Joanne Koch

Playwright

National-Louis University

College of Arts & Sciences

122 S. Michigan Avenue

Chicago, IL 60603

jkoch@nl.edu

www.lzkoch.com/kochandcohen

Joanne Koch is the author or co-author of 16 plays and musicals produced across the country, including off-Broadway, and the co-editor of Shared Stages: Ten American Dramas of Blacks & Jews, published by SUNYPress, available at amazon.com, an anthology that includes “Driving Miss Daisy,” “I’m Not Rappaport,” “Fires in the Mirror,” “The Day the Bronx Died,” and “Soul Sisters” (by Koch & Cohen). Plays of special interest to Jewish audiences are listed below.

Play Roster

AMERICAN KLEZMER
By Joanne Koch & Sarah Cohen, music by Ilya Levinson, lyrics by Owen Kalt
A new musical romance that follows immigrant musicians coming to America in 1910. Premiere Los Angeles production hailed as “wonderfully appealing” “glorious” “keeps you laughing.” “You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy it.”

SOUL SISTERS
A Multicultural Musical
by Joanne Koch & Sarah Cohen, original music by Mark Elliott.
Two great singers rediscover their roots and their friendship. A celebration of African-American and Jewish music applauded at 30 theaters around the country.

BELLE BARTH: If I embarrass you, tell your friends
By Joanne Koch, music by Ilya Levinson, lyrics by Owen Kalt. An evening of original songs, jokes and stories with the raunchy comic whose nightclub act and records selling in the millions were the forbidden fruit of the 1950s. Chicago premiere called “hilarious” and “touching.”

HENRIETTA SZOLD: WOMAN OF VALOR
by Joanne Koch and Sarah Cohen.
One woman and one man portray the inspiring life and work of the woman who founded Hadassah, insisted its Palestine clinics treat Arab and Jew alike, and saved thousands of children from the Holocaust.

SAFE HARBOR
Rescue and resistance in the little known true story of harrowing getaways and two years in hiding by one of the few families to escape deportation during the Nazi occupation of Salonika, Greece.

DANNY KAYE: SUPREME COURT JESTER
By Joanne Koch & Sarah Cohen, original songs by Mark Elliott
“a vibrant, funny, insightful musical about one of the comic geniuses of the twentieth century” packed with original music & classic comedy tunes and routines.

FLYING FEATHERS: a new children’s musical based on one of the tales of Chelm
By Joanne Koch, music by Ilya Levinson, lyrics by Joanne Koch & Jennifer Stafford
The good people of Chelm have their hearts in the right place when they gather money for a poor bride’s dowry but almost make a terrible mistake when they exchange the valuables for feathers. All ends happily, thanks to a little help from Duvid, Yossel, Rachel and delightful original klezmer music.