Stories Published in The Entertainer!

Michael Barnard: Ellis Island Medal of Honor

The Entertainer!, July 2018

Michael Barnard, producing artistic director of Phoenix Theatre, was recently honored as an Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipient. Here in New York Harbor, 12 million immigrants entering Ellis Island sought the rewards of America from 1892 to 1954. As described by the Honor Society, “The Ellis Island Medals of Honor embody the spirit of America in their salute to tolerance, brotherhood, diversity and patriotism. Barnard’s paternal grandmother came through Ellis Island just before the Nazi occupation of France in 1941. His grandfather helped found Glendale with Senator Carl Hayden. Others include former Vice President Joe Biden, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Nobel laureates Elie Wiesel and Malala Yousafzai, Coretta Scott King, John Sculley, Muhammad Ali, Lee Iacocca and Rosa Parks. “[The arts] help make us strong, individually and together,” Barnard says. “They offer innovative, evocative ways to build acceptance, hope and tolerance.”

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Haunting Return: Anne Frank

The Entertainer!, April 2018

“I can only cry out and implore, ‘Open wide. Let us out,’ wrote Anne Frank in what became the famous ‘Diary of Anne Frank” after its post-World War II publication. The teenage writer was one of 60,000 Jews who found home in Amsterdam, attempting escape from the Nazis, who eventually captured the city July 6, 1942, and began searching for them. Frank died of typhus at one of the death camps, Bergen Belsen, in early 1945, perhaps two months before the liberation of Europe by the Allies. Recently, David Ira Goldstein, who completed 26 years as artistic director of the Arizona Theatre Company in June 2017, returned to the Valley to direct an adaptation of the original Broadway play. The Anne Frank cast featured Naama Potok, daughter of author Chaim Potok, who was Edith, Anne’s mother. The play summons vigilance, self-evaluation and affirmation: “Hatred is a choice,” she says. “We can choose a different path.”

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Celebrating Leonard Bernstein on his 100th

The Entertainer!, March 2018

The world is celebrating what would have been the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein in 2018. Winner of 16 Grammys, Bernstein (1918–1990) was music director of the New York Philharmonic, 1958–1969, and its laureate director until his death. In this spirit, pianist and teacher Jeffrey Siegel recently appeared at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, continuing his 39 years of Keyboard Conversations® there: “Leonard Bernstein at 100: A Musical Celebration.” In his performances, he plays virtuoso works for the piano by a broad range of composers and briefly discusses the works before playing them. The Chicago Tribune wrote: “Siegel’s programs strengthen the fragile bonds of communication between composer and listener.” And, he continues a Bernstein tradition of teaching. Aaron Stern, the founder and president of the Bernstein-inspired Academy for the Love of Learning in Santa Fe, has said, “Apart from his composing and conducting legacy, Mr. Bernstein has inspired us to affirm his belief in people: to allow each of us to be changed by each other and expand our joy for each other.”

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