Six Finalists Announced for the 2023 Jewish Playwriting Contest

The Jewish Plays Project has announced the six finalists for the 2023 Jewish Playwriting Contest, the JPP's 12th annual competition celebrating the best in contemporary Jewish playwriting, with the hopes of seeing these plays find world premier productions.

"Over the last three years, the JPP's selection process has become a radical experiment in artistic democracy and collective decision making,' said Artistic Director David Winitsky. "We believe in the assembled wisdom of our readers, and these six extraordinary plays and playwrights are the fruit of their labor."

Contest Dramaturg Heather Helinsky led the JPP's twelfth selection process. A professional dramaturg whose credits include current Literary Manager of Playwrights Foundation, Great Plains Theatre Conference, board member for LMDA, and a teaching artist for the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival. Helinsky helmed a team of more than 80 artist panelists who invested a combined 1,700 hours reading, reviewing ,and discussing these plays.

The six finalists are:

BIRDIE AND CAIT AND THE BOOK OF LIFE by Audrey Lang (New York, NY)

When Birdie's mother dies, she embarks on a quest to find the Book of Life. But can she pull off her miracle by Yom Kippur?

MISAPPROPRIATION by Ron Elisha (Melbourne, Australia)

Should Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, accept a $1 billion donation from an unknown American donor - named Emmett Tillson - in exchange for expanding its mandate to all genocides?

RETURN (TESHUVAH) by Beth Kander (Arlington Heights, IL)

Faye is back from the dead, so now everything's fine, right? (Nope.) Superstition and science intertwine as a family wrestles with what "return" matters most.

VIENNA, VIENNA, VIENNA by Carey Perloff (San Francisco, CA)

Three generations of Jewish women compete for attention, reckon with the past, struggle with their futures, and eat cake, as the eldest - once a wartime refugee - returns to Vienna to accept an award.

ZIONISTA RISING by Alexa Derman (Providence, RI)

Two interns at a Jewish publication struggle with their latest assignment: rebranding Zionism as progressive, #girlboss, and Gen Z via Instagram. A playwright struggles, too.

UN HOMBRE: A GOLEM STORY by Stephen Kaplan (Bogota, NJ)

A modern-day golem story about a widowed mother, who makes a living-clay man that serves as her 12-year-old son's Bar Mitzvah and Spanish tutor.

The JPP will hold regional contests in Chicago, Hartford, Houston, Charlotte, Los Angeles, and Silicon Valley, culminating in a national contest in New York in June. More than 1,000 people will contribute to choosing the ultimate 2023 winner, in a unique process that provides one-of-a-kind feedback to playwrights and invaluable audience response to prospective producers.

Additionally, the JPP has named 19 semi-finalists:

A Pound Of Flesh by Charlotte Cohn And Jason Odell Williams
Chocolate Marmite Cake by Magali Jeger
God Is Missing: Bigtan And Teresh Are Dead by Michal Richardson
In Her Bones by Jessica Kahkoska
Jewdog by Philip Kenner
L'dor V'dor, Part II: Ruach by Lojo Simon
Observant by Pamela Weiler Grayson
Olga's Strike by Abigail Henkin
Paper Listens by Kwik Jones
Plague Play by Erin Proctor
Public Servants by Peter Ullian
Screech Owl by Madison Fiedler
Tamar (The Two-Gated City) by Emma Goldman-Sherman
The Reservoir by Jake Brasch
The Tenth Voyage Of Capitano Giangurgolo Coccodrillo Fanfarone Matamoros Spavento by Ian Thal
The True Chronicles Of Ben-Zion Palachi, The Rabbi Pirate by Eric Marlin
These & Those by Ruth Geye
Through The Words Of The Mother by Jessie Atkin
Zeph & Violet: A Race Romance by Krystle Adams

The JPP awarded an Honorable Mention to an additional seven plays. Find full information on all of the plays - including writer or agent contact information - at the JPP's website: www.jewishplaysproject.org. Interested producers, agents, and literary managers can email plays@jewishplaysproject.org.

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 English-speaking world. The Contest has received and vetted over 1,850 plays by 1,200 writers in 32 states and 9 countries. The JPP has actively developed 55 of those plays, 35 of which have gone on to production in cities across the globe, including New York, Los Angeles, London, and Tel Aviv, playing for more than 100,000 audience members.

About The Jewish Plays Project

The Jewish Plays Project, founded in 2011, identifies, develops, and presents new works of theater via one-of-a-kind explorations of contemporary Jewish identity between audiences, artists, and patrons. The JPP's innovative and competitive development process engages Jewish communities in the vetting, selecting, and championing of new voices and secures mainstream production opportunities for the best new 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 Lauren Yee (Cambodian Rock Band); directors Marc Bruni (Beautiful), Daniella Topol (Artistic Director, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre), and Tamilla Woodard (WP Theater, 3LD); and actors Andrew Polk (The Band's Visit), Ronald Guttman (Mad Men, Homeland), Kirrilee Berger (Amazon's Just Add Magic), and Obie and Drama Desk nominee Marcia Jean Kurtz.