Sparks Fly Upward

Recent world attention has been focused on the Ivory Coast in Africa, with U.N. officials recently expressing concern over the potential for genocide. NPR ran a story about the situation today. http://www.npr.org/2011/01/24/133178384/foreign-policy-in-ivory-coast-a-genocide-problem

The BBC has a good background on the situation at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11916590

In news about the Cleveland production, I made some progress last week. I spoke to the agent for a musician we would love to have involved in the project, and I had a long chat with the theater where we hope to have the production. Both very productive conversations!

Not much progress this week towards the 2012 production thanks largely to my law school obligations. I did try to get in touch with a well known musician (to be identified perhaps later) with ties to the Holocaust, whose participation would be especially meaningful.

In genocide awareness news this week, all have been following the referendum on independence for Southern Sudan. For an interesting new project put together by George Clooney see The Satellite Sentinel Project, which "combines satellite imagery analysis and field reports with Google's Map Maker technology to deter the resumption of war between North and South Sudan. The project provides an early warning system to deter mass atrocities by focusing world attention and generating rapid responses on human rights and human security concerns."

www.satsentinel.org

This is my first post of what I hope will be regularl posts leading up to the next production of The Sparks Fly Upward, a musical drama/opera that follows three families in Berlin during the Holocaust.

We had a very successful premiere of the piece along with educational efforts by our Foundation in 2008. Now, we are turning our attention to a production in November 2012 in Cleveland, Ohio that we anticipate will be simulcast throughout the U.S., and perhaps the world.

This blog will track our progress as we take steps toward this production. My next post will be about our progress so far, and then we'll move forward!

Cathy