevolin grew up in Woodbridge, Connecticut. He attended Amity High School and Yale College and then went to Los Angeles to attend USC and UCLA film schools where he became an adjunct professor of screenwriting and a playwright. In addition to writing, directing and producing Making Light in Terezin, Krevolin is also the author of several best-selling non-fiction books on writing and novels. He lectures on film and writing around the world and can be reached at ProfK.com, PowerStoryConsulting.com and MakingLightinTerezin.com.
Carole Beams’s career has covered live theatre, production and post-production work in television and independent films on location in the U.S. and in Europe. She is an active member of the PGA, currently serving on the National Board of Directors. Beams has enjoyed numerous collaborations with Rich Krevolin, most recently as producer on the documentary Making Light In Terezin. Prior to this project, her collaborations with Krevolin were predominantly on his stage plays, producing his one-woman show The Lemony Fresh Scent of Diva Monsoon, which she also directed. Additionally she produced a workshop production of Krevolin’s radio play Meyer, starring Joe Bologna; and previous to that having produced a staged reading of his richly imaginative play Trotsky’s Garden.
The Making Light in Terezin companion book, which will be available for sale at the screening, includes full unedited interviews with the survivors and scholars who appeared in the film with additional interviews and material about history, humor, the arts’ effect on brain chemistry and much more. Instead of focusing on the horrors of the Holocaust, the film and the book offer another perspective….a celebration of the creative artistic spirit that was alive in the prisoners of Terezin in 1943 despite the atrocities of war. It is a story of survival, of the triumph of the human spirit, of art vs. death. People can also purchase the book online at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Making-Light-Terezin-Show-Helps/dp/0615765947/
Tickets are $10/each for members and $13/each for the public. Tickets are available online at www.museumoftolerance.com/makinglightinterezin. For information about the documentary, visit www.MakingLightinTerezin.com.