The New Jewish Theatre Announces 2009-2010 Season

2009-2010 SEASON - A BAT MITZVAH SEASON OF TRADITION

Box Office 314-442-3257 or visit them online at www.newjewishtheatre.org

CONVERSATIONS WITH MY FATHER, by Herb Gardner

September 30 - October 18

Clayton High School Auditorium

Gardner has written a powerful and funny play about three generations of a Jewish family living on the lower East Side. It is a richly atmospheric memory play. Set in a Canal Street bar, and dramatically spanning four decades from 1936 to 1976, Eddie Goldberg's story dramatizes what it's like to melt as well as simmer in American society while it encompasses the universals of relations between fathers and sons. In Eddie's story, Gardner describes a first generation of American Jews who came of age in the Depression and assimilated into the American melting pot by trying to reject their heritage. "... laugh-provoking yet notable for its shattering emotional range."

Brooklyn Boy, by Donald Margulies

December 2 - 20

Clayton High School Little Theatre

Margulies' play follows the career of Eric Weiss, a writer whose novel hits the bestseller list the same time his life begins to unravel. His wife is out the door, his father is in the hospital and his childhood friend thinks he has sold himself to the devil. For Weiss, this pilgrimage is a return to a neighborhood, mind-set, and religion: Brooklyn and Judaism, both of which he had escaped from and had no wish to embrace. In Brooklyn Boy, Margulies seems to have at last comes to terms with his own Jewish background. A funny and emotionally rich look at family, friends and fame, this self-reflective, dream reverie comedy drama is tough, insightful, bittersweet, funny and ultimately wise.

THE PEOPLE'S VIOLIN, by Charlie Varon

February 24 - March 14

Clayton High School Little Theatre

Varon's play is a sensitive exploration of family relationships, culture, identity, truth and deception as it "grapples with the distinctly American notion that we can reinvent ourselves." Sol Shank is an experimental filmmaker, transplanted New York Jew, and unhappy son of a famous man. When Sol undertakes a documentary film about his, psychotherapist-Holocaust authority-author father, he discovers things that launch him on a quest uncovering hidden chapters in his father's past. Evidence mounts that his father was not who he claimed to be. Sol is forced to question what it means to be Jewish - and the audience must question the meaning of identity, tribe and self.

ROMEO AND JULIET, by William Shakespeare, adapted by Robin Weatherall

April 14 - May 2

MO History Museum Performing Arts Series

MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, E. DESMOND LEE THEATRE

Shakespeare's classic tale of star-crossed lovers assumes a different tone with the story set in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1947 during the war for Israeli Independence. Rather than feuding families in Verona, we find warring Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem with the British as mediator. With the love story intact, the play in this setting becomes a history lesson. As part of the Missouri History Museum's Performing Arts Series, this production's historical aspect is even more heightened. As the two young lovers try to cross the political divide, the tragedy of their ill-fated love results in a hopeful lesson for tolerance, understanding and peace. A world premiere adaptation.

Laughter on the 23rd Floor, by Neil Simon

June 2 - 20

Clayton High School Little Theatre

Inspired by Simon's experience as a writer for Cid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, this raucous comedy, set in 1953 during television's golden age, is a hilarious behind-the-scenes peek into the comedy writers' room for a fictional show hosted by the brilliant but neurotic Max Prince. The writers' office overlooking Manhattan's 57th Street is like a war zone with the writers at constant battle with each other to make the perfect 90-minute show. Central to the plot is the threat of rising McCarthyism and Max's ongoing battles with NBC executives who think his humor is too sophisticated for middle-America. It's screamingly funny with its fast paced insults, non-sequiturs and one-liners.

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