All is Calm

The Broad Stage presents Theater Latté Da’s All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914, the highly celebrated docu-musical about an extraordinary moment in history for two performances only on Saturday, December 22, 2018 at 4:00pm and 7:30pm.
All is Calm, the poignant musical theatre work about the World War I Christmas truce, recalls an astounding moment in history when Allied and German soldiers met in “No Man’s Land” and laid down their arms to celebrate the holiday together by trading carols, sharing food and drink, playing soccer and burying the dead. In some places the truce lasted only a night, in others it endured until New Year’s Day.
Since its premiere in 2007, the a capella production is brought to life by a cast of 10 actor/singers and beautifully blends iconic WWI patriotic tunes, trench songs, medieval ballads, period songs and Christmas carols from England, Wales, France, Belgium and Germany with texts including first hand accounts of this remarkable event written by more than 30 World War I figures.
This moving ode to peace is created and directed by Theater Latté Da’s founding Artistic Director Peter Rothstein with vocal arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach.
All is Calm premiered in a live radio broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio on December 21, 2007. Now eleven years later All is Calm has become an annual holiday classic.
Rothstein believes that music, an important part of life in the trenches, helped create a context that made the truce possible.
“Music was the common language, and as winter set in, the men began to hold impromptu concerts, singing to each other across the battle fields, creating trust and a camaraderie,” says Rothstein.
Rothstein conducted research for two years to develop All is Calm.
“I wanted to tell the story in their own words, I created the drama by stringing together letters, war documents, autobiographies, World War I poetry, gravestone inscriptions, even an old radio broadcast,” says Rothstein. “For decades, the truce was considered a romantic fable, fiction, and I wanted to give legitimate voice to this remarkable moment that had somehow been denied its rightful place in history. I cannot express how gratifying it has been to share the story of these heroic men, in their own words, across the country and around the globe.”
Since All is Calm had its world premiere in a live broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio in 2007, the show has enjoyed global success with broadcasts on five continents through American Public Media and the European Broadcasting Union. The program has won awards including the Gold World Medal at the 2010 New York Festivals and the 2010 Gabriel Award, which honors works of excellence in broadcasting that serve audiences through the positive, creative treatment of concerns to humankind.
All is Calm has toured the United States for ten seasons, reaching more than 50 cities playing prestigious venues such as The Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), CAL Performances (Berkeley, CA) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York). The work has also been licensed and performed by theater companies and choruses across the US and Canada. This year, All is Calm received its Off-Broadway debut at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture in New York City.
Tickets, starting at $45, are on sale at www.thebroadstage.org or by calling 310-434-3200.