Back and Forth and Back (and Forth) on the Bus: Judy Gold (with update!), Zero Hour (with video), and Yonkers (with love) Keeps Rolling In

So we closed LOST IN YONKERS back on Sunday. On Monday, headed up to New York Theatre Workshop to see an afternoon reading of an even-more improved version of BENEDICTUS, the Motti Lerner script based on his collaboration with Iranian theater artists Mahmood Karimi-Hakak and Torange Yeghiazarian. It was wonderful to meet with Motti over dinner after and talk about his new project, a potential collaboration involving Theater J and one of Israel’s most distinguished flagship institutions. It’s too soon to share more details. Suffice to say, the collaboration lives on as we continue to support this brave and prolific Israeli writer on new works as well as pushing recently produced work onto next productions in New York and beyond.

After returning to DC Tuesday morning for IN DARFUR production meetings and some catch up time with my family, I was back on the bus to New York on Wednesday for the start of rehearsals for Judy Gold’s new show. Judy’s collaborator on 25 QUESTIONS FOR A JEWISH MOTHER, Kate Moira Ryan, has been brought into the collaborative process and has helped to focus, punch, and make more poignant the journey Judy goes on in her latest iteration of MOMMY QUEEREST (now with the additional sub-title: “IT’S JEWDY’S SHOW”) which is the running bit in this very funny frame for Judy’s journey; that she’s consumed with getting her own TV Sitcom so that her two kids can see their lives reflected and finally accepted by mainstream culture. Judy grew up a bit of a misfit, towering over her peers and proverbially out of place and sought refuge and quick emotional fixes in the sitcoms of the 60s and 70s. Her kids seek the same. But is America ready for a gay, feminist, kosher SEINFELD? Why can’t Judy get legally married in the Jew state of New York? Pungent and funny and revealing, the play’s a brand new work of art, wildly different from the version I saw at Joe’s Pub 8 months ago. And so, willy nilly, we’re working on a new play with a great team and it’s a lot of work in a hurry and a very exciting time to be launching a culturally up to the minute new show starring an indomitable talent. And I’m not even talking about Sandra Bernhard right now! It’s JEWDY’S SHOW, damnit (as she’s no doubt punctuate it).

And guess what? I’m heading up again right now, as I type this, for rehearsal #3 now that Kate has sent a top to bottom rewrite after Monday’s excellent rehearsal and feedback session.

* * * And here’s the update: I’ve read the script on Megabus – Laughing Out Loud throughout – Cried twice – show’s in great shape! Great meeting just now (I’m revising this in nyc) with director Amanda Charlton while Judy keeps practicing the piano – couldn’t be happier! So much for the update.) * * *

Tonight I finally see ZERO HOUR in its New York iteration. I’ll be seeing the show with RISE AND FALL OF ANNIE HALL playwright Sam Forman (who has a new play he just sent me, I’ll be reading it as soon as I’m done reading the rewrite of Jewdy!) And herein I share with you video from the opening night of ZERO HOUR, courtesy or our superstar buddy, Steve Schalchlin.

Finally, I share with you a bundle of encomiums from LOST IN YONKERS. Check out this Final Round Up of Wonderful Words from Audience members writing into Becky:

A Final Rave For a Great Production (closing today!)

From: djhoffmanscreen
Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 9:15 AM

On LOST IN YONKERS and MOMMY QUEEREST

Diane Perleman and I together were completely privileged last night to have seen your wholly humane and richly comic and touchingly wonderful production of the Neil Simon classic “Lost in Yonkers,” so obviously the choice for both Tony and Pulitzer status on Broadway in 1991.

You have all surely reminded us of Simon’s stature as a great American “dramatic” playwright individually, who ought not be confined to the category of comedy alone, and also of the status of this play in particular in the canon of Broadway and even beyond the Great White Way in the tradition of thoughtful, indeed no-holds-barred exploration of family and character, the very human fundament beneath all ethnic or religious surfaces, whether Jewish-American or anything-American.

Bravo to you Ari as Theater J’s artistic director and also to Jerry Whiddon the director of this play, and the two marvelous boy actors: the seriously gifted Kyle Schliefer and sweet-faced and future Tony-award-winner Max Talisman, and also for stealing more than his share of the show, to the sly Uncle Louie of Marcus Kyd. Every boy should have an Uncle Louie — or just fuggetaboutit.

And of course a myriad of bravas go to the play’s mother-daughter acting twins, that brilliantly talented pair together again, of Holly Twyford — who is easily the equal of that other classic character of drama, the fragile yet steely daughter, Laura, in Williams’ Glass Menagerie – and finally Herself, forever-Grandma-cold-but-underneath-it-all-just-barely-vulnerable: the formidable Tana Hickern. I would eat Her soup and like it!

If only I had seen your play when there was still time for me to review it for the 160,000 households in northern Virginia which are delivered the FAIRFAX COUNTY TIMES (a weekly newspaper now owned by the Washington Post-Newsweek company), it would have been reviewed there properly of course! But our next issue doesn’t come out until next Wednesday, after “Lost in Yonkers” has, alas, closed.

So let the aforementioned thoughts stand as the review – in part – that I would have written had our printing presses been better timed to help shower “Lost in Yonkers” with the kudos it so richly merits. There is a huge potential audience in Fairfax County that deserves to be alerted to the incredible corpus of work at Theatre J! In the future, so let it be said, so let it be written!

Nearly finally, I want to see your next production — “Mommie Queerest” (running December 16-January 3) — this time well in time for review in the paper, at its Press Night Sunday, December 20 at 7:30 PM!

And – now – finally, I’m just glad that I met Ari and Shirley at J Street, which I attended courtesy of Diane Perleman’s earlier heads-up, though I had in fact known Jeremy, when he was Policy Director, from the days of mutual work on Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in 2003-2004.

thanks again,
David Hoffman

and yes, feel free to use anything written above as you may see fit in any future promotional materials.

One More Reason To Give Thanks

Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 7:58 PM

To: DCJCC Information

Subject: TheaterJ – Lost in Yonkers

Hello,
At the suggestion of a friend, who’d seen the show, I bought a last minute ticket to LOST IN YONKERS and was in the audience on Sunday afternoon. I am sorry to say that it was my first visit to the restored JCC. Its a very inviting and well-maintained facility. The box office attendant asked if I was eligible for a senior price for my ticket. Should I be annoyed that she though I was older than I am – I’m 58? Or delighted that she wanted to give me the best deal that she could? LOL.

I make the comment about the senior discount because I believe it was the latter rather than the former and applaud anyone who tries to do their best for a customer. The other attendants were similarly customer friendly. The theater itself is welcoming and intimate. That, by itself, makes me want to attend future performances.

And the production? Its always hard to lose with a Neil Simon script. But wow! Maybe it wasn’t worthy of a Tony, but it was excellent. The set and costumes were perfect. All of the performers were at least very good, and three – the two female leads and the younger child – were superb. Kudos to TheaterJ.
Plus I had the good fortune to bump into a man during intermission who was my very good boss 20 some odd years ago! I’ll be paying more attention to what the JCC has to offer.

David…
Attorney at Law

* * *

David,

What a great Thanksgiving gift to us! We so appreciate the feedback – everyone at Theater J works very hard to create a sense of community and family. We welcome you into the fold.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving holiday and we look forward to seeing you soon at the 16th Street J. Check out all our other programs at http://www.washingtondcjcc.org .

Until then,
Margaret Hahn Stern
Chief Operating Officer, Washington DCJCC
Creativity, Community and Connection—find it all at the 16th Street J—your Center in the City.


* * *

Dear Margaret,

I mentioned my experience to a co-worker today who also saw the show last weekend. He agreed with my assessment. Throw that into your gift package!

People who do good work are too often under-appreciated. And others too often fail to express appreciation.

David

Last Round of Press for LOST IN YONKERS

Here’s a lengthy, generous interview from DC Theatre Scene’s Joel Markowitz with Lost in Yonkers’ cast members Holly Twyford, Kyle Schliefer, and Max Talisman. We’ll excerpt a bit here and encourage you to read the whole megillah at dctheatrescene.com. Great stuff!

Lost in Yonkers: Holly Twyford, Max Talisman and Kyle Schliefer

November 20, 2009 by Joel Markowitz

In his autobiography “The Play Goes on”, Neil Simon talked about creating the role of Bella. “The boys (Arty and Jay) needed a confidant, someone who would be a buffer between them and their grandmother. I invented Aunt Bella. About thirty-six or thirty-seven, and still living with her mother, working in the candy store from the early morning till closing time; even giving the back rubs and leg rubs to ease her pain. There would have to be something wrong with Bella as a sweet, shy, and nervous woman, but loving her two nephews. It wasn’t enough. With a mother whose only concern is that her children survive, without love, without warmth, without affection, they would have to become a dysfunctional family.

In the next draft, Bella changed. She was almost retarded, but not in a clinical way. Her growth as a human being was stunted. She became a fifteen-year-old child in the body if a thirty-eight-year-old woman, with all the desires and needs of a mature woman, but with the inability to understand these desires. With Arty and Jay moving in, we see Bella happier than she’s ever been before, even though Jay, fourteen, and Arty, about twelve, seem more grown up than she is.”

Who better than to play the difficult role of Bella than three-time Helen Hayes Award winner Holly Twyford? Holly wraps her arms around Theater J audiences, cuddles them, and never lets go. You laugh and cry, and cheer as she becomes more confident and finally takes on the “matriarch from hell”. It would be easy to overact in this role, but Holly never does, and that’s why critics and audiences are raving about her heart-warming, assertive, and zany performance.

Joel: What is Lost In Yonkers about from Bella’s point of view?

Holly: Bella’s attitude is that to which we should all aspire … she wants to be happy. She’s not sure how to get there, but she knows that something has to change. When the boys arrive, I think she sees a chance, when she forces her mother to take them in, it’s not just for them and for Eddie, it’s because Bella knows that some sort of change can maybe begin with their presence.

Joel: How do you relate to Bella?

Holly: A professor in school used to say “find the love in the scene”, and he didn’t just mean in the scene or the play but in the character … one always needs to fall in love with the character. I’m sure there’s a bit of Holly in all my characters, hopefully more on the inside, and not the outside.

Joel: How did you prepare for the role?

Read Holly’s answer and the rest of the interview here.

* * *

How did Neil Simon create the two brothers Arty and Jay in Lost in Yonkers? In the opening scene where we are introduced to Grandmother, it was originally planned that there would be just one son – Jay. “This leaves the young boy, Jay, sitting by himself in the living room, not even knowing his life is being discussed a few feet away from him. But how do we know what his thoughts are? What fears he has? No problem. I give Jay a younger brother, Arty. Now they can discuss at length how much they fear the grandmother and hope that Pop will come out soon, so they can all leave. We’ve not only established the brothers and their plight, we know a great deal about Grandma Kurnitz long before she makes an appearance.”
Who better than to play Arty and Jay than two friends who have appeared on the stage together in the past – Max Talisman and Kyle Schliefer?

I’m a big fan of Max and Kyle. I saw them perform together at Musical Theater Center, and have followed their careers closely, because these are two talented young actors who have a bright future ahead of them.

Many theatre goers will recognize Max from his astounding vocal performance as Noah Gellman in Studio Theatre’s Helen Hayes Award winning production of Caroline, or Change. This is the first time he’s appeared in a non-singing role. Audiences will remember Kyle as Eric in Round House Theatre’s production of Lord of the Flies, and Rooster in Classika Theatre’s production of The Bremen Musicians.

Joel: What is Lost In Yonkers about from the point of view of Arty and Jay?

Max: Lost in Yonkers from the point of view of Arty is a tale of brotherhood. Arty and his brother Jay are best friends. The play is about how they stick together through tough family trials. The brothers stick it out through the crazy – but loving – Aunt Bella and the scary and intimidating Grandmother. For me, Arty’s story is also Jay’s story, because they stick together, and their friendship and love for each other grow deeper.

Kyle: From Jay’s perspective, Lost In Yonkers is in one sense his transition from boyhood into manhood. At the beginning of the play, Jay is left in a situation completely out of his control. He feels the solution is finding Grandma’s money, and bringing his father back home. What he ends up learning, and what actually starts his transition into manhood, is the importance of family. He gets many lessons from his encounters with Aunt Bella, Louie, Gert, and even Grandma. He ends up loving people and accepting them for who they are. At end of the show, he even tells Grandma he has learned a lot from her. “some good, and some bad,” but he got the lessons.

Read the rest of Joel’s interview with “the boys” here.

