Dramatically Speaking at The Hub: Keys to Survival: Pianos, Patrie, and Prayer for the French Republic
In Partnership with GableStage and Presented by Temple Beth Am Sisterhood
Now entering its fifth season, GableStage’s popular community speaking series Dramatically Speaking brings artists, scholars, and community leaders into dialogue around timely themes inspired by the theatre’s mainstage productions. Presented in partnership with The Hub at Temple Beth Am, these public programs foster civic dialogue and community connection.
History strikes a dissonant chord in Prayer for the French Republic, Joshua Harmon’s explosive drama tracing a Sephardic family’s struggle with faith, identity, and safety across generations—from post-Holocaust Paris to present-day France. Award-winning actor Jason Peck, starring in the GableStage production of Prayer for the French Republic, leads an electrifying conversation with Dr. Terence Peterson (FIU Holocaust Studies program affiliate) and Susana Behar (Havana-born Sephardic singer and storyteller based in Miami) as together they explore one of the play’s urgent questions: When must we leave to survive?
About Jason Peck:
Jason is a Carbonell-nominated artist and Connecticut Critics Circle Award winner who is thrilled to return to GableStage. He is Co-Artistic Director of Thrown Stone, a Connecticut-based company dedicated to producing bold new work. Jason’s favorite theatre credits include subUrbia (Actor’s Gang Theatre), Looking for Normal (Mark Taper Forum), Birds of North America (Thrown Stone), Perfect Mendacity (Asolo Rep), A Perfect Wedding (Kirk Douglas Theatre), We Will Not Be Silent (GableStage), All My Sons (New City Players), van gogh (Mint Theatre, Off-Broadway), Far Away (Odyssey Theatre), The Underpants (Florida Rep), and What’s Best for the Children? (TheatreLab). Screen credits include In Her Shoes, Family Law, NYPD Blue, The King of Queens, three seasons on Roswell, and the recent LA Law pilot remake. MFA: FSU/Asolo Conservatory; BFA: University of Southern California. Jason serves as Theatre Director at The Benjamin School. Love to Alana, Ilia, and Holden.
About Dr. Terence Peterson:
Terrence G. Peterson is Associate Professor of History and faculty affiliate in the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program at Florida International University. His work focuses on France and North Africa in the 20th century, with a particular focus on decolonization, migration, and state violence. He has published on the French Army’s efforts to prevent Algerian independence from France and on the Vichy regime’s anti-Jewish laws in Tunisia. His current research focuses on the near-seventy-year history of the Rivesaltes Camp in southern France, which served as a site to house Spanish Civil War refugees, to confine Jews under Vichy, to intern Algerians fleeing the violence of independence, and to sequester undocumented migrants for deportation until its closure in 2007. His work has been supported by a Fulbright Fellowship to France and a National Endowment for the Humanities grant.
About Susana Behar:
Award-winning vocalist Susana Behar brings emotional depth and authenticity to Sephardic song and Latin American folklore. Born in Havana into a Jewish Sephardic family her work is rooted in a rich cultural heritage and her life in Cuba, Venezuela, and the United States. Susana has been particularly committed to the preservation and performance of Sephardic music, appearing in festivals and concert series, nationally and internationally, including at the John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts and the Library of Congress American Folklife Center. Her music has been featured in documentaries, radio programs and dance performances. A recipient of the Individual Artist Fellowship in Folk and Traditional Arts from the Florida Department of State, she has served as Artist-in-Residence at HistoryMiami Museum and currently at the Deering Estate. Susana lives in Miami with her family, where she continues to balance performance,
research, and community engagement into a vibrant artistic life.
