The Tenement Museum: Katy's Visit

From Katy:

I felt that I was intruding on the homes of the characters in our play and on the characters in my family's stories, my not-so-distant ancestors, some of whom overlap with our fictitious characters.  As we've said in rehearsal, the hardest part of the project sometimes is to shed my 2008 sensibilities and imagine experiencing real hunger, to let go of my kvetching about my current housing crisis and picture myself in the housing crisis that was the LES in that era.  I felt connected by blood to the people in the pictures, Abe and Fanny and Jenny, not just because of my Eastern-European Jewish blood, but because we were breathing their air and we are now attempting to tell their story, which is a presumptuous undertaking.  I want to be as honest in their name as I possibly can.

- Katy Rubin, Cast Member