Conference Program
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Connecting Jewish Theatre To the World CONFERENCE PROGRAM AJT Board/Staff Staff Executive Director: Jeremy Aluma Registrar/Finance: Marcy Segal Website Creative/Graphic Designer: Michelle Shapiro Conference Stage Manager/Program Designer: Danny Debner Executive Board President: Hank Kimmel Vice-president: Wendy Kout Vice-president: Ralph Meranto Vice-president: Deborah Baer Mozes Secretary: Jesse Bernstein Treasurer: Susan Lodish Immediate Past President: David Y. Chack Members-at-Large Social Media Manager: Danielle Levsky Toby Klein Greenwald Ronda Spinak Adam Immerwahr Robyn Israel Ex Officio Mira Hirsch Ellen Schiff Robert Skloot Honorary Board Tovah Feldshuh Adam Kantor Theodore Bikel (z”l) We wish to express our gratitude to the Performers’ Unions: ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION AMERICAN GUILD OF MUSICAL ARTISTS AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS SAG-AFTRA through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists (Tessa Aubergenois, Arye Gross, Karen Malina White, Sally Wingert, Minka Wiltz, and Aviva Pressman) to appear on this program. Program Contents Day One Schedule – Sunday October 25 4 Mara Isaacs 5 Debórah Eliezer 6 Seraph-Eden Boroditsky 7 Lindsey Newman 8 Stories of Jewish Holidays 9 The Great Escape 10 Bubble Schmeisis (excerpt) 11 BJW (excerpt) 12 Imagining Heschel (excerpt) 13 Day Two Schedule – Monday October 26 14 Shimrit Ron 15 Igal Ezraty 16 Hadar Galron 17 Maya Arud Yasur 18 Noam Gil 19 Hanna Azoulay-Hasfari 20 Udi Ben Moshe 21 Joshua Harmon 22 Anike Tourse 23 András Borgula 24 Helen Marcos 25 Rachel Mars 26 Zalmen Mlotek 27 David Eisner 28 Rebecca Guber 29 True Colors (three excerpts) 30 A Pickle (an excerpt) 31 Our Holy Leader on Trial 32 Deadlift (excerpt) 33 Eight Nights (excerpt) 34 Day Three Schedule – Tuesday October 27 35 Nikkole Salter 36 Olga Sanchez Saltveit 37 Snehal Desai 38 Rex Daugherty 39 Adam Immerwahr 40 Emily Mann 41 Michel Hausmann 42 Anna Ziegler 43 Jill Rafson 44 Jacqueline Goldfinger 45 Truth or Laughs 46 Killer Kimchi presents Jewish Tales 47 Baba Yana’s Mindfulness and Guilt Healing Meditation 48 The Last Cyclist (Excerpt) 49 Ballad of the Triangle Fire / Bread and Roses 50 Rebecca Taichman 51 Jeremy Aluma 52 Virtual Conference Script Reading Team 53 Semi-Finalists 54 4 Day One Schedule – Sunday October 25 EVENT 1 — Opening Discussion and Q&A Who: Mara Isaacs, Producer of Tony-Award Winning Hadestown Moderator: Debórah Eliezer, Artistic Director of foolsFURY Theater Land Acknowledgement: Seraph-Eden Boroditsky, Artist and Founder of Guided Conversations Canada When: Sunday, October 25, 12pm – 1:30pm Eastern Time (9am – 10:30am Pacific Time) Description: A moderated discussion about the future of our industry, the power of theatre in this moment, the influence of Jewishness on Mara’s own work, and more. A question and answer period with attendees will follow. This event will open the conference. EVENT 2 — AJT’s Anti-Racism Training Session 3 Who: Lindsey Newman, Director of Community Engagement from Be’chol Lashon When: Sunday, October 25, 3pm – 4:30pm Eastern Time (12pm – 1:30pm Pacific Time) Description: In the third part of this series facilitated by Lindsey Newman, we will set about the task of learning, reflection and taking action. Together we will learn how Jewish wisdom and values can help us build a multiracial community rooted in racial justice; better understand the racial paradigm of the United States and how we (as Jews) fit within.Alse we will reflect on how implicit bias and behaviors create barriers to cultural competence.These workshops are interactive and seek to provide a space for open and honest conversation, while prioritizing the development of tools for Jewish theatres and artists to become anti-racist practitioners. This session will focus on building arts tools for Jewish Theatres and Artists to help become anti-racist practitioners and think about art through a racial equity lens. EVENT 3 — Affinity Group “Regional” Networking Event Who: Network and connect with other artists from your region When: Sunday, October 25, 6pm – 7pm Eastern Time (3pm – 4pm Pacific Time) Description: The first of two networking events, this will provide the opportunity to meet and network with other artists from your area (NYC, East Coast, Midwest, The South, Canada, Israel, Europe, West Coast, other). We’ll offer some get to know you prompts (name, role, pronouns, city, favorite show, favorite Jewish show) and then let you connect on your own. This event will lead right into our first selection of performances. EVENT 4 — AJT Performance Event 1 Who: A selection of performance projects chosen by AJT. When: Sunday, October 25, 7pm – 8:30pm Eastern Time (4pm – 5:30pm Pacific Time) Stories of Jewish Holidays from La Caja Negra in Uruguay The Great Escape with Susanne Gottfried Bubble Schmeisis (excerpt), written by Nick Cassenbaum BJW (excerpt), written by Adena Walker and Erin Murray Quinlan Imagining Heschel (excerpt), written by Colin Greer 5 Mara Isaacs Mara Isaacs is a Tony® and Grammy® Award winning producer and founder of Octopus Theatricals, an independent production company dedicated to fostering an expansive range of compelling theatrical works for local, national and international audiences. She has produced over 150 productions that have been seen on Broadway (Hadestown, The Inheritance, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Translations, Anna in the Tropics, Electra), off-Broadway (Hadestown, Fiasco Theater’s Into The Woods, The Brother/Sister Plays, Crowns, The Laramie Project), at theaters and performing arts centers around the US and the world (UK, Europe, Asia, Middle East, South America, South Africa, Canada). In 2019, she co-founded Sing It Again Records, winning a Grammy award with their first release, the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Hadestown. Current projects include Social! A Social Distance Dance Club (created by David Byrne, Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones); Theatre For One; Dreaming Zenzile by Somi Kakoma; Iphigenia by Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding; and An Iliad starring Denis O’Hare. Mara is proud to produce the work of Phantom Limb Company, Song of the Goat Theatre and more, and serves as Artistic Advisor to Fiasco Hadestown, by Anais Mitchell Theater. Directed by Rachel Chavkin Photo: Matthew Murphy She served as Producing Director at McCarter Theater Center in Princeton, NJ for 18 seasons and previously produced new play development programs and productions for Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. She teaches at Cal Arts and Princeton University. www.octopustheatricals.com Q&A with Mara Isaacs Falling Out, by Chrstine Jones Phantom Limb Company Pronouns: She/Her/Hers Photo: Richard Termine Website: octopustheatricals.com Current City: Princeton, NJ Artistic Role: Producer Theatre Affiliations: Founder & Executive/Creative Producer Octopus Theatricals First Theater You Remember Seeing: I don’t remember ever NOT seeing theater Favorite Jewish Food: Theatre for One Noodle Kugl Cork Festival, Ireland Photo: Clare Keogh First Thing You’ll Do Post-Pandemic: Hug everyone I know 6 Debórah Eliezer Debórah Eliezer, (she/hers) is the Artistic Director of foolsFURY Theater, an Associate Artist with Golden Thread, an artEquity Arts Facilitator Alum and serves on the national MENATMA (Middle East North African Alliance of Theater Makers) Steering Committee. Passionate about the power of community, her work focuses on disrupting assumptions about the relationship of art, human values and society. Eliezer has created many world premiers as an actor, choreographer, writer, director. A professional voiceover, you can hear her voice in hundreds of commercials, Sims and other video games. Q&A with Debórah Eliezer Pronouns: She/Her Website: foolsfury.org Current City: Unceded land of the Southern Pomo, aka Healdsburg, CA Artistic Role: Theater Maker, Cultural Activist Theatre Affiliations: Artistic Director, foolsFURY Theater Resident Artist, Golden Thread First Theater You Remember Seeing: The King and I original casting touring company in San Francisco at age 5 Favorite Jewish Food: Baba Ganoush First Thing You’ll Do Post-Pandemic: Hug my friends 7 Seraph-Eden Boroditsky Seraph-Eden Boroditsky is a Winnipeg-based arts administrator, Métis dancer and cultural educator, choreographer, consultant, and internationally selling multidisciplinary artist of Red River Métis and Ashkenazi descent. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Native Studies and Sociology from the University of Manitoba. In 2018 she created “Guided Conversations Towards Reconciliation, Anti- Oppression, and Social Justice Strategies” and has recently founded Guided Conversations Canada through which to continue delivering anti-racism education in theatre and other industries to decolonize ways of thinking and professional practices. As a committed teacher and coach, she has also developed youth workshops which illustrate lessons in equity through Métis folkdance. Seraph’s career in social justice, visual arts, theatre production, and arts administration came from a diverse path - 20 years in community organizing and activism as well as cultural preservation through traditional folkdance and art, and a love for theatre. Seraph was named the first recipient of the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Indigenous Arts Leaders Fellowship (2018) and spent an immersive year at Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre being mentored in theatre administration and production. Royal MTC was the catalyst for “Guided Conversations”, first created and delivered in the theatre. In the same year Seraph was chosen to participate in the Cultural Human Resources Council of Canada’s Talent 2 Lead program where she mentored under theatre artist Reneltta Arluk, Director of Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. After, Seraph was the Education and Tour Coordinator with Prairie Theatre Exchange until the position was eliminated due to Covid-19. As a professional dancer, Seraph has spent time teaching, and has performed at numerous community and official events in Canada and the American Midwest and international festivals. As a visual artist Seraph’s work has been shown in numerous exhibitions and online publications. She is represented by Framing and Art Centre in Winnipeg.