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AMERICAN JEWISH HERITAGE MONTH: First annual Jewish playwriting competition debuts in New Haven

 

By Cindy Mindell

 

NEW HAVEN – On May 5, some 75 theater-goers pulled out their cell phones to text “butter,” “schmear,” or “works” – representing their favorite of three plays just read on the stage of the Off Broadway Theater in New Haven

New Haven theater goers vote for their favorite Jewish play

New Haven theater goers vote for their favorite Jewish play

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The event marked the first annual Jewish Plays Project (JPP) in New Haven, a national initiative founded two years ago by David Winitsky to rejuvenate Jewish theater. This year’s competition netted 167 entries from around the country, which were winnowed to 10 contenders by a Manhattan-based panel of artists. A local review committee in New Haven selected three finalists.

The evening was directed by Winitsky and presented by JCC of Greater New Haven cultural arts manager, DeDe Jacobs-Komisar. The program featured Let Me Go by Jonathan Caren, The Karpovsky Variations by Adam Kraar, and Estelle Singerman by David Rush. The readings featured actors Michael Boland, William DeMeritt, Mitch Greenberg, Margaret Ladd, and Adina Verson.

The New Haven audience selected Estelle Singerman, which follows the title character through a Chicago summer night as she desperately searches for someone to say Kaddish for her after she dies.

“The greatest thing about David’s sweet adult fable is its range of characters, each deeply seated in his or her own faith and spiritual traditions. And, at all times, each one chooses to respect different beliefs as vital and necessary,” says Winitsky. “We could all learn a lot from Seymour the Buddhist giraffe.”

Actors William DeMeritt and Adina Verson, both Manhattan-based 2012 graduates of the Yale School of Drama, observed that an audience tends to respond most to a work that reflects their stage in life.

“We had maybe six Drama School students in their 20s who came to support Adina and me – not Jewish, and a couple of African-Americans – but the bulk of the audience was an older white Jewish crowd,” DeMeritt says. “In my opinion, the play that didn’t get its due was “Let Me Go,” which appeals to a younger audience.”

Verson echoes the observation. “I think all three plays had a great chance of winning, so it’s hard to say exactly why one of them won,” she says. “But it did cross my mind that the majority of the audience was in the older demographic, and Estelle Singerman is the only play of the three that focuses on that demographic. I guess that’s what interesting about choosing which Jewish community is voting.”

Winitsky first conceived of the idea for the JPP in 2010, when a friend and colleague – “with whom I had discussed the sorry state of Jewish theater,” he recalls – mentioned the Joshua Venture Group, a social entrepreneurship grant for initiatives that impact upon the Jewish world. Winitsky applied for a grant, and although his Jewish-theater concept was not funded, a conversation about the art began to take shape. He continued to develop the idea as a fellow at the PresenTense Group for Jewish entrepreneurial projects, and launched JPP in 2011. Since then, the initiative has engaged 340 playwrights in 26 states and eight countries, and staged the best new Jewish theater works before nearly 1,000 audience members.

The challenge of defining “Jewish theater” is what lies at the heart of the JPP. “The truth is that Jews haven’t been doing formal theater all that long, comparatively,” Winitsky says. “In the span of 5,700 years, that means 130 years, going back to the national Yiddish theaters in Russia. For me, an authentically Jewish way to do theater comes down to two things: one about the art, and one about the approach. For the art, are we talking about things from a Jewish perspective? Whatever a play happens to be about, are we putting about our tradition of intellectual inquiry and deep philosophical debate into the work? And for the approach, are we living our Jewish values as we make the plays? Are we working to improve the world? It’s about putting the ideals into practice at every step.”

Winitsky says that the communal aspect of Jewish theater is one that deserves a boost. “One of the ironies of Jewish participation with the theater is that we have done it so much, and so successfully on so many levels, that we have largely given it up as a part of our own communal life,” he says. “Jews do theater – no question – but I think that, in many places, we’ve forgotten that it can be a vital and powerful tool to investigate our own condition and issues. The JPP has been able to reintroduce high-quality, high-art theater into Jewish life as part of our overall desire to improve as a people. It’s not so much that we need to produce Broadway-quality plays and musicals on our JCC stages. It’s that we need to embrace Jewish theater as an art form. Over the last 10 years or so, we’ve seen a sea change in Jewish culture – in books, music, and film – and the JPP believes that it’s time for theater to join the revolution.”

 

Estelle Singerman now moves on to OPEN: The New Jewish Theater Residency at the 14th Street Y in Manhattan, in partnership with LABA: The National Laboratory for New Jewish Culture. The two runner-up plays will also have readings next month.

 

Comments? Email cindym@jewishledger.com

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