GIVE US BREAD
Food prices shot up overnight. Starvation threatened families from Williamsburg, Brooklyn to the Lower East Side to the Bronx. The city did nothing. A group of women came together
to demand action. Boycotts accelerated into riots. The year was 1917.
​
Using original text and source materials, Give Us Bread tells the remarkable true story of immigrant women who united to feed their families… and a city, providing a lens
with which to examine today’s food crisis.
THE TEAM
Conceived & Written by: Melissa Moschitto
Devised by: the Ensemble
Directed by: Melissa Moschitto
Performances by: Jean Goto, Jennifer Griffee, Jennifer Moses, Shayna Padovano, Katy Rubin and Sonja Sweeney
Lighting Design: Andrew Merkel
Scenic/Projection Design: Maggie Pilat
Costume/Props Design: Alexandra Rubin
Dramaturgy: Louise Gough
Assistant Director/Production Stage Manager: Brandi Klein
Assistant Costume Designer: Sarah Biesinger
Dialect Coach: Carolyn Ladd 

Press Representative: Marcy Clark 

Light Board Operator: Josh Lucero
Translation: Shayna Padovano & Katy Rubin
Select Choreography: Shayna Padovano
Photography: Kim Nora
Postcard Design: Ben Paddock 

Program Cover Art: Miriam Weinstein
PRODUCTION, DEVELOPMENT + TOURING HISTORY
2009
World Premiere - The Milagro Theater
(Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center)
June 5-21
Keynote Event - Hofstra University's Day of Dialogue VII: A New Direction for the US and the World -
October
2010
7th Annual Immigrant Heritage Week. Co-presented by the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center
April
6th Annual Berkshire Fringe (Great Barrington, MA)
July
PRESS
“Both the script and the performances by the young cast are engaging, heartfelt and rarely preachy.”
(Valley Advocate)
“Give Us Bread is a completely engrossing 90 minutes of unabashed entertainment...” (nytheatre.com)
“gritty and gorgeous ... inspiring, eye opening”
(Media Harvest)
“The actresses play their respective roles with strength and intelligence...” (offoffonline.com)
“... with fantastic characters, subtle acting and a plot that grips you from the first scene and never insults your intelligence.”
(Raj Patel, Stuffed & Starved)
“All six women turned in stellar performances and functioned flawlessly as an ensemble...”
(GailSez)
The research for this play is catalogued in a research blog,
The play was produced alongside a three-week programming series, The Food Riot Project designed to connect the historical events of 1917 to contemporary food issues, locally, nationally and globally.
FUNDING SUPPORT FROM:
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
The Puffin Foundation
Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance