FLATBUSH LYSISTRATA to Make Festival Debut at Marlene Meyerson JCC

The Jewish Plays Project will be coming home to the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan (Udi Urman, Director of the Lambert Center for the Arts) for a one-day festival on Sunday, October 11, 2026.

The packed day will include a virtual artist talk at 2 pm with Tony-winning playwright Jonathan Spector in conversation with Central Synagogue's Rabbi Angela Buchdal about his new off-Broadway hit BIRTHRIGHT, and at 6 pm the featured reading of 15th National Jewish Playwriting Contest Winner FLATBUSH LYSISTRATA written and directed by Lila Rachel Becker.

FREE tickets for both events can be reserved HERE.

The cast for FLATBUSH LYSISTRATA includes Madeline Weinstein (The Ally at the Public, Between the Temples with Carol Kane and Jason Schwartzman), Ino Badanjak (Julliard, Pretty Little Liars, The Pitt), Annie Meisels (Summer, 1976 at Wellfleet Harbour Actors Theater, Breaking the Code at Barrington Stage Co), and Lilli Stein (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). Casting is by Judy Bowman, C.S.A., and the festival is produced by Will Steinberger.

Mr. Spector's epic play lit up Miami New Drama at the World Premiere and exploded onto New York stages at MCC Theater. Tracing 6 friends for 18 years from their Birthright trip in their 20s until 2024, the play covers every major area of 21st Century Jewish life: faith, peoplehood, national identity, political division, and of course, Jewish mothers. The New York Times called it 'A thrillingly constructed drama' and the Wall Street Journal said it was 'an altogether extraordinary play.'

Ms. Becker's play is an example of life imitating art and then art imitating life. Structured in homage to the Greek play Lysistrata, it tells the true story of a group of Hasidic women in Williamsburg who, inspired by the same play, stage a mikveh strike in order to force their husbands to advocate for the release of the agunot - women trapped in failed marriages whose partners refuse to grant them a get or religious divorce. Again based on fact, these women meet in the most unlikely of places - an axe throwing parlor in Brooklyn called Axes And Os, where they work out their frustrations by tossing blades into the wood targets.

FLATBUSH LYSISTRATA won the 15th National Jewish Playwriting Contest through the JPP's signature Artistic Democracy process in which over 1,000 audience members spread across Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Boston, Houston, Chicago, Toronto, Hartford, Tel Aviv, Philadelphia and New York City combined efforts to choose the play from over 350 submissions from 32 states and 6 countries.

"It's rare that new plays get in front of audience members across the country before they've had a production, and that's what's so unique about JPP. It's immensely valuable to hear about a play's impact from not only the artists who engage with it, but also from theater lovers of all stripes who give their time and energy to the development of new work. I'm honored that Flatbush Lysistrata was in the company of such amazing finalists, and that our plays have traveled to so many cities already."
- Lila Rachel Becker

'These are critical days for Jews, for democracy and for the arts. At the JPP, we put our faith in Artistic Democracy and what it can accomplish in the world.' said Mr. Winitsky. 'Together with our amazing partners, we've advanced 9 new Jewish plays into 15 productions around the U.S. just in the last year alone - including THE RESERVOIR at the Atlantic here in New York. That impact is driven by your participation, and we can't wait to see you!'