Wednesday, October 28TH at 1:00 PM ET
(Viewable through Sunday November 1, 2020 at 1:00 PM)
Debuting on October 28th, Folksbiene will present “It Can’t Happen Here” a dramatization of the 1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis that imagines the ascent of a demagogue who becomes president of the United States by promising to make the nation great again.
“It Can’t Happen Here” was adapted for the stage by John C. Moffitt and Sinclair Lewis and presented simultaneously by 21 theater companies under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Theater Project. These productions included translations into Yiddish, Italian and Spanish.
The event will be presented in partnership with other theater companies, including Kairos Italy Theater, Turkish American Repertory Theater and Entertainment, New York Classical Theatre, New Heritage Theatre Group/ Impact Repertory Theatre, Israeli Artists Project, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, and Repertorio Espanol among others, for a multi-lingual reading – in Yiddish, English, Spanish, Italian, Turkish and Hebrew – of this landmark play in order to bring attention to the need for greater support of our industry, which has been impacted deeper than most industries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It Can’t Happen Here” is a benefit for the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene and the other partner theatre companies through permission from Theatre Authority, Inc.