The Forgotten Kingdom: A Radio-Theatre Performance

Sand animation + riveting score + powerful storytelling
This program is a Pre-Recorded Presentation

Dreamlike sand animation, narration blending memoir and poetry, and a riveting musical score reframing Ottoman Jewish women’s song render an interwar letter from a mother to her daughter, in the form of a book of memory so that — years later, once grown — the daughter would remember how it felt to live in her parents’ vibrant, multiethnic Mediterranean world, before its unraveling.

Breathtaking sand images are created, morphed, and obliterated to form intensely emotional chronicles. The cinematographic score draws on the bittersweet rawness of Tango, the rhythmic fire of Arabic percussion, and gorgeous vocal harmonies layered on Western classical music’s harmonic roots. Sand and music intertwine with a “masterfully narrated tale” (Welland Port Coburn Concert Association), bound together with an evocative lighting and scenic design.

In a multimedia adventure that “explodes with artistry, refinement, and excitement,” (Hebrew Union College, OH), The Forgotten Kingdom moves audiences with questions with which we still grapple today.

Featuring sand animation by Ukrainian sand artist Kseniya Simonova (Winner of Ukraine’s Got Talent (with 40 million+ views for her semifinal video), and Golden Buzzer winner on both America’s Got Talent: The Champions and Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions).