A musical about the power of family, friendship and imagination.
Book by EllaRose Chary and Fran Sillau
Music by Brian Feinstein
Lyrics by Sammy Buck
Based on The Doll Maker’s Gift by Sashi Fridman
Produced in partnership with Deborah Denenberg
Welcome to Zalushka’s Doll Shop, an imaginarium where even the darkest times can give way to hope.
Set in a small village in Eastern Europe during the early 1900s, The Doll Maker’s Gift follows Nora, an irrepressibly creative little girl whose dolls guide and uplift her when the ethnic cleansing of Pogroms threaten her Jewish community in Russia.
After their cousins’ village is attacked, Nora’s family is forced to flee to America. They discover at the last moment that they don’t have enough funds to pay for everyone’s passage. Young Nora will have to stay behind, with the threat of attacks ever increasing. She is left with a family friend, a kind doll maker who offers to care for her until they can earn enough money to pay for her journey to America. Together, with her ingenuity and his know-how, they hatch a plan to reunite Nora with her family.
Featuring beautiful original music and an essential story drawn right from history, The Doll Maker’s Gift is an uplifting exploration of the power of kindness in the face of adversity.
CAST SIZE: 11
4 youth female
3 youth male
1 youth either
2 adult female
2 adult male
ORCHESTRATION: 5
PRE-RECORDED TRACKS ALSO AVAILABLE
Piano/Conductor (piano only)
Keyboard 2 (fully programmed book)
Reed (Flute, Alto Sax, B-flat Clarinet, Bass Clarinet)
Percussion (trap set and standard auxiliary, no mallets)
Cello
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World Premiere Review
“Families should flock to this one.”
By Betsie Freeman / World-Herald staff writer
Feb 23, 2019“The Doll-Maker’s Gift” takes on a subject that’s hard for adults to understand, let alone kids.
The play, a world-premiere that opened Friday at the Rose Theater, looks at the impact of pogroms on Russian Jews in the early 1900s. It has a lot to say about the ways humans can be cruel to other humans, something that’s hard for even the most jaded senior citizen to reconcile.
Ultimately, though, it has more to say about kindness and hope, helping adults and children alike believe that the world may just hold more good people than bad.