A KREUZTER SONATA Plays A Special Event In Babylon, Long Island

Playwright Larry Rinkel's latest production of his well-received play, A Kreutzer Sonata, is being presented by Modern Classics Theatre of Long Island this weekend as a limited engagement, special-event running through Sunday evening at Bacca (BABYLON CITIZENS COUNCIL ON THE ARTS).

A Kreutzer Sonata, Directed by Tim Oriana, is the fictional story of David Lindenbaum, a freshman Jewish piano major, who finds himself in a conflicted relationship with Elena Gorecki, the beautiful but volatile Italian-American violinist with whom he has been chosen to perform Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata and who is unwilling to take his religious beliefs seriously. Along the way he must also deal with a lovable but crass roommate, his no-nonsense piano teacher, his doctrinaire mother, and his apparently cold and distant father. Can this Orthodox Jewish student find a way to survive in the modern secular world?

Mr. Rinkel describes his play as a story about music, religion, and love, a coming of age tale about faith. A shorter version of the play debuted in 2017 at The Manhattan Repertory Theatre, and later that same year at The Secret Theatre's UNFringed Festival in Long Island City in August, receiving some very positive feedback while in development and earlier incarnations.

Fellow playwright Doug DeVita described it is as "so relatable to anyone who has ever had to grow from the safety of one's upbringing into the world at large in order to realize one's dreams." Another review described it as "A fantastic experience for me as a playwright as well as an American Jew. The world created is rich." (Yaakov Bressler).

The play grabbed the attention of Long Island's Modern Classics Theatre Company's Jim Black in Lindenhurst and was squeezed into their schedule with a limited engagement that previewed Thursday, December 12, and will run Saturday, December 14, and Sunday, December 15 at the Bacca Center for the arts on Wellwood Avenue, just prior to the holidays. This time it is directed by Tim Oriani, who played the lead (David Lindenbaum) in Rinkel's play in an earlier production.

"The central question (of the play) is what it means to be a religious person in a largely secular society," says Mr. Rinkel... "so that the play can be understood as a uniquely positive exploration of the challenges facing a religious person."

The production runs only December 14 and 15 (Saturday at 8PM, and Sunday at 2:30PM & 7PM) at BABYLON CITIZENS COUNCIL ON THE ARTS (BACCA) 149 North Wellwood Avenue, Lindenhurst, NY 11757

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The production features:

Will Ketter playing David Lindenbaum
Kasia Walczak playing Elena
Isaac J. Conner playing Avram Lindenbaum
Melinda Graham playing Rebekah Lindenbaum and Carolyn
Gabe Calleja playing Terry Michaels
Rosemary Kurtz playing Professor Tomansky