Hold Me, Heal Me
March 15-April 10, 2025
How kindness comforts us even in our most broken moments. This evening of stories, poems, plays and songs will make you laugh, cry, and remember how acts of kindness impact your life.
THE PROGRAM
This show is supported in part by the City of Santa Monica Community Access
and Participation Grant Program, and originally underwritten by generous
donations from Gail Solo, in dedication to Dr. Edith Eger, and Gladys & David Layne.
Co–Directed by Susan Morgenstern & Jasmine Curry
Dramaturge Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum
South Bay Producer Liz Altman
Executive Director Sharon Landau
Welcome ~ Ronda Spinak, Artistic Director
Sixties Girl
Written by Arla Sorkin Manson. Performed by Karen Agam Macarah, Kimberly Green, and Joshua Reuben Silverstein.
The Convert
Written by Suzanna Kaplan, based on an interview with Yosely Tannenbaum.
Performed by Kimberly Green.
A Balm in Beverly Hills
Written by Faye Sholiton. Performed by Jeanette Horn and Joshua Reuben Silverstein.
Acts of Kindness
Written by Nicole Shkurovich, Shelley S. Hèbert, Carol Kirsh, and Lisa Rosenbaum. Performed by ensemble.
Always, Charles
Written by Rabbi Ed Feinstein. Performed by Joshua Reuben Silverstein.
Mi Shebeirach (Prayer for Healing)
Music and Lyrics by Debbie Friedman. Performed by Karen Agam Macarah.
Bread and Life
Words by Dr. Edith Eger. Adapted from an interview by Ronda Spinak. Performed by Jeanette Horn.
Laila and the Tooth Truth
Written and performed by Joshua Reuben Silverstein.
Three Gifts
Written by Michael Gabiano, Farnaz Solomon, and Jeanette Horn. Performed by Karen Agam Macarah, Kimberly Green, and Jeanette Horn.
O, Engineer!
Written by Anna Belle Kaufman. Performed by Kimberly Green.
Kindness
Written by Naomi Shihab Nye. Performed by Jeanette Horn.
Two Random Guys on Motorbikes
Written by Ronda Spinak. Performed by Karen Agam Macarah.
Pay it Back
Music and lyrics by Mike Himelstein. Performed by Karen Agam Macarah and Joshua Silverstein.
ARTIST BIOS
LIZ ALTMAN wrote Almost a Sacrifice, previously performed at the JWT/Braid salon Unknown Stories of Biblical Proportions. Other credits include song lyrics for activities at the University of Michigan and the Dallas Bar Follies; and co-directing, co-writing, and performing in the annual SMU law school follies. The Braid: Advisory board member and South Bay producer. Professional: president of a real estate company. Hobbies: tennis, art, and travel. Special love to her muse, Louis.
MJ ADAMSON first came to The Braid as the stage and production management intern. After the conclusion of their internship they participated in the NEXT program and were subsequently invited to become the NEXT program coordinator. MJ holds a BFA in stage management from the University of Southern California. Their degree has allowed them to amplify voices in non-profit organizations such as The Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival, HeroTheatre, and Critical Mass Performance Group. A multidisciplinary artist, MJ has also been credited as a costume designer, producer in both film and theatre, a production manager and screenwriter.
JASMINE CURRY trained at New York University, Experimental Theatre Wing, and was a resident actor at Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, PA. She studied improv and sketch writing with The Groundlings Theatre and iO West and most recently portrayed M’Lynn in Steel Magnolias for Pierce College. Jasmine has appeared in The Braid salons Family Matters, Sex, Love and Addiction in the 21st Century, Living After, The Way Home and For Goodness Sake.
DR. EDITH EGER (Writer) is a prolific author and a member of several professional associations. She has a clinical practice in La Jolla, California and holds a faculty appointment at the University of California, San Diego. She has appeared on numerous television programs including Oprah Winfrey and was the primary subject of a holocaust documentary that appeared on Dutch National Television. She is frequently invited to make speaking engagements throughout the United States, Mexico, and abroad.
