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Access Hanover- Theatre, Politics & Civic Engagement

Presented by The Hanover Theatre at The Hanover Theatre

June 1, 2011

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Susan L. Smith will give a special talk on her late husband Marc P. Smith’s most recent theatrical work, The Kreisau Project. She will share insights on this multi-year creative project centered on a pair of plays Marc wrote and produced dealing with both German and Polish resistance against the Nazis. Marc had a rich career in the arts as a playwright, director and co-founder of the former Foothills Theatre. Due to his untimely death on March 23rd his wife and partner in his journeys, Susan Smith, will shed light on Marc's creative energies and on the consequences of these two plays and the paths they opened.

A Journey to Kreisau deals with a couple at the center of German resistance, Helmuth James and Freya von Moltke. Marc had the privilege of meeting and then developing a friendship with Freya who met with Marc several times in her home in Vermont, gave him access to papers, and attended an early reading of the play at Smith College in 2006. The play had its international premiere in Hamburg, Germany in March 2007 with later performances in 2008 and 2009 in Berlin and in Poland at Kreisau/Krzyzowa, Kracow (Galicia Jewish Museum), and Lodz. Its U.S. premiere was in Worcester at the Hibernian Cultural Centre, and then in Boston at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre.

Karksi relates the powerful story of Polish resistance hero Jan Karski, sometimes referred to as the man who tried to stop the Holocaust. The play previewed in Worcester, MA in 2008 and had its international debut in Wroclaw, Poland in August 2009 with subsequent performances in 2010 in Worcester, at Elms College in Chicopee, MA, and at The Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City. Initial research and writing of this play was supported in part by an Artists Fellowship awarded to Marc by the Worcester Cultural Commission; the 2008 performances of the play were supported in part via a grant from MassHumanities.

In June of 2008 Marc received a Friendship Award from the Republic of Germany in recognition of his efforts on behalf of German-American relations.