LABA Announces Upcoming Presentations as Part of OPEN: The New Jewish Theater Residency

Becky Skoff, Manager and Ronit Muszkatblit, Artistic Director of LABA: The National Laboratory for New Jewish Culture at the 14th Street Y (344 East 14th Street) and David Winitsky, Artistic Director of the Jewish Plays Project, will present the upcoming four projects in OPEN: The New Jewish Theater Residency at the 14th Street Y. Selections from these four shows will be performed on June 28th, June 30th and July 1st. Tickets are $18 and are available for purchase at www.jewishplaysproject.org.

The four shows that will be presented are:

SALT OF THE EARTH directed by Zvi Sahar

THE GOLEMS OF GOTHAM co-adapted and co-directed by Sherry Teitelbaum and Fran Sperling

KLAUZAL SQUARE by Sarah Gancher

MAHALLA directed by Melissa Moschitto

The fifth project - SIX by Zohar Tirosh-Polk – that was chosen to perform for OPEN just had its run from June 23rd to June 25th at the 14th Street Y. SIX was presented by LABA, The Jewish Plays Project and Highbrow.

OPEN, a unique partnership between a major cross-cultural Jewish center and an innovative young arts venture, has been providing space and significant resources to five teams of artists, including four days of study, three weeks of rehearsal, and six workshop presentations open to the public between June 23 and July 1.

Salt of the Earth is presented by LABA Fellow Zvi Sahar. The Golems of Gotham, Klauzal Square and Mahalla were selected from a field of twenty-five submissions by an artistic panel of 8 emerging New York actors, writers and directors working alongside a community panel of 12 active New York City residents. The artists rated scripts on their aesthetic merit and production readiness, while the community members judged the importance of the subject matter to the Jewish community both at home and abroad.

David Winitsky said: “Our residents are a thrilling group of downtown theater artists, selected from an astounding field, and prove the central proposition of both LABA and the JPP – Jewish culture is bursting with astounding new ideas that will resonate with a broad audience of young culture-makers. This is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Ronit Muszkatblit said: "We are very excited to host the JPP residency here as part of LABA. It enables us to expand our vision and community through diverse contemporary theater with a Jewish insight, and to help the amazing JPP artists root their art in the study of ancient Hebrew texts. We are looking forward to experiencing these productions."