RABBI ED FEINSTEIN is the senior rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California, and lecturer in the Ziegler Rabbinical School of the American Jewish University. Raised in the back of his parents’ bakery on the frontiers of the West San Fernando Valley, he graduated with honors from UC Santa Cruz, Columbia University Teachers College, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he was ordained a rabbi and earned his doctorate in Jewish education. Rabbi Feinstein is Rabbi Feinstein is the author of five (good) books. He shares his life with Rabbi Bieber Feinstein. Together they are the parents of three (married and employed) adult children and grandparents to three (adorable) grandchildren. Every Friday afternoon he bakes brownies from a recipe revealed to his ancestors at Mount Sinai.
MICHAEL GABIANO is proud to have been recently named an Abby Freeman Artist-in-Residence at The Braid. Most recently Michael performed in last season’s Out Loud! and in the virtual 2020 production of Sex, Addiction & Love in the 21st Century. He wrote and performed Saved by a Showtune; part of The Braid’s acclaimed StoryNosh series (YouTube).
KIMBERLY GREEN an actress and dancer, born in Seoul, Korea. Kimberly joined The Braid in 2019 performing in The Braid’s on-going production of True Colors. She was also a player in The Braid’s What Do I Do with All this Heritage, Jews in America, Sweet Tea & the Southern Jew, and Arise my Friend and Go Forth. Kimberly is honored to be an Abby Freeman Artist-in-Residence with The Braid. She won the Valley Theatre award for Best Featured Actress in It’s Just Sex, LA’s longest-running comedy. She has performed in productions for the Group Repertory Theatre, Road Theatre, Odyssey Theatre, Smart Phone Theatre, Red Door Jukebox and is a part of the Actors Studio. Her TV and film credits include The Company You Keep on ABC, Dunkin Donuts Fall Hard campaign, and Target’s Holiday Campaign. Independent feature Alone Time, a Tokyo International Cinema Award winner, Lucifer (Fox), The Young and the Restless (CBS), and The Hot Chick, a Happy Madison Production.
SHELLEY S. HÈBERT has held numerous senior executive and board leadership roles in the San Fran-Bay Area Jewish community. In 2022, she co-founded and served as president of the Stanford Jewish Alumni Network, which has now has more than 1,000 members nationally and internationally.
MIKE HIMELSTEIN has had more than 500 songs recorded by artists ranging from the Temptations, Al Jarreau, Stray Cats, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Johnny Winter, and Joe Bonamassa to Julie Andrews, Mandy Moore, Dick Van Dyke, Martin Short, and William Shatner, among others. His songs have been featured in TV, films, and onstage in productions including Shrek (the Academy Award-winning movie and Broadway musical), Blades of Glory, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, The Sopranos, Disney’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Special Agent Oso, Sheriff Callie’s Wild West, Jim Henson’s Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train, and Splash & Bubbles. He has written several television theme songs and many songs for Disneyland Parks around the world. Mike is a three-time Emmy nominee, an Annie nominee, and the two-time winner of the Cynopsis Imagination Awards. He was a 2007 recipient of the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Award for his hit song God’s Gift to the World.
JEANETTE HORN Born and raised in New York City, she has appeared on stage in various venues in New York City, and across the U.S. A current company member of The Actors’ Gang, she toured South America with their production of The New Colossus; created and performed in the company’s production of We Live On, and most recently appeared in Night Miracles. Jeanette has been a teaching artist since the ’90s. She is part of The Actors’ Gang Prison Project, working in prisons across the state and in juvenile halls. She is extremely proud of her work with The International Theatre & Literacy Project, creating original theatre pieces in rural African, Balinese, and Indian villages. Jeanette joined The Braid as an actor in 2014. The original, personal stories she has been privileged to perform have been inspiring to her both as an actor and as a Jewish woman. She has appeared in, The Art of Forgiveness, What A Surprise, Shabbat at The Braid and Hadassah On Stage as well as on The Braid’s StoryNosh. She is honored to be an Abby Freeman Artist-in-Residence.
