BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer
DENNIS SYMONS JR. The Roosevelt Players prepare for their upcoming production of “September Songs: Music of Kurt Weill” at the Roosevelt factory’s loading dock where the performance will take place. The loading dock of the old Roosevelt factory has become the new haunt of Kurt Weill’s music.
The German-born composer’s often dark and politically motivated music has been resurrected by the Roosevelt Players and constructed into an eerie, yet message-laden production that will go off at the sound test of the borough’s emergency siren at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 15 and 16.
Borough residents Margaret Schlinski and Ani Rosskam are co-directing the performance, which is called “September Songs: Music of Kurt Weill.”
When asked what the audience should expect from the production, Schlinski, who directed the Roosevelt Players’ performance of Shakespeare’s “A Midsum-mer Night’s Dream” last year and numerous other productions in the community, said Weill’s music “speaks of the restlessness and mendacity of the system.”
Schlinski, who has noticed a recent resurgence of Weill’s music on television and the radio, and in the theater as well, said, “It’s probably coming back because of the feeling in the air. It is strong music that tells of what was happening in Germany before the Nazi occupation and the starvation going on in Russia.
“I think people sense these kinds of things are going on again,” she said.
Weill is known for his work in Germany with Caspar Neherto that outraged the Nazis. Riots broke out at several of their performances, and carefully orchestrated propaganda campaigns discouraged productions of their works. In March 1933, Weill had to flee Germany, according to the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, a nonprofit organization in New York City dedicated to the works of Weill and his wife, Lotte Lenya.
When asked how she thinks Weill’s music relates to the Roosevelt community, Schlinski said, “Check out our banner for the production that’s hanging out in front of the borough hall. It’s ironic that the banner will be out there with a spotlight on it while one of the most contentious meetings the borough has ever had is going on inside.”
Above, Jacob Wall practices Kurt Weill’s “Alabama Song” for an upcoming production the Roosevelt Players are putting on at the Roosevelt factory’s loading dock. At left, Roosevelt resident Michael Ticktin sings a song during a sound check. The borough’s Planning Board scheduled a hearing on Sept. 12 regarding a yeshiva’s ability to operate out of the Homestead Lane synagogue. While the yeshiva, an Orthodox Jewish school for high school-aged boys, has been operating out of the synagogue since last September, some borough residents believe it is operating outside of borough zoning regulations and have therefore taken up the matter with the borough.
“I always say that theater is most important in times of stress,” Schlinski said.
The preproduction has already brought numerous facets of the community together. The Roosevelt Players consist of longtime residents and newcomers who range the gamut from professional musicians to those just learning to play, to people such as current and former borough officials with hidden talents.
PHOTOSBY DENNIS SYMONS JR. “Everyone enjoys to play,” Schlinski said. “Everyone sort of gets to shake off their outside exterior to become someone else for a while.”
Schlinski said she gets satisfaction from the fact that most of the people in the performance are not professionals.
“People don’t always hit the right notes, but it’s the imperfections that make it,” she said.
Schlinski, who has directed both children’s and adult theater in town, has never directed a musical performance. She said she chose to create a performance of Kurt Weill’s music because of her late husband.
Schlinski’s husband, Ed, passed away in 1983. They had lived in Roosevelt for most of their lives.
She called Ed “a Renaissance man” and an artist “influenced by the work of George Grosz, who was also popular during the time Kurt Weill was creating music.”
“The association between [Bertolt] Brecht, Weill, Grosz and my late husband is very strong,” Schlinski said. “I wanted to do this as a tribute to my late husband.”
The performance will be split into two acts, the first of which will exhibit the more politically motivated music Weill wrote in Germany and Paris, and the second showcasing the more Broadway-type music he wrote while living in America.
Weill moved to America in 1935 to collaborate with distinguished playwrights to create Broadway musicals. His first American standard, “September Song,” after which Roosevelt’s production is named, was showcased in the film “Knickerbocker Holiday.” He had two major successes on Broadway called “Lady in the Dark” and “One Touch of Venus,” but his most influential Broadway works were “Street Scene” and “Love Life,” according to the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music.
The Roosevelt Players production will consist of Weill familiars such as “Alabama Song,” which artists including The Doors helped to popularize. Roosevelt’s John Parrot and Karyn Grunwald will perform one version of the song, which will be followed much later in the production by Bill Leech’s, Jacob Wall’s and Ed Cedar’s very different rendition of it.
The production will also include two performances of “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer,” also known as the “Ballad of Mack the Knife.” Michael Ticktin will perform the ballad in German, the language the song was written in, and David Brahinsky will follow with his own theatrical rendition in English.
Other performances will include Grunwald’s sorrowful “A Soldier’s Wife” and Paul Friedman’s and Jamie Callahan’s “What Keeps Mankind Alive?” During this song, Callahan will play the harmonium while Friedman recites lyrics such as “The fact that millions are daily tortured, stifled, punished, silenced and oppressed / Mankind can keep alive thanks to its brilliance in keeping its humanity repressed.”
Acts like this will be followed by more lighthearted fare including vocalist Claudia Luongo’s and clarinetist Ron Kostar’s performance of “Lost in the Stars” during which Luongo tells the tale of God’s search for “one little star” that accidentally got lost.
Amid the singing will be a dance number led by former borough Business Administrator Robert Clark and his wife, Maureen, who taught the tango to locals such as Grunwald, Ellen Silverman and Angel Cloughly for a performance segment.
The production will end with pianist Alan Mallach, who will accompany vocalist Cecelia Ticktin on a few songs, and a final torch song by Cedar and his wife, Sue.
Schlinski credited Ed Cedar with much of the musical arranging for the production, and Rosskam with extensive work on the show’s costumes and scenery.
When asked if she had any favorite acts, Schlinski said, “Michael Ticktin is a very pedantic leader, and one of my favorites is the tango, but I also enjoy Ani’s [Rosskam] bit.
“All the bands are nice,” she added, “and what else can I say besides it’s going to be a damn good show.”