By Eileen Wingard
Michael Lamont
SAN DIEGO –Mona Golabek, the brilliant pianist, author and actress, is excited to return to San Diego for the reengagement of her prize-winning, one-woman play, The Pianist of Willesden Lane. From July 8-26, at the Lyceum Stage in Horton Plaza, she will again portray her mother, Lisa Jura. In 1938, as a young teenage pianist from Vienna, Lisa bade farewell to her mother and father and traveled to England as part of the Kindertransport, never to see her parents again. In England, Lisa survived the Blitzkrieg and managed to sustain her spirits through her music. The play is based on the book, The Children of Willesden Place, which Mona wrote in collaboration with Lee Cohen. That book has been selected for One City One Book programs throughout the country.
During our recent phone interview, Mona recalled, “After my last San Diego run, I was in Los Angeles, where ten thousand school children of the Los Angeles Unified School District read the book and attended an abridged performance of the play.”
An exhibit on the life of Mona’s mother, Lisa Jura, is being shown at the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum, whose president, Randy Schoenberg, is the attorney depicted in the recent movie, Woman of Gold.
Since the showing of The Pianist of Willesden Lane, which won the 2015 San Diego Critics’ Award, it has had encore performances at the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles, site of its 2012 premiere, the Berkeley Repertory Theater, the Laguna Playhouse, the Cleveland Playhouse, and the Hartford Repertory Theater.
“My foundation, Hold On To Your Music, is collaborating with educators and civic leaders,” Mona stated, proudly. The University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation has launched a collaboration with the Hold On To Your Music Foundation. Sharon Darling, Founder and President of the National Center for Family Literacy, declared, “The children of Willesden Lane will make a major impact on our nation’s children and our schools.”
If you have not yet seen The Pianist of Willesden Lane, be sure to see this inspiring performance during its July run. If you have seen it, you may want to see it again, bringing along your children, grandchildren, neighbors, and friends.
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Wingard, a former violinist with the San Diego Symphony, is a freelance writer specializing in the arts. You may comment to eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com, or post your comment on this website provided that the comment is civil and you identify yourself by full name and your city and state of residence.