It’s the Year of Outreach

For all the alleged controversy we’re said to have been fomenting (that’s the chatter amongst a small circle of folks who receive withering emails from the crazy folks at COPMA), the rest of our 14,000 ticket holders this year (that’s how many have come to SEAGULL, ZERO, and now YONKERS with 10 more days left to go on the run) have been experiencing a Theater J that’s been delivering rich, deep, solid, thought-provoking work that’s been—dare we say it?—pretty much middle of the road. It’s given us a great opportunity to expand our base by bringing in lots of new attendees to the theater; AND we’ve taken up the cause of bringing our story out to as many gathering spots as possible; conferences, classrooms, festivals, places of worship. And now last night, I had the pleasure of reconnecting with the warm folks at Washington Hebrew Congregation where 60 members of their L’Chaim series came to a salon at the home of Van and Sandy Sabel and—since 90% of them had all seen the play–and the other 10% were scheduled to go this weekend—we had an amazing talk about the play in, what began as a great interview (or me) driven by Rabbi Bruce Lustig and then turned into a free flowing discussion with all in attendance.

The rabbi’s finest point was that, after the Brighton Beach/Biloxi Blues/Broadway Bound trilogy that proved so autobiographical of Neil Simon’s youth, here Simon was following up the trilogy with a deeply personal autobiography—not of Simon’s childhood per se—but of the American Jewish community writ large. We talked of the scars of experience that become ameliorated from one generation to the next, and the insistence upon more demonstrative love and affect as Neil Simon himself demonstrates in his own life, leaving the emotionally fraught world of New York that delivered him to the softer, more emotionally affirming world of Los Angeles that seemed to offer comfort in the wake of personal loss.

In fact the most autobiographical material in YONKERS, I submitted, had nothing to do with Bella or Grandma, or even the boys being stuck in a relative’s home; it had to do with Eddie losing a wife to cancer and being stuck as a single parent in the middle of his life and career… Later, I discussed the universal resonance of the play, and its impact upon my very diverse assemblage of students from the University of Michigan and California at Berkeley. I read an excerpt from one of the student essays; this, from a Korean-American student who saw his own family drama being played out on stage. Here’s a bit of his entry:

The last time I blogged from LA…

…I sat shiva with DAVID AND SHADOW AND LIGHT librettist (and friend), Yehuda Hyman for his mom and then blogged about the bittersweet sense of it all from my friend Greg Germann’s dining room. I’m heading there again in a few minutes. A year and a half ago, with that wonderfully ambitious, risky musical we were joyful about a run of an additional hundred tickets sold over the weekend (or something like that) as we licked our wounds over the critical divide that sealed DAVID’S disappointing (for now) fate and knew that, despite the little weekend spike in sales, the show would leave blood—and broken hearts—on the floor. And yet it was sunshine in LA, theater far behind, the vicissitudes of life lapping up against the shore as we strolled the Venice beach boardwalk, Greg and I, after paddle-tennis and yapping about middle-age, intersections, art, family…

It’s nice to be back and to hear and see the box office reports that Lost in Yonkers is SOLD OUT ALL WEEKEND! That’s right, another wonderful week of audiences, last night’s, apparently, laughing from the word go (or actually the word “hot” and in “I’m so hot!”) and leaping to their feet at the end. While Simon’s fate on Broadway has been indeed loudly lamented and might have even cut into our advance ticket sales—yes, it’s no longer the record breaking clip of early November—a sold out weekend is a sold out weekend and there’ll be only two more weeks to go.

We’re rolling out our first online ads with the Washington Post for Thanksgiving Week which promises to close out our run with a wonderful bang. So as we look at the surf, and commune with friends, and think about the times gone by and family and work and all that human stuff, it’s nice to remember that artists are hard at work back in DC, laying it all on the line emotionally every night, engendering real warmth and deep feeling every night.

Soon I’ll be posting some of my students’ reactions to YONKERS. They’re truly amazing and insightful. And we’ll have much more chance to hear from a special group of audience members this Wednesday with our Washington Hebrew Congregation member friends who’ll all have seen the play as we gather at a warm home to discuss the depths and the heights of the work with Rabbi Bruce Lustig, other Theater J Council members and myself as part of their L’Chaim series. So thrilled that 50 wonderful (and mostly brand new) friends of our theater will be sharing their impressions and getting to know us better.

And now, it’s off to tackle the freeways!

Around Town Divided!

Check out the “Jane v. Trey War” on Around Town. (Warning: We’re totally over-hyping. For a change.)

Thoughts from our audiences….

Becky here…We’ve asked our audiences for feedback on their expereinces seeing Lost in Yonkers and there’s a few excerpts below. We’d love to hear from you too! Post a comment to the blog and share your own thoughts.

