Christina Alexanian Stuns Brookline Audience in ‘Notebooks of Anzel Kourtian’
Christina Alexanian receives a standing ovation from an emotional audience in Brookline, Mass. (Photo: Michael Sarigiannis)
BROOKLINE, Mass.—Greek-Armenian actress Christina Alexanian left hundreds in tears on Saturday night after her powerful performance depicting the gruesome reality of the Armenian Genocide (1915) and the Destruction of Smyrna (1922) in her theatrical interpretation of the memoir entitled The Notebooks of Anzel Kourtian.
During the solo production, Alexanian filled the role of Anzel Kourtian, a Genocide survivor and migrant laborer, who once journeyed in a single shoe and continued to wear it without the missing pair as a reminder of her people’s civilized roots. Upon arrival in Smyrna, Greece after the barbaric march through Der Zor, every sign of hope for liberation had faded. “There was a burnt smell everywhere that I will never forget. Our whole life was an endless war,” expressed the actress, as she was seen hiding from Turkish soldiers tasked with setting Smyrna on fire.
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