Magical Experiences Arts Company premiers new Play
This video is for educational and therapeutic purposes. It can be viewed by special education and elder care facilities for recreational, educational and therapeutic development.

In 1987, MEAC became the first therapeutic theater organization to write and present a Play about the Holocaust for special needs populations. The Secret Annex detailing the last two years of Anne Frank’s Life was presented in seven countries, including the Netherlands, Germany and Israel. The success and the deep understanding of how important it was to tell the historical truths about the Holocaust (especially as the disabled were first to be targeted:
T4 Program, Nazi German effort—framed as a euthanasia program—to kill incurably ill, physically or mentally disabled, emotionally distraught, and elderly people. Adolf Hitler initiated the program in 1939. It was officially discontinued in 1941, but killings continued covertly until the defeat of Germany in 1945).
With the international acclaim of The Secret Annex, I made the decision to create a trilogy of Plays, each one showing us the impact of persecution on the life of a child. Sister’s Entwined followed a year later, a tale of a Roma child and a Jewish Child and their struggle to survive the camps and forced marches. The trilogy was completed with Dancing with the Angels, celebrating the courage of the Warsaw Ghetto Theater Troupe and the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

These Plays continue to have great meaning to the repertory of MEAC, but it was time to take a look at rewriting Sister’s Entwined, which did not transition well to solo performance, as I so often do now. When I wrote this Play, my goal was to tell the story of the Roma suffering, but at the time (late 1980’s) little research had been printed, and reaching out to Roma survivors was far more difficult than reaching out to Jewish Holocaust survivors.

My goal to bring their story to our populations has now been achieved with the premier of ‘Ederlezi’. As a sign of the times, MEAC will premiere the Play as part of MEAC on Film, screening this one hour show in virtual classrooms for the William S. Baer School and the Chimes School throughout April. It will also be screened at the Broadmead nursing home. I will premier the Play live at RICA-Baltimore on April 7th.

"Ederlezi" is a Spring festival, celebrating the return of springtime by Romani people in the Balkans and elsewhere around the world. Ederlezi is celebrated in early May. Ederlezi is also a popular traditional folk song of the Romani minority in the Balkans.

You will enter into the world of a child taken to Auschwitz, and her struggle for survival. It is the memories of her love for Ederlezi that will lead her to liberation.

I hope this Play, which may be set in one of the darkest times in modern history, leave you with a sense of profound wisdom about our own struggles to overcome prejudice, whether that be due to religion, race, gender, or disability.
Joanne Margolius – [email protected] March 9th 2021
www.bemagical.org

Welcome to the Magical Experiences Arts Company virtual programming, filming the MEAC repertory to bring therapeutic theater into the lives of students with severe multiple disabilities, and residents living in nursing homes during the times of Covid-19.

If you have questions please reach out to
Joanne Margolius: [email protected]


Many thanks to the following funders for making MEAC performances possible in virtual and in-person form!

National Endowment for the Arts
Maryland State Arts Council,
Citizens of Baltimore County
Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts
John J. Leidy Foundation
Baer School Partnership Board
Delaplaine Foundation
Civitan Club of Baltimore

Ederlezi was filmed by Michael Susko at the William S. Baer School in December 2020



Music Credits

Dikanda Pakulele Arranged, recorded and published by @Dikanda - Usztijo 2004
Dikanda Ederlezi from Album - Muzyka Czterech Stron Wschodu
℗ 1999 Dikanda

Dakha Brakha Kolyskova from Album – Light ℗ 2014 DakhaBrakha

Violins of Hope – Nashville Orchestra Symphony #4 Heichalos ℗ 2019 Naxos

La Romanjasa Kayli Jega

Peter Gabriel Zaar from Album Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ
℗ 1900 Unknown at Takeon

Besh O Drom Makedon From Album - Best of droM ℗ 2011 NarRator Records

Nigel Kennedy Ederlezi From Album – East meets West
Licensed to YouTube by WMG; LatinAutorPerf, UMPG Publishing, LatinAutor - UMPG, LatinAutor, SODRAC, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA - UBEM, BMI - Broadcast Music Inc., UMPI, and 14 Music Rights Societies