AJT's Days of Creation: Highlights from the 2009 Conference

Seventy to eighty Jewish theatre practitioners from all over the world representing approximately 40 theatres -- from as far away as Budapest, Israel, Canada to all over the United States at the conference.

The Theatre Festival by UTC#61 Edward Einhorn, Artistic Director, featuring 18 plays from Jewish text-based midrashic drama, to solo shows (also with young and emerging artists), to Israeli theatre, ontological-hysterical Jewish theatre, comedies, solo performances and more at Theatre 3/Mint Theatre on 8th and 44th Streets near Times Sq with audiences totaling over 5,000 people and lasting three weeks.

Major keynote speakers: Israel Horovitz international playwright and screenwriter, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Donald Margulies with an introduction by theatre scholar Ellen Schiff, and emerging young playwright Itamar Moses.

AJT playwrights had a showcase of member playwright short-works at the Marymount Manhattan College Theatre. (*SEE BELOW FOR PLAYWRIGHTS AND THEIR CONTACT INFO)

A multicultural Jewish theatre panel with Adam McKinney from DNA Works Dance Theatre - an African-American Jew; Mia Katigback a Filipino Jew and founding member of the National Asian American Theatre Company (starring in Jewish-Chinese play Leah’s Train by Karen Hartman and American Korean play American Hwangup at the Ma-Yi Theatre); Stacie Chaiken from Los Angeles and founder of What’s the Story?; moderated by David Chack, AJT president, and founder of ShPIeL a multicultural theatre and performance incubator based in Chicago.

Judith Malina from the monumentally groundbreaking and social justice theatre the Living Theatre sat with David Herskovits (Artistic Director of Obie Award winning experimental theatre Target Margin Theater), Yoni Oppenheim (theatre director/dramaturg specializing in Jewish, Israeli, & Arab theatre and Ibsen), and Andy Horwitz, moderator, from the Foundation for Jewish Culture.

Comedy playwriting legend Murray Schisgal (Luv, Jimmy Shine, Tootsie - film with Larry Gelbart, The Love Song of Barney Kempinski, and many more) Jeffrey Sweet (playwright, theatre historian, journalist), Broadway producer Amanda Lipitz (Legally Blonde, The Search Elle Woods) and Rachel Shukert (writer, playwright, performer Have You No Shame and Other Regrettable Stories, Bloody Mary, and Johnny Applefucker), moderated by Rich Orloff, AJT member playwright (HA!, Incredible Sex, Judgement Day)

Solo performers included: Ray Jessel a life-long TV & Musical Theatre writer and producer; Diane Flacks Toronto-based writer/performer for theatre, tv, radio and film; performed in New York at LaMama Theatre with her second solo show, By A Thread Stephen Axelrod "Blue Collar Bay" about a self-styled "Tough Jew" which ran off- Broadway at the Soho playhouse. International artist Noa Baum - Israeli storyteller, an actor with the Khan Theater of Jerusalem. Pal Bernstein a theater artist whose plays and performance works have been produced extensively in the U.S. and in Europe, about building repeatable, yet open-ended performance, recently returning from Hungary where he premiered VITA NUOVA HRABAL. Nicole Raphael, performing professionally in title roles like The Diary of Anne Frank and Romeo and Juliet and artistic director of The Mesaper Theatre. Steve Greenstein’s Voices from the Holy Land...And Not So Holy Land, a solo play about the hard realities in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. David Gale … Chutzpah à go-go, fresh from a successful run at the Minnesota Jewish Theater, Canadian Emmy winning writer/performer David Gale and his partner in rhyme Randy Vancourt perform highlights from their musical comedy revue celebrating and satirizing Yiddishkeit in small town America.


THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING SPONSORS: Marymount Manhattan College, 92Y Tribeca, New York University Tisch School of the Arts, the Museum of the City of New York, the Center for Jewish History, The Shapiro Fund, The Forward, The Village Voice, nytheatre.com, Jewish Week

FEATURED AJT PLAYWRIGHTS AT THE 2009 CONFERENCE: 

DISPLACED WEDDING
(Yiddish title: A Khaseneh in Fehrenwald)
BY H. LEIVICK
English translation by
ELLEN PERECMAN AND GERSHON PERECMAN
Ellen Perecman eperecman@nyc.rr.com
………………………………………………………………………………………………………

AN ANSWER TO THEIR PRAYERS 
BY HANK KIMMEL
hankkimmel@mindspring.com
............................................................................................................................................

THE GIRL ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE
BY HENRIK EGER
Eger@aol.com; www.henrikeger.com

THE GIRL ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE
BY HENRIK EGER
Eger@aol.com; www.henrikeger.com ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

A LIGHT TO THE NATIONS
BY NORMAN FEDDER
fedder@ksu.edu
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
THE JEW DOG
BY MICHAEL HARDSTARK
mikehardstark@hotmail.com
………………………………………………………………………………………………………

HENRIETTA SZOLD: WOMAN OF VALOR
BY JOANNE KOCH AND SARAH BLACHER COHEN
JKoch@nl.edu
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
A WOMAN OF VALOR
BY JUDITH ESTRINE
judithestrine@nyc.rr.com
……………………………………………………………………………………………………

PASS THE HORSERADISH
BY SUSAN SHAFER
sshafer@mindspring.com
………………………………………………………………………………………………………

MEESTER AMERIKA
BY JENNIFER BERMAN, ARTIE BRESSLER, AND MICHAEL COLBY
Michael Colby Ludlow29@aol.com
………………………………………………………………………………………………………

LONG BEACH '44: A DRAMATIC COMEDY
BY SIDRA RAUSCH
sidra.sings@comcast.net
………………………………………………………………………………………………………

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE JEWS
BY LAWRENCE GOODMAN
goodman.lawrence@gmail.com
………………………………………………………………………………………………………

SOME THINGS YOU KEEP
BY ALIX SOBLER
alix_sobler@yahoo.com
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
MATCHMAKERS
BY ROBERT M. BARR
robertmbarr@earthlink.net; www.actorbobbarr.com/Site/Home.html ……………………………………………………………………………………………………

MY MUSIC
BY HARVEY OSTROFF
heo@shaw.ca
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

THE WAY TO SUMMER
BY NADINE BERNARD
ndf3@cornell.edu
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

BESHARET
BY CHANA PORTER
chanaporter@gmail.com