“It was a wonderful night at the theater for my wife, our 15-year-old son, and for me. It’s hard to believe that such a quality performance can be had at such a reasonable price. The intimacy of the theater is one strong point that will keep up coming back. I have missed some productions in past years but hope to attend more regularly from this point on. Being able to get the tickets at the preview price was an added bonus, although the quality of the production would have made it a steal at even the full price.

Thanks for putting on a show such as this. It was amusing to learn that Brighton Beach closed last week on Broadway after a seven-day run. Things might have been different if the J-team had been involved!”
- Theater J patron, C Sachs

______________________

“We loved Lost in Yonkers. I took my teen daughter, I want to introduce her to theater. We saw Zero Hour the month before. She has really enjoyed the shows and I am grateful there are entertaining, high quality shows that I can take her to.

(Re: Lost inYonkers) we talked about how the playwright builds suspense, how the grandsons, son and daughter talk about the grandmother before we actually see her. Ho this develops her as a character. These techniques are not usually exercised in pop culture (TV) and bc my teen is totally wired to instant messaging, web surfing and immediate gratification, she is seeing an art form she doesn’t get much exposure to. (This concerns me about her generation!).

She studied the McCarthy era and immigration in school, so the Zero Hour really was relevant to what she learned. I remember Zero Mostel from my childhood (A Funny thing happened on the way to the Forum), but was not aware of the his political activities or appearances before the committee for unamerican activities. It was a learning experience for me as well.

We enjoyed both plays immensely. I saw other parents there with their teens. It really is a wonderful family experience and Theater J features shows that raise issues that we as a society should talk about. And then there are the shows that are just good entertainment.

Thank you again, we look forward to attending more shows.”
- Theater J patron

____________

” Four of us came to see Lost in Yonkers together. We thought the play was tremendous and we always enjoy coming to see the plays at the DCJCC “
- Patron

The Jerusalem Post Digs Into Yonkers (and why we produced it)

Lost, and found, in Yonkers

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
Nov 8, 2009 5:00

WASHINGTON – Following the controversy last year over a staged reading of the play Seven Jewish Children‚ Theater J artistic director Ari Roth thought the community needed a play that would allow for some healing.

To that end, he broke with the Theater J tradition of performing “a good depressing autumnal play,” and chose to put on Neil Simon’s prize-winning Lost in Yonkers for an extended run.

Not that the production is pure comedy , in fact, many of the laughs it provides are intensified by serving to break up moments of deep tension , but it does represent a lighter inflection of the crushing family drama genre. And perhaps most importantly, it offers a plotline that’s ultimately redemptive.

“I felt this was what we needed as a community, as Jews… with us always at each other’s throats,” explained Roth, whose Theater J is located in the Jewish Community Center in downtown Washington.

He added that the greater societal context was also significant in his choice, with the current economic crisis and what he called a “rift” in the Jewish community following the elections of US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu positioning his theater “on the seam” of those various forces.

It was our job in this slot to bring us together,” he said. “We needed a family play with hardened characters, hardened hearts, [from which] we needed to create some reconciliation.”

to continue reading, click here

(and it’s not a bad piece, and I’m more or less quoted accurately; it’s just a bit bald… but that’s okay. I’m glad this piece was written.)

Post-Brighton Beach/Post-J Street, Yonkers Rolls On as TJ Gets Set for the G.A

So it’s been a blur of business as the blog-o-sphere puts the BROADWAY (mori)BOUND/BRIGHTON BEACH production to bed while we hunker down in DC to the Next Big Thing(s), keeping up with the rock’em sock’em box office that is LOST IN YONKERS. I check out our ticket sales on line about six times a day. That borders on obsessive, I think (but is better than six times an hour, which is how often I’m inclined to). But it’s been good news every click, and how often can you say that about an internet update? Yes, it’s a great gift to get a hit in this business and YONKERS is our biggest ever. So hallalujah and let the Hosannas cascade from our website — we’ve had TONS of compliments about this show, but haven’t really kept up with posting ‘em. We will. It’s so important to take in the good will and moving reactions that have come from audiences young and old on this show.

Putting the Simon Fortunes of NYC and DC in context, I refer us to my Facebook wall, where the comments tumbled forth thusly:

Status Update:  “Ari Roth is pleased, grateful and feeling fortunate that LOST IN YONKERS shattered all previous post-Post review opening weekend box office records, while during the same weekend The Simon Plays abruptly, prematurely closed on Broadway.”