SUZANNA KAPLAN was born in Mexico City, to an American mother and Mexican father, and grew up speaking English at home and Spanish everywhere else. As an actress and dancer, she performed in some of Mexico’s famous Vaudeville stages, as well as acted in commercials, films and on the stage. Suzanna moved to the US where she partnered with her best friend in a translation service and language school. Being young, they sold it as soon as it was making money and took off for Europe, eventually landing in Israel, which stretched out to 6 years, a husband, and a baby. Back in the United Stataes, Suzanna has focused on Hispanic advertising but mostly on doting on her three kids, and four grandchildren.
CAROL KIRSH is an advisory board member with the Braid and served as the San Francisco/Bay Area producer, hosting the first “at home” salon in San Francisco in 2012. She earned her MSW from the University of Michigan and worked with adolescents, older adults and homeless families. She later lived in Hong Kong where she was an executive search consultant for two major international search firms, followed by several years living in Bali and Micronesia. A native Floridian, she and her husband now split their time between Colorado and Hawaii.
KAREN AGAM MACARAH is a writer and performer from Los Angeles. She performed her one-woman show, Wine Time With Roni, at Hollywood Fringe and United Solo NYC, and co-wrote a musical/song cycle entitled Five, themed around the five stages of grief, which also premiered at Fringe (Encore Award). Favorite recent roles include the Witch in Into the Woods (Actor’s Rep Simi), Edith/Young Edie in Grey Gardens (Riverside Rep), and performing with The Braid this season in Hold Me, Heal Me. She also relishes her roles as a mom and as leading lady to her wonderful husband, Dan.
NAOMI SHIBAB NYE is a Palestinian-American who was born in St. Louis and grew up there, in Jerusalem, and in San Antonio, Texas where she continues to live. She is author/editor of 33 books and works as a roving educator and speaker. Habibi, a novel for young adults, won 5 Best Book Awards and has been translated into 5 languages including Hebrew. Sitti’s Secrets, about her Palestinian grandmother, won the
DEBORAH SILBERSTEIN SHKUROVICH was born and raised in Mexico City, where she graduated summa cum laude from the Universidad Iberoamericana with a BA in communications. She worked as copywriter at Foote, Cone and Belding in Mexico City, and then moved to the US to pursue a MSJ from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Upon graduation, she worked as managing editor at Cahners Publishing. While raising three children, she works as a freelance translator and is a certified college counselor from UCLA. Deborah is the author of “Learning to Howl,” which was featured in The Braid’s Chutzpah and Salsa salon show.
JOSHUA REUBEN SILVERSTEIN is an award-winning actor, comic, writer, beatboxer, educator and DEI consultant whose performances, productions and presentations throughout the country have prompted admiration from creative greats ranging from Norman Lear to Prince. For more than 25 years, Joshua has provided and facilitated theater, improvisation and creative writing workshops and in-school residencies designed to create a safe and open space for students of all ages to experience the freedom of creative expression. Joshua brings passion, play, and persuasion to make words, thinking, and expression infectiously fun. His DEI work has provided transformative dialogue and opened the bridges of challenging conversations for countless individuals. He has served as the cohost and co-producer of Emmy Award–winning Downbeat 720 for 22 years and is the Executive Director of Cazadero Performing Arts Family Camp, a nonprofit arts organization based in the Bay Area. He is currently writing his forthcoming solo show produced by The Braid.
FARNAZ SOLOMON an American-Iranian Jewish author, was born in Tehran in 1971. At the age of seven she emigrated with her parents to America during the onset of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. She received her BA in foreign languages from UCLA and her JD degree from Southwestern Law School, married her handsome husband and soulmate, Dr. Sid Solomon, and together they have raised four beautiful children. As a busy working mother of four, Farnaz never took enough pictures but always cherished the moments and memories of her life. She finally decided to write the pictures she never took and thus began a series of autobiographical vignettes written with hindsight and insight that celebrate the arc of her life. Farnaz Solomon currently lives in and loves Los Angeles.
