On Wednesday, January 25 at 7 p.m., the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will present the New York premiere of The Chosen, a staged reading of the play based on the 1967 novel by Chaim Potok.
Set in 1940s Brooklyn, The Chosen tells the story of an unlikely friendship between two young Jewish men—one, the son of an influential Hasidic spiritual leader, the other, the son of a renowned Zionist professor. The staged version of the beloved coming-of-age novel has been praised by the Washington Post for its “exceptional intelligence and sensitivity.”
The up-and-coming Jonathan Solari, whose recent street theater project The Love Letter You Have Been Meaning to Write New York, will direct the accomplished cast featuring Andrew Keltz (Danny Saunders), Andrew Boyer (David Malter), Max Ruben (Young Reuven), Adam Heller (Reb Saunders), and Matt Carr (Reuven Malter and others).
A Q&A with the director will follow the performance.
Solari said, “Our narrator tells us ‘while the war raged in Europe, Europe raged in Brooklyn.’ The Chosen is inherently about New York and it seems only right that it is the Museum of Jewish Heritage that will finally bring this play to New York audiences for the first time. My intention is to give our audience an evening that will remind those who have loved The Chosen why they were so moved when introduced to it, while opening the eyes of a new audience to this powerful and timeless story.”
Tickets are $15, $12 students/seniors, and $10 for members. Tickets are available online at www.mjhnyc.org or by calling the Museum box office at 646.437.4202.
About the Play
Adapted by Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok from Potok’s novel, the play premiered in 1999, but has yet to be seen in New York. It was last seen at Theater J in Washington, D.C. in March 2011.
The play follows two 15-year-old boys who live a few blocks apart in Williamsburg in 1944 in very separate Orthodox communities. The boys are on opposing baseball teams and when one of the boys injures the other during the baseball game, they are thrown together into a tense situation.
Solari says, “The development of the young men’s friendship and their relationships with their fathers serve as the perfect foundation to investigate and discuss the larger issues of Jewish Americans in the explosive time of the 1940s.”
Posner said, “I have been directing and adapting literature for more than 20 years now, and there is no story I’ve ever been part of telling that I feel more strongly about than The Chosen. It is a story about learning, and growing, about family and friendship, and finally, about compassion, understanding, and acceptance. Although it is a very Jewish story, its ideas and humanity truly transcend all borders.”
About the Director and Cast
Jonathan Solari is a theater, opera, and film director based in New York City. Jonathan has previously directed Kesav Wable’s For Flow, Howard Barker’s Judith, a segment in Peculiar Works Project’s OBIE-winning East Village Fragments, and both the theatrical and film debuts of The Lion and the Bull. His opera credits include the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Green Sneakers for Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, as well as revivals of The Turn of the Screw and The Beggar’s Opera for Maestro Lorin Maazel’s Castelton Festival. Jonathan has directed internationally with Prague Playhouse and the revolutionary Belarus Free Theatre and has worked extensively on and off Broadway as an assistant director to Daniel Sullivan, Bartlett Sher, Jo Bonney, and Fabrizio Melano.
