October 23, 2025, New York City: 38th Annual Erwin Piscator Awards Dinner
Cole Escola
Thursday, October 23, 2025, at 6.30 pm
The Lotos Club
5 East 66th Street | New York, NY 10065 | USA
38th Annual Erwin Piscator Award Dinner
to benefit our International Educational Programs
The non-binary artist Cole Escola will be presented with the Erwin Piscator Award 2025 for their outstanding achievements as a comedian, actor, singer, and playwright, and for being one of the leading voices in queer theater.
Most recently Cole Escola starred in the smash hit Broadway play Oh, Mary!, which they also wrote, and for which Cole received the 2025 Tony award for Best Performance by Actor for a Lead Role in a Play. The play has broken box office records at the Lyceum Theatre and received two Tony Award nominations, a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Special Citation, a Drama Desk Award, a Theatre World Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, and an OBIE Award. The play was also named a 2025 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama.
Entertainment Weekly called Cole Escola’s American farce “the funniest play on Broadway” and elaborates: “what makes Oh, Mary! such a fulfilling theatrical experience is that it also has a real message about the dangers of repression, both societal and personal. Letting people express themselves and live their truth may not solve every political problem, but it can certainly make life way more fun. Escola’s doing that, and the rest of us should too.”
Admission: $ 500 (tickets are tax-deductible for the full amount less $ 100)
Here you can view the invitation and the response form.
For further information or questions please contact Michael Lahr.
November 9, 2025, Chicago: Jewish Voices from Theresienstadt
Theresienstadt Collage
Sunday, November 9, 2025 at 3.00 pm
PianoForte Studios
1335 S. Michigan Avenue | Chicago, IL 60605 | USA
“Out Through The Barbed Wire. Out Into Freedom!”
Jewish Voices from Theresienstadt
In the Nazi extermination machinery Theresienstadt played a special role. It was intended to distract attention from the Nazis’ efficiently organized murder machine. In June 1943, Adolf Eichmann, the organizer of the so-called “Final Solution,” presented Theresienstadt to a delegation from the International Red Cross. Those imprisoned in Theresienstadt were temporarily allowed to engage in artistic activities and organize readings, concerts, plays, and cabaret performances as part of their so-called “leisure activities.” Through music and literature, the artists of Theresienstadt encouraged their fellow prisoners, offering them comfort and hope, at least for a moment. In their thoughts and imagination, they overcame the walls of the ghetto, reaching “out through the barbed wire, out into freedom…”
But behind this façade, the Nazis and their collaborators continued to implement their murderous plans unabated: of the 141,000 Jews deported to Theresienstadt, only around 16,800 survived. 33,500 died in Theresienstadt from hunger and disease, malnutrition, and poor hygiene. 88,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Sobibor.
The artists imprisoned in the Theresienstadt ghetto and concentration camp defied the Nazi’s hatred and contempt for humanity in their own way: With imagination and creativity, they defied the national socialist dictum that the Jews were sub-human and incapable of any culture.
The texts by Alice Herz-Sommer, Georg Kafka, Paul Aron Sandfort, Leo Strauss, Viktor Ullmann, and Ilse Weber bear witness to the deep humanity that these artists retained even in the limbo of Theresienstadt. They can give us courage today to break the spiral of hatred, violence, and destruction.
Songs by Ilse Weber and piano music by Viktor Ullmann and others complement the reading.
Performers:
Sarah Jenks, Piano
Melissa Primavera, Soprano & Guitar
Fred Wellisch, Narrator
Concept & introduction: Michael Lahr von Leïtis
Presented by Elysium – between two continents, and The Lahr von Leitis Academy & Archive, with additional support from the German Consulate General Chicago.
Admission: free
Reservations are required and can be made here.
November 12, 2025, New York: And Housing for All
Wednesday, November 12, 2025, from 12.30 to 2.00 pm
New York University
Robert F. Wagner School for Public Service
105 East 17th Street | New York, NY 10012 | USA
Book Talk and Discussion:
And Housing for All. The Fight to End Homelessness in America
Author Maria Foscarinis, Founder and former Executive Director of the National Homelessness Law Center, will talk with Steve Banks, Attorney, former Head of the Legal Aid Society and former NYC Social Services Commissioner.
A groundbreaking legal advocate argues that only by recognizing housing as a fundamental human right can we hope to solve America’s homelessness crisis.
In And Housing for All: The Fight to End Homelessness in America, Maria Foscarinis reveals the human impact of this crisis, sharing personal stories and examining the flawed policies that have perpetuated it. As millions face rising housing costs and encampments spread nationwide, she uncovers why past efforts have failed and what must change to achieve lasting solutions.
Drawing from over 35 years of national advocacy, Foscarinis shares compelling stories of individuals and families impacted by homelessness, highlighting their resilience and growing leadership. Blending personal narratives with policy analysis, she reveals how deliberate decisions have fueled the crisis and how public narratives have sustained it.
Presented by Elysium – between two continents, and The Lahr von Leitis Academy & Archive, in cooperation with NYU Furnam Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy
Admission: free
Reservations are required and can be made here.
A light lunch will be served, books will be available for purchase
