Join us on a journey into the mystical and the zany in our every day lives. A GIFT OF DREAMS is a riveting show combining traditional Jewish stories with true life tales performed by Jewish Scheherazade LAURA SIMMS, renowned worldwide for her remarkable voice and uncanny presence.

Laura begins with a story about Rabbi Nachman of Braslov, seamlessly takes us to her childhood home in Brooklyn, New York and brings us to her grandmother's shtetl in Poland last year. She is our guide into an astonishing fairytale from Iraq and a cantor's longing in Romania. We grapple and delight in what has made Jewish life alive with compassion and humor: a landscape of multiple tales and meanings for thousands of years.

Laura Simms is a performing artist: storyteller, author, recording artist and humanitarian. She is recognized worldwide as a leader in the renaissance of storytelling today. Part of Catalyst Arts - bringing storytelling into challenging situations, she brings years of global experience. In Israel she has performed at the Khan Theater, Beit Ariella Library, and the President's Home. Working for organizations like UNICEF, and Mercy Corps, she has performed in villages in Nepal, the Philippines, New Orleans and Bhutan; in Palaces and zoos, main stage theaters, universities, conferences and schoolrooms throughout the world. Laura teaches at Naropa University, University of Manitoba and New York University. She is an associate of the Columbia University School of International Peace and Reconciliation, and a member of the Arts Therapy Alliance. In the UK she has performed at the Royal Festival Hall, The Barbican Theater and a small synagogue in Dublin. Her most recent book is UNDER THE CURRANT LEAVES: essays on storytelling and compassion. Her collection ROBE OF LOVE is considered a classic. Laura is the mother of best known author Ishmael Beah "A Long Way Gone."