The 2016 Emmy Award-winning documentary narrated by Meryl Streep, “Letter from Italy, 1944: A New American Oratorio,” will be screened in the Noah Webster Room, West Hartford Public Library, 20 S. Main St. on Thursday, April 20, at 7:00 p.m. The screening of the documentary, produced by filmmaker Karyl Evans, is free and open to the public.
The documentary follows the creation and production of the moving and powerful oratorio, commissioned by GMChorale and composed and written by Sarah Meneely-Kyder and Nancy Fitz-Hugh Meneely. The oratorio is based on the true story of their father, Dr. John K. Meneely, a WWII combat medic in the Army’s fabled 10th Mountain Division, who returned from war suffering from what we now call PTSD. The screening will be followed by a Conversation with Dr. James Marinchak, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, PTSD Clinical Team Leader, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Newington Campus.
In the words of Karyl Evans, “It is such an important story to tell – a war veteran coming back with post traumatic stress disorder, how his relationship with his family is changed forever and then his daughters creating a work of art 50 years later that not only healed their hearts, but the hearts of everyone involved…”
This event is the final one in a series of nine Community Conversations prior to the Hartford Premiere of Letter from Italy, 1944, to be presented by the combined voices of GMChorale and Hartford Chorale, with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, at The Bushnell on Thursday, May 4, at 7 p.m. Visit www.bushnell.org for tickets.
For further information, visit www.gmchorale.org.
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