Cast and Crew

Schubert Cast:

Frank Wood
Jessica Arinella
Lethia Nall
Matthew G. Rashid
Louise Rozett

NY Stage and Film Cast:

Frank Wood
Jessica Arinella
Carey Peters
Matthew G. Rashid
Anastasia Webb

Crew:

Produced by: Alicia Arinella
Written by: Louise Rozett

Schubert Theatre reading directed by: David Mold

NY Stage and Film reading directed by: Geoffrey Nauffts

Summary

Frank Wood and Matthew G. Rashid

Break is a work about the unexpected effects of the Ground Zero recovery effort on New York City's firemen and policemen, and their families. In December of 2001, FDNY Captain John Emmett and NYPD Officer Marco Gennaro are both assigned to Ground Zero. John Emmett is struggling with the loss of hundreds of friends and the disintegration of his family while Gennaro is fighting to keep his marriage together, though being around his wife and child is a constant reminder of what he could so easily lose in the post 9/11 world. The two end up sitting together in the overcrowded dining room of the tent at Ground Zero. Thought they can't help but enter into battle over the nature of their jobs and why things happened the way they did on 9/11, more important questions of faith - and how to survive the revovery arise.

Matthew G. Rashid, Jessica Arinella, and Frank
Wood in a scene from Break

One of the major issues that is easily overlooked in conversations about the impact of September 11th is the effect of the recovery effort. Most people have no idea that firemen, policemen, contraction workers, engineers and other recovery workers spent up to 8 months of their lives searching for - and finding - human remains. This experience was so intense for the workders that ultimately, they existed in an alternate universe for the duration of the effort. The world of Ground Zero was all consuming, and consequently the world outside of Ground Zero became less real. Many workers did not know how to reconcile the two, and their private lives fell by the wayside. Some of these people are still suffering the effects of this today. These people deserve to be recognized, and their story needs to be told.

Louise Rozette and Geoffrey Nauffts during NY
Stage and Film's workshop of Break

Break captures the experience of the recovery workers, enabling an audience to recognize that the heroic and tragic sacrifices that were made on September 11th were followed by equally heroic sacrifices that were tragic in their own right.