Jewish Women's Theatre To Highlight Jewish Theater In America Via Zoom

The lights of the old Yiddish theater have dimmed, but Jewish theater is alive and well in America today. What makes a play Jewish? What are the new Jewish playwrights and directors saying, and to whom are they speaking?

These questions and so many more will be answered when Jewish Women's Theatre (JWT) presents Fierce, Funny, and Fabulously Alive: Jewish Theater in America at a special Sunday Morning at The Braid event on July 12 at 11 a.m. PDT. The Zoom event, featuring Adam Immerwahr, Artistic Director of Theatre J in Washington, D.C., and playwright Alix Sobler will be moderated by author Lisa Rosenbaum.

The digital edition of JWT's popular Sunday Morning at The Braid is free, but JWT hopes viewers will consider choosing a virtual ticket from its website. Registrants will be directed to Zoom, and instructions for joining the program will be provided. For more information and the link to register, visit: www.jewishwomenstheatre.org/zoom.

"As a beloved Jewish theater on the West Coast, it makes great sense for us to introduce our audience to the foremost Jewish theater on the East Coast," says JWT's artistic director. Ronda Spinak. "We are both committed to bringing the best in new American Jewish Theater to our audience, so it will be a treat to share this esteemed colleague with our viewers."

Theater J in Washington, D.C., is described by The New York Times as "The Premier Theater for Premieres...offering professional polish, thoughtful dramaturgy and nervy experimentation," and by Hadassah Magazine as "one of the most successful and avant-garde" of contemporary American Jewish theaters. The company is also known for its record of presenting new works and developing shows that go on to productions across the country, and for artists who make an impact on the theatrical world.

Artistic Director Adam Immerwahr joined the theater in 2015. Under his leadership, Theater J has striven to present a wide variety of recognizable, underexplored, and brand-new works from the Jewish theatrical cannon, including great works from the Yiddish theater as well as non-Jewish works that investigate diverse stories about immigrants, language, assimilation, genocide, religion, otherness, and other topics that resonate with diverse communities.

Immerwahr will be appearing on JWT's Zoom program with emerging playwright Alix Sobler. Her play, Sheltered, is a suspenseful tale of a couple's 1939 journey to save Jewish children's lives on the eve of World War II. Sobler has been described as not only a Jewish-American playwright to watch, but an exciting new voice in the theater. "If you write a play about now," she says of writing historical subjects, "people already have an opinion, and they say, 'I know what I believe. Let's see if you can change my mind.' If that same person is viewing a story in the past, they don't automatically know all the arguments, so they're more likely to listen."

Sheltered was one of the last plays seen at Theater J this year before a heartbroken Immerwahr had to close the theater in March due to the expanding coronavirus pandemic.

"I am truly looking forward to hearing what these two remarkable people have to say about Jewish theater at this moment in history-who it speaks to and why," Rosenbaum says. "I have no doubt they will be uplifting and provocative in the best way."

Visit www.jewishwomenstheatre.org to register for this free Zoom event. Registrants will be directed to Zoom, and instructions for joining the program will be provided.

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