Prime Stage Theatre awarded National Endowment for the Arts Grant

Pittsburgh’s Prime Stage Theatre has received a significant financial boost for its plan to produce the world premiere stage adaptation of “Perseverance,” the story of a Holocaust survivor’s life in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.

Prime Stage has been awarded a $10,000 Grant for Arts Projects from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). It’s part of the Grants for Arts Projects awards announced by the NEA as part of its first round fiscal year 2023 grants.

Wayne Brinda, producing artistic director of Prime Stage Theatre, said the recognition is especially important because of what the award is for.

“It’s more than just producing a world premiere of a play. It’s really bringing awareness to people of a Holocaust survivor who had a business in Squirrel Hill and really contributed to the community, and we’re going to do some special things with this to recognize more Holocaust survivors,” Brinda said.

The production of “Perseverance” is adapted from the book “Perseverance: A Holocaust Survivor’s Journey from Poland to America,” co-written by Melvin Goldman and his daughter Lee Goldman Kikel. The story is told in his own words from audio recordings he made decades later and includes his daughter’s memories of their life in Pittsburgh.

In the decade before his arrival in the U.S. in 1950, Mieczyslaw (Melvin) Goldman saw family members murdered in the Nazi death camps. Somehow he managed to survive years in the Lodz Ghetto and Auschwitz.

“A lot of people didn’t know this story. (Goldman) kept his past sort of quiet,” Brinda said. “But the amazing thing about it is how he persevered and how he learned how to persevere from his father when he was in the Lodz Ghetto to when he was in Auschwitz. And different things that came up when he was running a jewelry store on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill. He was a remarkable man.”

Brinda said many people young and old don’t fully understand the Holocaust but “Perseverance” can help them do that.

“We really need to respect who everybody is. It really goes back to understanding and respect for everybody. By saying, ‘here’s this person, look what he did, and let’s talk about the Holocaust for what it was.’ The way to stop it is by raising awareness through people who lived it,” Brinda said. “(It starts with) education and that’s what theater does best. It educates and engages.”

Prime Stage Theatre is collaborating with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh to present “Perseverance.”

“It goes back to educating through theater because theater creates an emotional connection to the characters,” Brinda said.

“Perseverance” will premiere in April with two live performances at the New Hazlett Theater and then will be streamed in May with closed captioning and audio description.

“Projects such as this one with Prime Stage Theatre strengthen arts and cultural ecosystems, provide equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, and contribute to the health of our communities and our economy,” NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson said.

For more information, go to primestage.com and The Holocaust Center at hcofpgh.org/events.