Trailer

After I'm Dead, You'll Have to Feed Everyone

“After I’m Dead, You’ll Have To Feed Everyone” - The Rollicking Tale of Ellen Straus, Dairy Godmother. -- Written & Performed by Vivien Straus -- A daughter’s love letter to her immigrant mother, a European city kid who finds love on a California dairy and emerges as one of West Marin’s iconic environmental pioneers. It's funny, it's sad, it's ridiculous, it was performed in a barn on a farm. Runtime: 63 minutes. -- Cows (intro song): Written by Sandra Boynton & Michael Ford. Record Label: Concord

"One of the best celebrations of life imaginable." - Barry Willis, President, Bay Area Theater Critics

“Straus is an entertaining raconteur ... The story she tells is full of love, and also replete with humor ... The nonlinear way she tells the story is totally engaging.” - Marin Independent Journal

The show ran Oct 21 - Nov 27, 2023 -- 17 sold out performances, with more than 2,100 attendees -- @ Straus Home Ranch, Marshall, CA in a wonderful celebration of her Mom (a local environmental heroine), coincidentally coinciding with the 20th anniversary of her death.

All streaming proceeds support CheeseTrail.org, Vivien's 'side' project -- a free service created in 2011 to support California's small scale artisan cheesemakers and family farms. She's distributed over 500,000 printed tourism maps, created a popular website, mobile apps and generating tons of media coverage for the cheesemakers, many of whom attribute 20%-80% of all their sales to the Cheese Trail.

Directed by Elly Lichenstein, Produced by Michael Straus & Denise Rocco-Zilber, Dramaturgy by Jayne Wenger, Illustration by Laurie Mahan Sawyer

Reviews, articles, photos and more at VivienStraus.com.