Steal Me

In June 1943, Ina Soep, the rich and beautiful daughter of an Amsterdam diamond cutter, met a married couple—a poor accountant named Jack Polak and his vivacious wife, Manja—at a birthday party for a friend. Six months later, the three of them were sharing a barrack at Kamp Westerbork, a Nazi holding camp in the north of Holland. So begins one of the most complex stories of love, hope and transcendent luck to emerge from the Holocaust.

Steal a Pencil for Me, by composer Gerald Cohen and librettist Deborah Brevoort, is an opera in two acts about one of the Holocaust’s most unusual love stories—between Jaap Polak, a Dutch accountant, and Ina Soep, the daughter of a wealthy diamond manufacturer—who fell in love while imprisoned in the Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. Based on their love letters, which were published in a book of the same title, Steal a Pencil for Me is about the indestructibility of the life spirit and the power of humankind to survive adversity. The opera dramatizes intimate concerns and private dramas alongside the epic horrors of the Holocaust.

The Archer Gang are back and doing a daring heist in London. Remanded in prison, they will try to break out their old friend Briggs.

The Archer Gang are back and doing a daring heist in London. Remanded in prison, they will try to break out their old friend Briggs.

Jason Mraz’s iconic 2008 studio album features the RIAA Diamond® certified hit, “I’m Yours,” plus the Grammy® award winning singles, “Lucky (feat. Colbie Caillat)” and “Make It Mine.”