Hannah Kornfeld’s family joked that she was the only kid at the audition who didn’t know the song “White Christmas.”
When the 11-year-old from Mill Valley went to Los Angeles to audition for Irving Berlin’s musical “White Christmas,” her family hadn’t seen the script, and she wasn’t quite sure what the play was about.
But Hannah landed the role of Susan Waverly, the granddaughter of an old Army general whose Vermont resort is on the verge of bankruptcy.
The play is currently making its West Coast premiere at San Francisco’s Curran Theater. While she was chosen as the understudy for the part, she’s already performed in several shows and will likely be in more before the end of the run.
Being Jewish in a Christmas play doesn’t bother Hannah, a fifth-grader at Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Rafael.
“It isn’t really about Christmas,” she says. “It just takes place during Christmas. It is about friends and family.”
“We think it is really funny that her big break is a Christmas play,” says her mother, Lisa Kornfeld.
Hannah’s friends and family are thrilled about her breakthrough — from her schoolmates and community members at Brandeis to her aunt (an actress, too) who flew to California from Chicago for just 20 hours to see her perform
Her grandfather is one of her biggest fans. Recently, at the bar mitzvah of Hannah’s cousin, when the rabbi asked the congregation to share special events that had occurred during the week, her grandfather called out: “I saw my granddaughter star in ‘White Christmas!'”
Having acting experience in community theater and school plays, Hannah auditioned for “White Christmas” at a teacher’s suggestion. After a tedious procession of callbacks for more auditions, she landed the part, which includes singing and dancing. She went to New York, accompanied by her mother, for a month of training and rehearsals.
“The hardest thing about being in New York was being away from friends and family,” says Hannah, who was tutored during the time she was away from school.
Both she and her mother agree that Hannah’s Brandeis experience helped prepare her for the big step. “Concentrating on learning the lines and really focusing is like trying to understand word problems,” Hannah says.
Adds her mother: “Hard work is rewarded. She has a work ethic that comes from family and school, but more importantly, what Brandeis has done is give her a home to come home to. It was a surreal thing to come home from New York, having been missing friends, connection and support.”