Irene Connelly

Feb 21, 2024 | forward.com | Zachary Solomon |Irene Connelly

A couple days into his stay in Duma, a socialist utopia that is actually anything but, Samuel Zelnik walks into the desert and finds a concentration camp guard's office. Well, not a real one. The shack Samuel encounters, which features period furniture, a corkboard map of different prison cells and not-so-subtle personal effects including a pair of swastika cufflinks, is actually a facsimile of the real thing, created as a memorial by Miriana Granoff, an artist Samuel studied under in college.

Feb 5, 2024 | puertoricotravelwire.com | Aviya Kushner |Mira Fox |Irene Connelly |PJ Grisar

The Holocaust Memorial in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is located across from the capitol building — just a few feet away from a stark memorial commemorating the 17 Puerto Ricans who were murdered in the “Massacre de Lod” or Lod Massacre, a terrorist attack at Israel’s Lod Airport (now Ben-Gurion International Airport) in 1972. The Puerto Ricans were Christian pilgrims on their way to see holy sites in Israel — and were slaughtered as they waited for their luggage.

Nov 9, 2023 | forward.com | Irene Connelly |Jenny Singer

Barbra Streisand is not God. Still, many things that have been said about God also apply to Barbra Streisand. One can remain a stalwart monotheist and still recognize that our culture's attitude toward Streisand echoes the words of the psalmists: "Each generation shall praise your deeds to the next, telling of your greatness, and the splendid honor of your glory." For six decades, Streisand has dominated Americans' notions of talent and artistry.

Nov 8, 2023 | forward.com | Irene Connelly |Rebecca Salzhauer

Barbra Streisand never should have played Miss Marmelstein. At 19, she was decades too young to pass for the frumpy, middle-aged secretary composer Harold Rome had written into his new musical, I Can Get it For You Wholesale. Plus, she had never auditioned for a Broadway show. In November 1961, Streisand - then working as a nightclub singer - arrived to audition with a packet of sheet music under one arm.

Nov 7, 2023 | forward.com | Irene Connelly |Julie Benko

Was I putting too much pressure on that first night? Perhaps. But this opportunity felt like a culmination of the long, hard slog that is life as an unknown actor. The constant rejection. The survival jobs. The early wake-ups for open-call auditions, during which I'd dutifully sing my 16 bars for casting interns even though their bosses had likely already found someone famous for the role.