Aching to Go Home

On the day my father turned 70, he quoted his father saying “Every day past 70 is a separate miracle.” My father also said that he felt no different at 70, than when he was 20.

Aching to Go Home is a work of fiction. The characters within the story are indebted to very real people however. I was fortunate to locate and form relationships with three individuals who had last been in contact with my father more than 50 years earlier. Each ‘reunion’ was a separate miracle that revealed otherwise hidden chapters in my father’s legacy.

The play was directed with great insight by Doris Mirescu. Original music was composed and performed by Michaël Attias. The fully staged play had four sold-out performances at the Epic Center Theatre in Kalamazoo, Michigan in May 2004. A PDF of the program distributed at performances of Aching to Go Home in 2004, is available here.

Aching to Go Home promotional poster by Brakeman Graphic Design

Richard Philpot in the role of the elder Manet: "Silent, on video screens, the towers twitch, then melt in catastrophic beauty, bursting like spoiled orchids – immolating the thousands. Disbelief and tears flood my face as the twin towers come crashing toward the center of the earth. Shrieking and groaning with the sounds God made separating night from day – plunging us into darkness.”

David Earl White in the role of the younger Manet: "In shul, he would lift the weightiest of scrolls over his head to exalt God’s law and create the illusion he had twirled the heavy scrolls in figure eights as they rose high in the air. Perhaps he had. No one in the minyan could say what they perceived – other than the three requisite columns of script flashing from the scroll – illuminated with his own brand of holiness and his rage at compromise."

Rachel Clare Higgins in the role of Janae: "Why am I so clumsy and unpolished? I am overwhelmed by your considering me as a friend. Living up to you is a most wonderful ideal."

Joel Gelman as Stanley, with David White. Stanley: "We had our work to do and Linz was – Linz was our oyster. We lucked out . . . by now we’re living in a decent hotel the Army requisitioned in the city. We shared a room in a small hotel. We had – for those times –some comforts – and some privacy."

Textured steel wall with projections during the production

Dance sequence created by director Doris MIrescu

Left: David White as Young Manet. Right: Jessica Cherutti who primarily plays the role of Anna, is here, in the role of Bernadette.

Richard Philpot as Elder Manet,. He is tormented and seems to be addressing someone we cannot see: “A queen . . . She wears a crown of golden-brown hair. A crown like a yolk filled challah studded with the sweetest raisins. A daughter of the Nile, reborn on a bed of soft, achingly soft moss that complements the blush that spreads from her chest – her breasts – her every soft part . . ."