Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on December 31, 2012

Bimah, Hebrew for elevated place, refers to the platform in an Ashkenazi synagogue where the Torah is read. (Some Sephardi congregations call that part of the sanctuary tebah.) In Israel, the word is also used to refer to a theatrical stage. HaBimah (The Stage) is the countrys national theater company, founded as one of the first Hebrew-language theaters in Moscow in 1918 and transplanted to Tel Aviv in 1928. For American Jews growing up in the post-Yiddish theater era, Jewish theater is commonly associated with Fiddler on the Roof or The Diary of Anne Frank, or one of the numerous American Jewish playwrights who have made their mark on Broadway and in mainstream American theater. But whats been happening since Neil Simon and Wendy Wasserstein?

The Hebrew High School of New Englands production of Once Upon An Island, Jr. at the Hartford Stage last year

There are a lot of Jews writing plays but there hasnt been a clearinghouse or incubator to develop really great Jewish works, says DeDe Jacobs-Komisar, cultural arts manager at the JCC of Greater New Haven and director of the new JCC Theaterworks. The 60s and 70s were a really creative age in American theater. The National Endowment for the Arts was very generous in developing the works of risky, off-the-wall Jewish artists. Wendy Wasserstein and Neil Simon wrote great things during that time. The Jewish Theatre of San Francisco came out of that period and did really different works, but it couldnt sustain itself and closed in May. There are a lot of artists who would normally write plays but who transfer to film; Woody Allen is a good example. There are great Black plays coming out of the Penumbra Theatre in Minneapolis, but there was never really one place or one powerful theater organization dedicated to nurturing the work of Jewish playwrights. So where are the Jewish voices now? Some are on Broadway; Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon is among the most critically acclaimed plays of 2012. (New York Times theater reviewer Charles Isherwood posits the central discussion topic in his October 2012 write-up: I suspect the question of whos the good Jew and whos the bad Jew can a better Jew be a worse person? might well be a question that a dozen Talmudic scholars could argue over for a good long time. Discuss.

HHNEs production of Once Upon An Island, Jr.

Several JCCs across the country are home to theater companies, some of them professional. The New York-based Jewish Plays Project is a recent initiative whose mission is to put bold, progressive Jewish conversations on world stages and to ignite an explosive engagement between cutting-edge Jewish theater artists and audiences by developing and advocating for a new generation of plays and musicals that embrace and investigate the intersection of Jewish identity and secular self. This year, via JCC Theaterworks, Jewish New Haven will be one of the communities throughout the country engaging in the selection of new Jewish voices. As with any other cultural medium, theater asks, Why is it important to know ourselves? Jacobs-Komisar says. Jewish theater represents stories of our own culture and community, as expressed by the writer, actors, and director. They are the stories that we tell ourselves and also present to a greater audience. JCC Theaterworks is the newest Jewish theater program in Connecticut, a state that boasts four such initiatives, not counting the drama programs at Hebrew High School of New England in West Hartford and the Jewish High School of Connecticut in Woodbridge. The Ledger recently drew back the curtain on thespian endeavors in our communities, and also discovered new opportunities for actors and playwrights.

Jewish Arts Alive, Stamford As a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces in the 60s, Tamar Gershberg wrote, produced, directed, and choreographed multi-media events that presented the history and special character of specific military units among them, the Golani and tank brigades, and Givati Central Command. Gershberg came to the U.S. to earn a degree at the Columbia University School of Dramatic Arts and the American Theater Wing. While a student, she acted with the Roundabout Theater and studied choreography with Jerome Robbins and La Mairie. She settled in Stamford in the early 70s and was on the faculty of Bi-Cultural Day School, using drama as an educational tool. Among her projects were a Hebrew production of Oklahoma!, Matayim, which traced American Jewish history, and The Vision of the Dry Bones dance performance. She also served as principal of Congregation Agudath Sholoms Hebrew school, where she infused the curriculum with arts-related programming. Gershberg started Jewish Arts Alive (JAA) in 1993 to promote and explore Jewish heritage and folklore throughout greater Stamford through the arts, and to use the arts to build bridges between various communities through multi-cultural organizations. The initiative received several grants from the City of Stamford and the State of Connecticut Commission on the Arts. The play, Lifeforce, Gershbergs dramatization of her uncles Auschwitz memoir, was presented at Stamford High School in 2006 and won the State of Connecticut High School Drama Award and the Remembering History Award, created especially for the work. The play was also performed in Edinburgh, Scotland. JAA is renewing its efforts after a five-year hiatus. On Jan. 19, Gershberg and a committee of community members and fellow artists will host a backers audition at the Stamford JCC, featuring 11 local actors in three vignettes written by Gershberg. The event is intended to attract new supporters from throughout Fairfield County. The aim now is to broaden the base of JAAs operation and to become a voice in the community, Gershberg says to engage in the conversation, to speak the language of people in all its variety, and to build bridges to the communities around us. It will be Jewish but more than Jewish. We want to open it to all kinds of playwrights and build something that is original.

JAA Backers Audition, Saturday, Jan. 19, 8 p.m., Stamford JCC, 1035 Newfield Ave., Stamford | Info: Doris Freundlich, dorisfreundlich@hotmail.com

The Temple Players, Congregation Bnai Torah, Trumbull

Tom Costaggini of Stamford and Andrea Garmun of Milford played battling relatives in Uncle Murray Goes to Miriams Wedding, one of the comedies that made up Tribal Humor 3 in the Temple Players 12th season in 2009.

The first theater in Connecticut established to explore Jewish themes and characters, The Temple Players began in 1998 at Temple Beth Sholom in Stratford as both a fundraising mechanism and a way to introduce issues of American Jewish life to a diverse audience. One of the reasons we started was to engage people who have not had close relationships with Jews, says artistic director Mark Lambeck. Its important to me as an artistic director to motivate non-Jews to come and learn about Jewish culture, to see that we care about family and spirituality, just like other communities. Now entering its 16th season, the company presents staged readings of established and new works in a cabaret-style setting, primarily during the summer. There is an array of theater groups throughout the country dedicated to the Irish, Hispanic, Black, and other ethnic or special-interest group experience, says Lambeck. While many synagogues and JCCs in Connecticut may produce plays, they often stage popular musicals and have ignored the wealth of lesser-known works that focus on various aspects of Jewish life. In 2012, when Temple Beth Sholom merged with Congregation Bnai Torah
in Trumbull, The Temple Players relocated as well. In addition to exposing mixed audiences to Jewish themes and characters, The Temple Players also produces works geared toward Jewish audiences. In November, to commemorate Kristallnacht the company presented a staged reading of Remembrance, four original one-act plays by Lambeck addressing the Holocaust.

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Transforming the bimah Connecticut Jewish theater takes center stage

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