With funds raised, ‘Janka’ is New York-bound

 

By Donald Munro, The Fresno Bee

 

(December 25, 2014) Janka is on her way to New York.

 

Janice Noga and Oscar Speace of Fresno, the creators of the original one-woman Holocaust drama “Janka,” have for 12 years as they’ve toured the show had one dream they thought was impossible: taking it all the way to New York.

 

But in the past six months, that dream has become reality. Here’s an update:

 

The show: Noga portrays her mother-in-law, Janka Festinger Speace, in the play, which has a powerful message of perseverance and loss set in the Auschwitz concentration camp in the waning days of World War II.

 

 

The creators: Speace and his brother, David, set out to tell the story of their mother in both documentary film and theatrical form after her death in 1994, when a lengthy letter Janka wrote about Auschwitz was discovered. Noga has played her mother-in-law on stage from the beginning.

 

The long road to New York: “Janka” has been performed numerous times throughout the central San Joaquin Valley, and Noga and Speace have taken the play around the world on a shoestring budget, including to Australia, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, a small theater in Hollywood, dozens of U.S. college campuses and even to Romania, where Janka was born.

 

The plan: Noga and Speace, who donated $22,000 to get the New York project started, envisioned a community funding endeavor. They set up an arrangement in which tax-deductible donations to send the play to New York were made to the Fresno Arts Council, acting as fiscal sponsor. The council then funneled those funds to the project after taking a 10% cut — boosting the coffers of that scrappy nonprofit as well. The goal: $40,000, which would pay for an off-off Broadway theater, living expenses, producer, director and creative team.

 

The fundraiser: Two performances were held Oct. 25 and 26 at the 2nd Space Theatre with a ticket price of $50. The take for the two shows: roughly $10,000 in ticket sales and $1,000 in donations.

 

More donations: Over the following weeks, thousands more in donations were received. The project was put over the top by a $25,000 donation from Fresno philanthropist Peter Bennett, whose gift was coordinated through the efforts of the Fresno Regional Foundation. Community donations now total $48,000. Combined with the money put up by Noga and Speace, that makes a $70,000 budget. The show is a go. “Oscar and I are breathing so much easier,” Noga says.

 

The New York production: Tickets go on sale Feb. 1 for the show, which opens April 3 at the June Havoc Theatre, a 98-seat venue on West 36th Street in New York. It runs through May 3. Noga says she knows of 10 people so far who will be flying from Fresno to catch the production.

 

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/12/25/4300301/with-funds-raised-janka-is-new.html#storylink=cpy

 

Twitter: @DonaldBeeArts

Mail: dmunro@fresnobee.com

 

 

 

Janice Noga is overcome with emotion as she reads through her lines at home for her one-woman show Janka, a play by her husband Oscar Speace about his mother that will be traveling to New York for an off-off Broadway production in 2015.