GalleryDirector
The director's (Americanized) signature, "Nina Lagzdins" appears on the program cover.
Ņina Lagzdiņa neé Melbārde (1912—2008) was a Latvian actress, most well known for playing the role of Anita in the first large-screen Latvian film production, an adaptation of Vilis Lācis' Zvejnieka dēls (The Fisherman's Son). The novel and film were wildly popular in pre-war Latvia. Lācis, however, went on to be a major Soviet apparatchik.
Melbārde was born December 18, 1912 in Mazzalve parish. She studied theater with Ernests Feldmanis, and in 1931, after her first two years of study, debuted on the National Theater stage as the teenager Gigita in the comedy "Irene's Love." She appeared in numerous plays, including leading roles in productions such as Friedrich Schiller's Don Carlos.
For Latvians fleeing Soviet re-occupation in WWII, the only destinations were to attempt the treacherous voyage across the Baltic in small fishing boats to Sweden, or refugee ships down the Baltic to Nazi-German occupied Poland. Melbārde fled Latvia October 1, 1944, where she and her family numbered among 170,000 Latvians in Displaced Persons (DP) camps scattered across Western Allied occupied Germany.
In 1950, she emigrated to the U.S., where she continued her acting career in the Latvian exile community in the New York ensemble led by Osvalds Uršteins. She was also active in teaching directing and acting.1
Venue
The play was presented at theater of the High School of Fashion Industries in New York City to an audience of about 800.
Staging
Under the guidance of actress Ņina Melbārde-Lagzdiņa, the play was rehearsed by the following teachers:
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Scenery — Anda Saliņa
Lighting — Jānis Ērglis, Sr.
Technical staging — Aksels Zariņš
Costumes — prepared by the actors' mothers according to Anda Saliņa's sketches [Peters' mother's expertise as a former pattern and sample maker in the garment industry was put to good use]
Intermission after each act
Left-over funds benefit the congregation's schools and children's camp.
— our translation
| 1 | Ņina Melbārde |
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