And then, in response to my posting: Neil Simon’s ‘Brighton Beach Memoirs’ Closes in a Week — “What Went Wrong?” – by Patrick Healy – NYTimes, I ask:

The lessons to be gleaned from this fiasco are…?

1) Broadway isn’t regional theater…

2) The play WAS and still is ubiquitous (so is Shakespeare, but then…)

3) A great and legendary producer did not price this play right; did not build the audience right; did not display the right patience right…

Arthur Hessel says…
4) Glitzy budgets (and big theaters) are for glitzy plays – Neil Simon in 2009 needs a more affordable and cozier venue. (If he succeeds, with reviews and audiences, in that type of venue, step up might be possible.

Laurence Maslon says…
5) But let’s be clear here: it ain’t AWAKE AND SING! (let alone LONG DAY’S JOURNEY); it was a (bad) feature film; and it simply may not speak to today’s audience. Why is everyone so shocked? He hasn’t really written a new play that’s connected with an audience for DECADES. Why is Neil Simon entitled to be a success?

Mark Gmazel says…
6) plus, you need a young Matthew Broderick…they don’t came along every day…

Richard Stein says…
7) There have always been hits & flops on Broadway–even from legendary talents. And no amount of Monday-morning quarterbacking can ever reveal the strange alchemy of the Great White Way.

So there you have it. The last of our post-mortems on the Broadway fiasco. And yet it also raised an interesting OPPORTUNITY for us in the future: What if we, Theater J, did what Broadway didn’t? That is, what if we did the diptych? Or better, the Brighton Beach Trilogy? Shirley maintains “that’s like having 4 scoops of ice cream!” I tell her, “No, it’s like have 3 scoops of ice cream!” (Trilogies generally coming in threes…) Well, we’re mulling and contemplating. For a theater regime that had never done a Neil Simon before, to contemplate turning over the rest of our repertoire to the man’s body of work, well, let’s just say I’ve had a profound transformation (only sorta joking here, folks).

And speaking of total transformations and shifting the ground and the terms of the debate in our community, here’s a follow up from our good friends at J Street, thanking us for our participation in the conference.

Dear Ari,

On behalf of myself and the entire J Street family, I want to express my appreciation for your multi-faceted involvement in the culture track of the J Street Conference last week.

The session on Selections from Theater J’s Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival added richness and depth to the conversations about Israel and the Middle East. I could tell that participants were moved and challenged by the excerpts, and it was a service to the community to bring these voices and resources forward. Please pass along our thanks to David Brian Jackson, Michael Tolaydo, Eliza Bell, and Delia Taylor for coming to perform on such short notice. And thank you for also putting together this session so quickly and responsively.

Thanks also for introducing Noa Baum’s storytelling session, and for being a steadfast partner through thick and thin.

We were overwhelmed by the positive response to the conference, so thank you for your part in making this a watershed moment for the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement. It will take all of us to continue this momentum and bring about change!

(Take a look at conference videos as we continue to post more footage, and feel free to share this link with others)

Looking forward to being in touch.

All the best,
Sarah Beller
Director of Programming and Education
J Street Education Fund

* * *

to which we respond…

Dear Sarah and Rachel,

Thank you for this warm note. We’re very proud of our involvement in the recent J Street Conference and look forward to continued partnership on cultural matters with your organization in the future. We’re thankful as well to the Theater J artists who participated in our presentation and we’ll be looking to make similar presentations at other important conferences to be held in our city where there’s an interest in Jewish culture and the ways in which a theater like ours reflects on the on-going dramas inside and around Israel.

The J Street conference marks something of a turning point for the American Jewish community in its dialogue about Israel, and it’s very much in keeping with the robust, candid, mature, and supportive dialogue that Theater J and so many of the other public affairs and arts programs at the Washington DCJCC have been having on the subject. That the candor of the arts is now finding its way into public discussions within our community–and as our community speaks to our political leaders–is a very important step and underscores the role of culture in reflecting and enriching public discourse.

We’ll be at the November 9th United Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly next, working with DC actors like Laura Giannarelli, David Harscheid, Norman Aronovic, Kate Wolf, and Rosemary Knower as we bring figures from modern Israeli history to life during their opening night reception.

Thanks again.

And so you can see, we’re moving on to our November 9th gig. I spent a good part of the last week and a half working on monologues for good actors that probably won’t get fully heard over the din of 3,000 reception goers at the Omni-Shoreham. These are decidedly pitched to the center, so to speak. Wanna read one, as a kind of sample? Here goes.