The New Jewish Theatre
A Program of the Jewish Community Center
2011-2012 Productions
End Days by Deborah Zoe Laufer
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Laufer’s play is a wacky and off-balance tale that takes aim at science, religion, celebrity worship and suburbia. Set in 2003, just two years after 9/11, sixteen-year-old Rachel Stein is having a bad year. Her father, suffering from post 9/11 depression, won't leave the house or change out of his pajamas. Her mother, Sylvia, is a lapsed Jew who has become a devout born again Christian. Nelson the nerdy sixteen-year- old neighbor who dresses as Elvis has a huge crush on her. The ensuing events of the play propel this dysfunctional family on a journey of discovery that is a manic whirlwind of a family drama that is at the same time weird and illuminating and truthful. The play is poignantly redemptive and often hilariously funny, as it asks us what we would hold most sacred if we knew the end was near. A satirically dark comedy with a moral edge, it is ultimately a story of family and faith, told with wacky hilarity.
Director: Eric Little
Stage Manager: Danny Maly *
Cast
Rachel: Chelsea Serocke
Sylvia: Nancy Bell *
Arthur: Terry Meddows
Nelson: Clayton Fox
Jesus/Stephen Hawking: Roger Erb
Design Team
Scenic Design: Justin Barisonek
Lighting:
Costumes: Michele Friedman Siler
Sound: Josh Limpert
Props: Wendy Greenwood
The Last Night of Ballyhoo by Alfred Uhry
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Uhry sets his play in Atlanta in December 1939. "Gone with the Wind" is having its world premiere, and Hitler is invading Poland, but Atlanta's elitist German Jews are much more concerned with who is going to Ballyhoo, the social event of the season. The conflict between social acceptability and cultural definition escalates when Brooklyn born Joe Farkas (of Eastern European heritage) is brought home to dinner at the Freitag family home. The land mines of inter-religious prejudice loom large as the family gets pulled apart and then mended together with plenty of comedy, romance and revelations along the way. As events take several unexpected turns, the characters face where they come from and are forced to deal with who they really are. The warm and delightful play delicately deals with issues of prejudice, assimilation and social and religious identity and faith.
Director: Gary Wayne Barker
Stage Manager: Emily Clinger *
Cast
Boo: Peggy Billo *
Reba: Laurie McConnell *
Adolph: Greg Johnston
Lala: Rachel Fenton
Sunny Freitag: Alexandra Woodruff
Peachy Weil: Dylan Duke
Joe Farkus: Adam Moskul
Design Team
Scenic Design: Justin Barisonek
Lighting: Michael Sullivan
Costumes: Michele Friedman Siler
Sound: Josh Limpert
Props: Peggy Knock
Way to Heaven by Juan Mayorga, translated by David Johnston
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This stunning new play by Spanish playwright Mayorga is inspired by the true story of the elaborate deception that took place at the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where the Nazis constructed a fake village to fool international inspectors and quell extermination rumors. The Nazis set up this Czech concentration camp as a “model village” for Jews, to prove to the world how thoughtfully and creatively they were solving the “Jewish problem.” Mayorga's startlingly original play shows the creation and rehearsal of another very unusual play, one in which the Jewish prisoners are assigned roles and given lines to say to the Red Cross inspectors who may be passing by. Perception, the power of images, rhetoric and Theater itself are among Mayorga's themes, and also, perhaps most significantly, the play asks, how much courage is required to take responsibility for what one sees. It is hauntingly gripping and profoundly moving.
Director: Doug Finlayson
Stage Manager: Emily Clinger *
Cast
Red Cross Worker: Jerry Vogel *
Commandant: Jason Cannon *
Gottfried: Terry Meddows
Young Woman: Julie Layton
Yound Man: Scott McMaster
2nd Young Woman: Katie McGee
Children:
Parker Donovan
Matthew Howard
Braden Phillips
Leo Ramsey
Drew Redington
Elizabeth Teeter
Design Team
Scenic Design: TBA
Lighting: TBA
Costumes: Michele Friedman Siler
Sound: Josh Limpert
Props: TBA
The Value of Names by Jeffrey Sweet
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This production asks how we deal with our moral convictions both in the past and in the present. Both political and personal, it is the story of two men, former friends, whose friendship ended as a result of the infamous McCarthy hearings before the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities. After Benny, a celebrated comic was named to the Hollywood blacklist of the Fifties, his career took a nosedive. Now, 30 years later, new circumstances force them to confront each other and explore their deepest feelings. Benny’s actress daughter has been cast in a play to be directed by the man who had testified against him. Suddenly he is forced to deal again with a moral crisis which he has tried to put behind him. When the two former friends meet, a confrontation ensues exposing a provocative and increasingly passionate exchange of ideas and convictions. It is a provocative and passionate and consistently engrossing story packing an almost overwhelming emotional wallop at the end.
Director: Alec Wild
Stage Manager: Lee Anne Mathews *
Cast
Bennie: Bobby MIller *
Norma: Elana Kepner*
Leo: Peter Mayer *
Design Team
Scenic Design: Dunsi Dai
Lighting: Maureen Berry
Costumes: Teresa Doggett
Sound: Steve Neale
Props: Robert VanDillen
Jacob and Jack by James Sherman
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James Sherman (From Door to Door) gives us this delightful soufflé of a play. Jack Shore, a well-known television personality, is appearing for one night only in a tribute to his grandfather, Jacob Shemerinsky, great star of the Yiddish Theater. Backstage in his dressing room, Jack confronts his challenges as an actor - and as a husband to his co-starring wife. Simultaneously, 75 years in the past, Jacob has problems of his own. Actors play their past and present roles in a dizzying display of life in the theater in this time-traveling farce that is a smart and classic marital farce ingeniously complicated by historical layering and dual role-playing. From its Yiddish roots to its long obsession to Hollywood, it is a beguiling comic love letter to the American theater, a crackling little commentary on actors - and their mothers, wives, girlfriends and managers. A door-slamming comedy, it is a clever tribute to Yiddish Theatre as well as to vain glorious stage actors.
Director: Edward Coffield
Cast
Jacob/Jack: Bobby Miller *
Leah/Lisa: Kari Ely *
Hannah/Esther: Donna Weinsting
Abe/Ted: Terry Meddows
Rachel/Robin: Julie Layton
Moishe/Don: Justin Ivan Brown
Design Team
Scenic Design: Rob Morgan
Lighting: Kim Klearman
Costumes: Michele Friedman Siler
Sound: Matt Koch
Props: