A Shayna Maidel, Yiddish meaning “pretty girl,” tells the story of the reunion of two sisters after World War II, one having survived the Nazi concentration camps. A ShaynaMaidel is a memory play in that it is set in three times: when Mordechai Weiss is born in 1876, when his two daughters (Rose White and Lusia Weiss Pechenik) are reunited in New York City during the present (1946), and when Lusia has flashbacks of her life in Poland immediately before and after the Holocaust.

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Mordechai, his wife, and his two daughters were supposed to leave Poland for New York, but before they could leave, Lusia contracted scarlet fever and had to remain in Poland with her Mama. Therefore, Mordechai had taken Rose (Rayzel) with him to New York, intending to have his wife and Lusia join them after Lusia recovered. But the depression, money troubles, immigration law changes and then the outbreak of war traps Mama & Lusia in Poland.

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Rose, having come to New York at the age of four, has become fully Americanized during her time in New York and has even changed her name from Rayzel Weiss to Rose White. Lusia initially does not mind being left behind because she can remain with her best friend Hanna and because she has fallen in love with Duvid Pechenik. Lusia marries Duvid, and they have a child together, but eventually Lusia, her mother, husband, child, and best friend are taken to Auschwitz. Lusia, grieving for all of the family she has lost, is repatriated to New York after the war to live with Morcechai & Rose and to attempt to track down Duvid, whom she believes with all her heart is alive and looking for her.

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A Shayna Maidel features Karissa Payson as Rose White, Kenneth Goldfarb as Morcechai Weiss, Constance Lopez as Lusia Weiss Pechenik, Deborah Lombardi as Mama (Liba Eisenman Weiss), Leigh Fisher-Troch as Hanna and Matthew Leinung as Duvid Pechenik.

The Theater at the Copake Grange provides an intimate performance space that brings the

audience into this gripping family drama.