JULY 2024
To see a show at Powerhouse is to be among the first to see what could be the next big theatrical hit.
Powerhouse is a vital incubator for artists and their work, a catalyst for new stories that go on to theaters across the country. In Fact, the 2016 Tony Award winners for Best Play and Best Musical, Stephen Karam’s The Humans and Lin Manuel Miranda’s groundbreaking Hamilton, both trace their roots to Vassar and New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Season. Additionally, the Tony Award-winning plays Tru (Jay Presson Allen) and Side Man (Warren Leight) received premiere productions with Powerhouse Theater, and our audiences have seen nearly all of John Patrick Shanley’s works in development, including the first public reading of his Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning play Doubt.
In all, over twenty projects developed at Powerhouse have had, or will soon have, major productions.
Produced by Diane Fisher, Shanghai Sonatas Workshop and Public Performances were presented by the Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College in collaboration with the University of Delaware Master Players Concert Series, with the generous support of Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Production photo from Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College, by Buck Lewis.
For questions, contact our producer Diane Fisher at dfisherpersonal@gmail.com
Characters
Tan Hua, former star of the Peking Opera in Shanghai
Ming-Kai (Kai Kai), Tan Hua’s son
Rachel, a classical violinist
Leo, Rachel’s brother, a classical violinist
Miri, a dancer
Ernst, a classical violinist
Sammy, a jazz/classical musician
Madam Wu, a nightclub owner
Li Li, a taxi dancer
Kano Ghoya, Japanese overseer of the Ghetto
Pei-Jin, Tan Hua’s husband
Hermann, a peddler
Lotte, a peddler, Hermann’s wife
Lao Sun, a peddler
Wong Ma, a peddler, Lao Sun’s wife
Nightclub Employees and Patrons; Japanese Soldiers; various European Refugees and Chinese Residents of Shanghai.
CONTACT
Diane Fisher, Producer (NYC)
dfisherpersonal@gmail.com
Sean Gao,
Artistic Director, concert production “Songs of Shanghai Sonatas” and lecture concert “Creating Shanghai Sonatas”
xiangg@udel.edu
Presented in partnership with
Shanghai Sonatas Foundation (USA)
Special Thanks
The music of Shanghai Sonatas is dedicated to Richard and Susan Rogel who have endlessly supported its composer Sean Gao as his American parents since 1992.
Special thanks to:
Jian Chen, Director and Chief Curator of the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum
Sophie Fetthauer, University of Hamburg research scholar (on Shanghai Jewish refugee musicians)
Betty Grebenschikoff (1929-2023), Shanghai Jewish Refugee survivor and author of “Once my name was Sara”