The Crest Theater Hosts I CAUSED THE BIG BANG 10/26

Sacramento Rabbi David Wechsler-Azen, born story-teller and performer, is presenting the world premiere of his new one rabbi show, "I Caused the Big Bang" at the Crest Theater on Tuesday, October 26, 2010 at 7:30pm.

Twenty years in the making, "I Caused the Big Bang" finds fictional Rabbi Richard Ness arriving late to lead services on Yom Kippur, the holiest night of the year. He tries to be an inspirational spiritual leader and serve his congregation, but after ten deaths in the previous two weeks, he slowly
unravels, combining humor and pathos into a unique take on the origin of the universe and the start of all problems.

Attempting to reconcile the age old square peg of an all-powerful and perfect God with the round black hole of this world, Rabbi Ness spins a new story about how to deal with tragedy, while family secrets emerge and lead to a conclusion you won't see coming. By turns hilarious, provocative and
moving, the show leaves audiences in better shape than a James Bond martini: They've been shaken and stirred.

"What went wrong?" is a question Rabbi David, as he is known to his congregants at Carmichael's Congregation Beth Shalom, has spent a good deal of his life asking. "I've been driven to figure out how it's possible for there to be a G-d and a world like this and have searched for a story that
makes sense to people, that doesn't force them to abandon all reason or simply shrug and say God's ways are mysterious, but that speaks to their deepest fears and hopes.

"The first time I ever tested this material years ago, I knew I struck a chord when an elder of the congregation came up to me and said, 'I was with the air force in WWII. Where were you 50 years ago when I needed you?"

The only man of the cloth to play Adam in Eden, Rabbi Wechsler-Azen has built this story of creation and existence on a solid foundation of classic Jewish texts and biblical interpretations. In rabbinical school, he won awards for Academic Excellence, Counseling, Philosophy, Liturgy and Creative Biblical Interpretation. As a Rabbi, he developed the ability to educate through the arts, producing and playing Adam in "Guarding the Garden," a musical fable about the start of the environmental crisis in Eden, which toured for four years, and receiving a Fellowship in Film from Temple University, after which he produced teacher training DVDs that won a National Educational Media Network award and worked on a project for the Hallmark Channel.

Rather than simply offering lectures and sermons, Rabbi David uses his performance skills to offer philosophy delivered through a situational tragicomedy. "This is the mythology I've come up with as a way to make the divine presence coherent. If you are going to talk about existence you have
to do it in an embedded way, not abstractly. Then you allow people to think for themselves. For me there is nothing more thrilling than questions. Really good art raises more questions than answers. I want the audience to break open the box God has been put in."

Tickets can be purchased at the Crest Box Office, Tickets.com and at participating synagogues in the greater Sacramento area. Ticket prices: $36/$18 and students $10. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Izzy Rabi Institute for Great Questions at Congregation Beth Shalom. Sponsorships are encouraged and available. For more information, visit http://icausedthebigbang.com and to see excerpts, go to www.youtube.com/user/rabbiness

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