RONDA SPINAK is the artistic director and founder of The Braid, a global nonprofit theatre company, dedicated to amplifying contemporary Jewish stories. She creates and produces the Salon Theatre Series, curating more than 80 original Jewish-themed programs and adapting many of the pieces performed. Salons have toured in 50 states and nearly 50 countries. She has developed six one-person shows, including Not That Jewish, which played 16 months in Los Angeles, then went to Off Broadway for nearly a year. And it was produced again in The Braid’s new space. Her plays include Stories from the Fringe, about women rabbis – with its accompanying historic art exhibit, Holy Sparks – and festival-winner Oscar Wilde’s Wife, a favorite at the Ashland New Play Festival. She also co-wrote The Violin Maker with Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum, which debuted in Sydney, Australia in 2023 and opened at the International City Theatre in Long Beach, CA in spring 2025. She has written for the Emmy Award-winning children’s show Rugrats. She is a graduate of Stanford University, and holds degrees from UCLA (MBA) and USC (masters in writing). Spinak is on the board of the Alliance for Jewish Theatres and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
YOSELY TANNENBAUM (Writer) was born in San Antonio de Los Baños, Cuba, where she lived with her parents and brother. Life was predictable and simple with lots of relatives, neighbors, and friends. Everyone knew each other and shared the same values and beliefs. When she was eight, she was forced to leave Cuba, and the long and difficult road of an immigrant began. Eventually, she reunited with her family and moved to Houston, where she enjoys life with her husband and her two sons. Yosely also runs her own business, setting, decorating, and preparing houses about to go on the market. She is a known and much-loved member of Houston’s Jewish community.
Hold Me, Heal Me
January 12-31, 2014
Listen to Hold Me, Heal Me (Abridged) on the AudioNosh Podcast
How kindness comforts us even in our most broken moments. This evening of stories, poems, plays and songs will make you laugh, cry, and remember how acts of kindness impact your life.
THE PROGRAM
Underwritten by generous donations from Gail Solo, in dedication to Dr. Edith Eger, and Gladys & David Layne
Produced by Ronda Spinak
Assistant Producer: Barbara Koletsky
Directed by Eve Brandstein
Dramaturge Lisa Rosenbaum
Associate Producers: Susie Yure´ and Rose Ziff
Welcome ~ Ronda Spinak, JWT Artistic Director
Janis Nelson, JWT Board Chair
Sixties Girl
Written by Arla Sorkin Manson. Performed by Kate Zentall, Sean Topps, and Lisa Cirincione.
Drinks Before Flight
Written by Lisa Kenner Grissom. Performed by Lisa Cirincione and Sean Topps.
The Infected Finger
Written by Leah Kornfeld Friedman. Performed by Kate Zentall.
The Shabbos Goy
Written by Joanne Verdino. Performed by Lisa Cirincione.
In the Dark Silence
Music and Lyrics by Michele Brourman. Performed by Michele Brourman or Lisa Cirincione.
Unlikely Friends
Written and performed by Annie Korzen.
A Balm in Beverly Hills
Written by Faye Sholiton. Performed by Kate Zentall and Sean Topps.
A Dance, A Piece of Bread, and a Life
Words by Dr. Edith Eger. Adapted by Ronda Spinak. Performed by Lisa Cirincione and Annie Korzen.
O, Engineer
Written by Anna Belle Kaufman. Performed by Kate Zentall.
Kindness
Written by Naomi Shihab Nye. Performed by the Ensemble.
ARTIST BIOS
GALLERY
Eve Brandstein directing rehearsal
Artistic Director Ronda Spinak and performer Annie Korzen share a quiet moment before the show
Susie Yure´and Board member Patty Linden at check in
One of the underwriters of Hold Me, Heal Me, David and Gladys Layne, enjoy the program prior to the show
Dessert buffet
Literary Manager and food stylist Suzanna Kaplan
Kate Zentall and Sean Topps on a blind date in “Sixties Girl” by Arla Manson
Sean Topps and Lisa Cirincione are old friends reconnecting in Lisa Grissom’s “Drinks Before Flight”
Michele Brourman performs her song, “In the Dark Silence”
Comedienne Annie Korzen tells a personal story in her own, “Unlikely Friends”
The audience reacts with laughter to the show
Actors responding to audience questions during post show Q&A
Writer Joanne Verdino and patron
JWT patrons post show
Grandma and granddaughter Vicki Kupetz and Noa Kattler Kupetz
Board member Lynne Himelstein and Bob Israel, husband of Board member Gail Israel
