Audience Feedback

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK for FINDING MIRIAM





"I'm so glad that I listened to my heart and went to your show at Limmud. You are AMAZING! What a moving production-- I alternated laughing and crying throughout your performance. I already knew that you could sing and be witty, but the way you combined those talents with great timing, writing, and introspection was phenomenal."
--Melanie


"Yesterday, I went to an extraordinary performance, a one-woman show, Finding Miriam, by Joyce Friedman. I don't recall ever being moved in one hour from laughter to tears so many times. I felt as though Friedman's story revealed not only something of her story, but mine as well.
I never before thought about what it was like for my grandmother's mother to send her off on a boat, never to see her daughter again. My grandmother was a silent woman, very nonverbal, which I imagine is partially responsible for my being so intrigued by nonverbal communication. Yet, through her silence, she communicated so much - about safety, reassurance and comfort, some of the very things I believe I impart to my clients with dementia and train caregivers to do as well. I've been wondering recently just what my grandmother's story was, what made her the woman I loved so deeply.
So it was inspiring to join Joyce Friedman on her journey to explore her roots. Her timing was impeccable, her sense of humor delightful. But more than anything, it was her unmistakable, authentic and riveting connection to her story that made the performance more than entertainment. There was not a shred of artifice or sentimentality to her story, although there were many opportunities to reminisce and sing along."
 --Donna

I was especially moved and deeply touched when you magically transformed yourself into your great-grandmother, Miriam and transported all of us to the "old country" where so many of us originate from. With a tender and loving voice you sang a beautiful farewell song of love, sorrow and hope, channelling a profound and universal human yearning for a better future for our children in a turbulant and devastating time. A time when our parents and grandparents became responsible for carrying the legacy and memory of our ancesters who parished in the Shoah and with some of us carrying a bigger burden than others... We where all there at Kerem Shalom in Concord, but for a moment we might as well have been in Europe seventy five or a hundred years ago. Connected with each other through our shared memory, I don't think there was a dry eye in the house...

I also enjoyed your poignant and clever portrayal of the two Miriams within you and your struggles as a women to inegrate them while finding your own path. Here too you succeeded in sharing a universal theme of struggle experienced by so many liberated women of your generation and your daughters generation... 

---Noam

dear joyce. my thanks to you for the joy, brilliance, nostalgia and life-giving waters you brought to us in telling your story.  
----Nancy


 BRAVO!!! to you.  What a wonderful piece you created, and your performance was absolutely riveting.  My only complaint was that I didn't want it to end.  I hope you realize how powerful (as well as entertaining) your performance is.  

---Batsheva
 





 


"Joyce grabs your heart and your funny bone
from the opening bars and never lets go." 
--Linda

Thank you for offering your talents to inspire and entertain others in ways that are lasting and meaningful. --Pamela

Thank you so much for an amazing evening. It was moving, thought provoking, enjoyable and inspiring! Also passionate and clever.

--Ellen