Born in a provincial Russian town near Kiev in 1899, Leah Berliawsky immigrated to America with her family when she was five. Her artistic talent emerged at an early age, but being from one of the few and oft-ostracized Jewish families, she grew up feeling superior and inferior at once. After high school, she married Charles Nevelson, a wealthy New Yorker, to flee Maine. Thus, Louise Nevelson began her career.

The life of this artist inspired the play Embers by Catherine Gropper that runs Jan. 22-27 at St. Peter's Church in New York City. This Evangelical Luther church houses the Louise Nevelson Chapel of the Good Shepherd, one of the many lasting works of the artist.

Mark Bloom directs the production which features Salome Jens, star of stage and screen. Jens, who was a charter member of Eli Kazan's company at Lincoln Center, has been in such Broadway productions as Far Country, Denker, The Disenchanted, Patriot For Me and Lie of the Mind. The recurring character on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" heads a cast of six others.

The limited engagement plays one week only at St. Peter's Church, 619 Lexington Avenue (at 54th Street). For tickets, call Smarttix at (212) 206 1515 or order online at www.smarttix.com.

— by Ernio Hernandez