Photo Flash: The Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis Presents My Name is Asher Lev

Born into a Hassidic Jewish family in post-World War II Brooklyn, Asher Lev is a prodigious young artist torn between his fiercely observant religious community and his desperate need to create. When his artistic genius threatens his relationship with his parents and insular community, he must confront the difficult choice between art and faith.

Asher's father views painting as foolishness at best, but more often as sacrilege. His mother is torn between her love for her husband and son, her commitment to her community, and her own personal calling. The play chronicles young Asher's coming-of-age as a boy and an artist amid his turbulent relationship with his father. A secular Jewish artist who becomes Asher's mentor warns him that art and Judaism are equally strong traditions and one cannot commit to both simultaneously. Ultimately, Asher must choose between them.
"The play is ultimately about the call each artistic person receives," says Bryan Fonseca, Phoenix Theatre Producing Director. "Whether you are a painter, a musician or a director, we each are called by our art. This play is about whether we answer that call and if we do, what sacrifices we are willing to make to remain true to an artistic vision. I am very blessed to have been able to work in theatre - my artistic calling - for my entire adult life. Not all individuals are that fortunate." Fonseca goes on to explain that for Asher Lev to accept his calling to paint, he must choose between his community and his art. The question is: Will Asher answer the call and embrace his art at the risk of alienating his community?

Directing My Name is Asher Lev is Martha Jacobs, who has worked on stage at the Phoenix in various productions, including portraying Sophie in last season's The Housewives of Mannheim and Sylvia in End Days. Jacobs' directing credits include Well, The Action Against Sol Schumann and The Washington-Sarajevo Talks at the Phoenix, Proof at Indiana University-Bloomington and Talley's Folly and The Cocktail Hour at the Edyvean Repertory Theatre. She has a BFA in acting from Carnegie-Mellon University and has been a visiting lecturer in acting at Indiana University - Bloomington for five years.

The cast includes John Michael Goodson as Asher Lev, Bill Simmons as Asher's father and other multiple male roles and Wendy Farber as Asher's mother and other female roles. In addition to Martha Jacobs as director, the production team includes Set Designer James Gross, Lighting Designer Laura Glover and Costume Designer Lori Raffel.

About the Playwright

Aaron Posner is a playwright and director who has directed at major regional theatres across the country including Seattle Rep, the Alliance, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, and many more. His produced adaptations include Who Am I This Time? by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., What Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, The Brothers K. by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace (with Scott Greer, Tony Lawton and Michael Hollinger). His adaptation, with Chaim Potok, of The Chosen won the 1999 Barrymore Award for Best New Play in Philadelphia and has now been produced by more than 40 professional theatres. His most recent adaptations include a musical adaptation of Mark Twain's A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage (with James Sugg), Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey (Portland Center Stage, spring 2008), and My Name is Asher Lev. He has won Barrymore Awards and Helen Hayes Awards for both playwriting and directing, and is an Eisenhower Fellow.

About the Author of My Name is Asher Lev

Chaim Potok (1929-2002) was born in the Bronx to Jewish immigrants from Poland. Potok's years in an Orthodox household and schooling through college stood in stark conflict with the world of literature and art that early captured his imagination. Later he found in Conservative Judaism, with its emphasis on historical evolution of Jewish texts, an intellectual home where his love of Judaism and of secular culture could dynamically interact. Upon ordination he served as a US Army chaplain serving 16 months in Korea in the mid-50s with combat medical and engineer battalions. In 1959 Potok and his young family first settled in Philadelphia where he was scholar in residence at Har Zion Temple and pursued a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. He wrote The Chosen in Jerusalem, the same year he wrote his dissertation. In 1967 he became editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society of Philadelphia. He taught writing at Johns Hopkins University and a popular course in philosophy to the Benjamin Franklin Honors Fellows at his alma mater. The Chosen was followed by other famous works such as The Promise, My Name Is Asher Lev and The Gift of Asher Lev. He also wrote plays and children's literature in addition to non-fiction and short stories.

Ticket Prices

All seating is general admission on a first-come, first-served basis and all Thursday tickets are $15, thanks to a grant by Duke Energy; Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances are $25. Young adult tickets - for individuals age 20 and under - are $15 for all performances. Curtain times are: Thursdays at 7pm; Friday and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm.

Doors open ½ hour prior to curtain for seating. The Phoenix Pub, located inside the theatre, offers beer, wine, soft drinks, coffee, and bottled water, as well as treats, and all refreshments may be taken into the theatre and consumed during the performance.

For more information about any Phoenix Productions or to purchase tickets, call The Phoenix Theatre box office at 317.635.7529. Tickets may also be purchased online. The theatre's website is www.phoenixtheatre.org.

ABOUT The Phoenix Theatre
"The Phoenix Theatre has cornered the market on hip new works." -- Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

The Phoenix Theatre is Indiana's only professional Contemporary Theatre, and has presented productions to challenge and entertain the Indianapolis community for 28 years. An Equity house, the Theatre presents the Midwest and Indiana premieres of many popular Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, and has presented more than 82 world premieres in its quarter century. The Phoenix operates the 130-seat proscenium Mainstage as well as the 75-seat cabaret-style black box Frank & Katrina Basile Theatre. Both venues are housed along with administrative offices in a renovated 1907 church in downtown Indianapolis' historic Chatham Arch neighborhood, part of the Mass Ave Arts & Theatre District. The Phoenix Theatre is a member of the National New Play Network and the League of Indianapolis Theatres, and is supported by the Indiana Arts Commission, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as local corporate and foundation funders and more than 500 individual donors.

To post a comment, you must register and login.