Full Casting Announced For Howard Shalwitz-helmed Reading Of Ali Viterbi's IN EVERY GENERATION

The Jewish Plays Project (David Winitsky, Artistic Director) and Casting Director Judy Bowman, CSA are proud to announce the full casting for In Every Generation by Ali Viterbi, the Winner of the 2019 National Jewish Playwriting Contest.

Director Howard Shalwitz, a noted new play expert and the founder of Washington, D.C.'s Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, will lead a reading with a cast that includes Cherry Lane Artistic Director Angelina Fiordellisi (Zorba, When a Man Loves a Woman, Star Trek, The Next Generation), Bob Adrian (Spider Man: Homecoming, Conversations with My Father, BBC's Moby Dick), Stephanie Kuo (June Is The First Fall - New Ohio), Rachel Caplan (The Wolves, Boeing Boeing), and Geraldine Librandi (Handle with Care - Westside, The Sopranos).

The special reading will be held at the Theater at the 14th Street Y on Wednesday, September 4th, 2019 at 7:30 pm. Tickets can be reserved at jewishplaysproject.eventbrite.com, with a suggested donation of $10.

In Every Generation tells the story of the Italian-Jewish Levi-Katz family as they celebrate the Passover Seder - over four millennia. Over matzah ball soup and (vegan) brisket, questions of race and religion force us to ask: must we define ourselves through trauma? Will we ever be free? And why is this night REALLY different from all other nights?

"Ali's play takes a highly original approach to celebrate the continuity of Jewish tradition in the face of persecution and anti-Semitism", said Mr. Shalwitz. "Looking both backward and forward in time, Ms. Viterbi presents not only a very human family saga, but also a timely warning about the choices that American Jews face in the present moment."

In addition, the JPP will present readings of Finalist Megan Pope's Dox Modern Middle, in which a queer Modern Orthodox girl's disapproving parents out her and send her to Israel to heal,. There she meets a group of Israeli and Arab drag queens who show her another way. Those readings are Thursday & Friday September 5th and 6th, and are directed by Outer Circle Critics Nominee Aaron Simon Gross.

The JPP chose Ms. Viterbi's play through its signature community-centered process, which combined the efforts of over 1,000 people in 7 cities - artists in New York, clergy and Jewish lay leaders, and theater-savvy audiences - a unique effort that provides one-of-kind feedback to playwrights and invaluable audience response to prospective producers.

"This was our closest Contest yet - three plays were tied for the lead, and Ali just edged out a 1-point victory," said Mr. Winitsky. "But Ali is a writer to watch, and tons of people already love this play. You should get out to see our reading before it gets its world premiere."

"At a moment when so many are contemplating Jewish identity and thinking deeply about global citizenship and what it takes to be a community - we are thrilled to highlight this slate of highly original, theatrically vibrant plays" said Artistic Director David Winitsky. "These writers are giving us work that is nourishing, vital and real in ways that are meaningful to not just Jews, but all Americans."

Ali Viterbi is a playwright, television writer, and educator from San Diego. Her plays have been developed, produced, or commissioned by The Kennedy Center/National New Play Network, Round House Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, HERE Arts Center, The Drama League, Jewish Plays Project, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, The Barrow Group, Owl and Cat Theatre in Australia, North Coast Repertory Theatre, Horizon Theater Company, Vermont Studio Center, Wildacres Residency, Yale College, and The Centropa Institute. Her play Period Sisters was a Finalist for the 2018 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. Ali is the associate producer of the annual Lipinsky San Diego Jewish Arts Festival, and she teaches undergraduate playwriting at UC San Diego. She graduated from Yale, receiving their top playwriting prize, and is currently a third-year MFA candidate at UC San Diego, where she studies with Naomi Iizuka.

Howard Shalwitz co-founded Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC in 1980, and guided the company as Artistic Director for 38 seasons. Under his leadership, Woolly grew from a tiny "alternative theatre" into one of the nation's most influential producers of provocative new plays. Howard has directed new works by Clare Barron, Jason Grote, Sheila Callaghan, Aaron Posner, Doug Wright, Amy Freed, Regina Porter, Nicky Silver, and other path-breaking American writers, at theatres including New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Arena Stage, Portland Center Stage, Milwaukee Rep, as well as Woolly Mammoth. He is a recipient of the Margo Jones Award for lifetime commitment to new American plays (2014) and a Distinguished Finalist for SSDC's Zelda Fichandler Award for outstanding regional director (2011).

ABOUT THE JEWISH PLAYWRITING CONTEST

The Jewish Playwriting Contest seeks to discover, highlight, and nurture contemporary Jewish drama by engaging with artistic and Jewish communities throughout the United States. Since 2011, the Contest has received and vetted 1,282 plays by 920 writers in 32 states and 9 countries. We have actively developed 49 of those plays, 27 of which have gone on to production in cities across the globe, including New York, London, and Tel Aviv , playing for more than 20,000 audience members.

ABOUT THE JEWISH PLAYS PROJECT:

The Jewish Plays Project puts bold, progressive Jewish conversations on world stages. The JPP's innovative and competitive development process invests emerging artists in their Jewish identity; engages Jewish communities in the vetting, selecting and championing of new voices; and secures mainstream production opportunities for the best new plays. The JPP's signature method is Jewish Dramaturgy: matching the best minds in the Jewish community with the best 21st- Century Jewish plays.

The JPP has featured some of the best artists working in New York , including writers David Hein and Irene Sankoff (Come from Away), Robert Askins (Hand to God), and Brooke Berman (Hunting and Gathering); directors Marc Bruni (Beautiful), Daniella Topol (Rattlestick Theater AD),, and TamillaWoodard (Classical Theatre of Harlem, 3LD); and actors Andrew Polk (The Band's Visit), Hani Furstenberg (The Loneliest Planet with Gael Garcia Bernard), Ronald Guttman (Mad Men, Homeland), Kirrilee Berger (Amazon's Just Add Magic), and Obie and Drama Desk nominee Marcia Jean Kurtz.