The Wandering Jewish Theater

 Artistic Director

 B r e n d a   S h o s h a n n a  

"Everyone is the temple

of the living G-d."

444 East 82 Street, Apt. 35 B, NY, NY 10028

(212) 288-0028

Fax (212) 288-0029

topspeaker@yahoo.com  

Member American Jewish Theater

          The Wandering Jewish Theater is coming to a location near you, bringing plays which explore the Jewish experience and what it means to be a Jew.

            The plays will be dedicated to looking at the spiritual as well as cultural and traditional aspects of Jewish life. Over the years it has become easy to forget what is asked of the Jewish people, and the ways in which we can reply. By remembering together, new possibilities will come alive.  

                We also hope to bring deeper understanding, acceptance and appreciation among all the religions.

            The first play being offered is Where Prayers Come True, a one woman show, written and performed by Brenda Shoshanna and directed by Charles Carshan. The play was developed with the aid of Edward M. Cohen who worked on it as a dramaturg.

Where Prayers Come True 

            Humorous, lively, one-woman play depicts a modern woman’s struggle between contemporary society and her yearning to return to her Jewish roots.  Play is set on upper East Side in Manhattan in modern days, in a small, hidden, orthodox synagogue on a side street, and back in the 40s in Boro Park, Brooklyn among the Hasidim.

 We watch Rivkah travel back and forth between these eras and places of her life, trying to understand what happened to her and to the Jewish people. She searches for where she belongs, and where God can truly be found.

 We see all of Rivkah’s relationships, with her parents, grandparents, non-Jewish husband, grown children, and most startlingly with the incredible congregation and Rabbi she finds in this ancient synagogue. The plays struggles with the question of what it means to truly return to God.

            This play was finalist in Dorothy Silver Playwriting Contest and The Streisand Festival.

Biographies:

            Brenda Shoshanna, author and performer is an award winning playwright, former playwright in residence at The Jewish Repertory Theater in New York. She has been produced widely and is winner of Chilcote Award, Writer’s Digest Award, and was finalist in Dorothy Silver Playwriting Contest, the Streisand Festival and Arnold Weissberger Award. She presently resides in Manhattan. http://www.brendashoshanna.com/playwright

           Charles Carshan, director, formerly head of theater department at Sarah Lawrence College.  

          Michael Braudy, violinist. Michael Braudy is an experienced violinist in Western and Indian music and a versatile improviser who collaborates with poets and storytellers, theatre, dance and mime. He gives workshops on sound and meditation, and has made recordings of Celtic music and Indian ragas for health. http://www.michaelbraudy.com

              Ed M. Cohen, former associate director of The Jewish Repertory Theater in New York. Directed many plays and is author of  Working On A New Play.  

OTHER PLAYS COMING AND AVAILABLE

Jakeys Incredible Family Reunion

Brenda Shoshanna

 Jakey’s Incredible Family Reunion is a comic, burlesque drama that takes place on the lower East Side in the 1940’s during the depression. It is set in the small insurance office of Schwerz and Glipstein (Manny and Jakey), two older men, partners for years, who suddenly  start receiving crank phone calls demanding that Jakey write an opera and put it in. Jakey, the practical partner, who believes the world is out to get him anyway, refuses to pay attention to this crazy request.

 As the calls come more and more frequently, Manny and Jakey face both the loss of their business and sanity. Soon both Manny, and Vivien, the overly devoted secretary, beg Jakey to succumb. “What’s in me to write an opera about?” cries Jakey. “Write it and see,” Manny demands.

 In the course of writing this opera, Jakey is forced to face all that he has hidden from, including the love of Vivien, and what happened in his crazy, estranged family. As the play proceeds, miraculous events finally take place until finally Jakey realizes who these callers are and what they really want from him.

 The play has both real and surrealistic elements. Slides of scenes from the forties are intermittently shown in the background connecting the events in Jakey and Manny’s lives with what is going on in the outside world.  

Play had a staged reading at Jewish Repertory Theater,Ensemble Studio Theater, and Neighborhood Playhouse Professional Workshop.

Messiah

Brenda Shoshanna

MESSIAH takes place in the home of a Hasidic Rabbi in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where homeless people and beggars have come to the neighborhood, bringing a sense of unpredictability and danger.  As the play opens, not only the Rabbi, but the entire community are eagerly awaiting and expecting the coming of Messiah any day now.

We meet the Rabbi’s family, including the Mother, who is recovering from a high fever, the brother Yankel, who will not leave home, but stays all day praying, Hy, the renegade brother with odd views and Shayna the lively daughter who desperately tries to understand what God truly wants from them.

 Suddenly, in the midst of a Sabbath meal, Fendelson, the vegetable store owner, bursts into the living room bringing sudden news from Israel that top Rabbis there believe the Messiah has arrived.  We see the entire family and community react to this fantastic news. Filled with jubilation, everyone starts packing to leave for Israel except for Shayna and Hy.

  As the play progresses and more startling events take place we watch the characters and their dreams unfold.  Finally, at the end, in a total quandry, Shayna's life turns around when a homeless man comes to the door, begging for food and she lets him in. This play deals with the question of how we bring Messiah and where He may be now.

This play, directed by Edward M. Cohen, former associate director of The Jewish Repertory Theater was workshopped at Ensemble Studio Theater and Jewish Repertory Theater where it was wonderfully received.

The Idol Worshipper

Brenda Shoshanna

The Idol Worshipper is about a mother, raised in a religious family who has totally assimilated. Now single, she is raising three sons alone, one of whom is thought to be retarded. The play opens at the airport, where she and her other sons are waiting to greet the brother who has spent a few months in Israel. As they watch the passengers arrive through the gate he is nowhere to be found. Suddenly a young Hassid comes over and to everyone’s amazement it is him.

We watch how this young, newly religious son effects the entire family and how, despite all rational understanding, the  younger brother is mysteriously healed.  

LINKS

Click Here To Email Me at topspeaker@yahoo.com

Click Here To Visit My Other Site Brenda Shoshanna - (www.brendashoshanna.com)

Click Here To Go To Page On Workshops Offered By The Theater   

Click Here To Go To Articles on Jewish Theater