Bella’s Dream
An play with dance written by Dana Boll and directed by Jessica Ammirati
Based on the trule life story of Bella and Raymond Boll, who, heeding the advice of a dream left poland mere weeks before the Nazis invaded.
Bella’s Dream, a new play with dance, directed by Jessica Ammirati and written and choreographed by Dana Boll, follows the true life story of Bella and Raymond Boll (the playwright’s paternal grandparents), who heeding the advice of a dream, left their home in Gombin, Poland, mere weeks before the Nazi invasion.
The real Bella Boll as a young woman
BELLA’S DREAM tells the tale of a newlywed couple in 1939 Poland, Bella and Raymond, who are warned in the wife’s dream to leave the only home they have ever known. While on the run, they find themselves traveling thousands of miles, through the wilds of Siberia to the deserts of Uzbekistan, meeting Eskimos, Gypsies, prisoners and refugees along the way. BELLA’S DREAM interweaves scenes from Bella and Raymond’s journey with present day experiences of their son, Ronny, who, in the parking lot of a Florida supermarket, confronts the anti-Semitism his parents tried to escape so many years ago.
The play’s supermarket setting highlights the importance of food in wartime, the commodification of people then and now, and parallels the chance encounters of strangers in town market squares and the modern marketplace.
Bella’s Dream had a 16 performance run at the Flamboyan Theater at The Clemente Solo Velez Cultural Center, June 16th-June 30th, 2013. It featured (in alphabetical order): Eva Amessé, Bob Angelini, Suzanne Beahrs, Dana Boll, Suzanne DuCharme, Renee Dumouchel, Jerry Goralnick, Lisa K. Hokans, Dean Linnard, Jon-Michael Miller, Kristin Parker, Nancy Smith, Alex Teicheira, and Kathryn Wilkening.
