Reich brings Israeli theater back for 2nd summer season

By JEWISH REVIEW

article created on: 2009-06-11T00:00:00

Portland’s Jewish Theatre Collaborative in partnership with the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at Portland State University will present their second season of staged readings this summer.

Last summer’s program played to sold-out houses, according to JTC Director Sacha Reich.

“Israel Onstage2” is the title of this summer’s offerings and is billed as “an examination of Israeli society through its reflection on stage.

Three staged readings are scheduled for this summer.

The first, set for June 30, is “Women’s Minyan” by Naomi Ragen. There is no such thing as a women’s minyan in the Haredi or fervently orthodox community, but Chana Sheinhoff empowers one when she challenges 10 women to truly listen and honestly judge her, a social pariah and, variously, their daughter, sister and former friend.  Her claims of domestic violence are blasphemous to the entire community, but the women chart a challenging course, torn by loyalties, hidden wounds and strict social codes.

Savyon Liebrecht’s “Banality of Love” is set for July 7. This play presents the audience with the aging Jewish German political theorist Hannah Arendt near the end of her life. She is anxious for a chance at reconciliation with Israel, from which she has been estranged owing to her long romantic connection to the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, who was sympathetic to the Nazis. An Israeli interviewer presses Arendt to examine that connection, a process that evokes memories that powerfully shaped the woman she was.

The last play in the series, set for July 14, is “Plonter” created by Israeli director Yael Ronen and an original cast of Jewish and Palestinian Israelis.

The New York Theatre Wire’s Glenn Loney called this play “a powerful vision of Inter-racial humanity and inhumanity for which there seems no rational or emotional solution,” hence the title, Plonter, a Hebrew word for a knot that cannot be untangled, a Jewish Gordian knot

JTC’s Reich described “Plonter” as “a collage of sketches that both send chills up your spine and make your body shake with laughter, capturing the diverse and parallel experiences of people on both sides of the fence.”

All readings will take place at Artists Repertory Theater, 1515 SW Morrison St. Curtain time is 7 p.m.

The readings are open to the public. They are also part of a PSU summer-term course that offers one hour of academic credit. Details of the academic course are available online at judaic.pdx.edu/osjs.

Tickets for the readings are available at jewishtheatrecollaborative.org or by phone at 503-810-5408. They may also be available at the door before performances.

The Jewish Theatre Collaborative has been granted 501c3 non-profit status, which enabled it to accept an Innovation Impact Grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland this year.

The JTC also has received support from the Oregon Israel Fund, the Consulate General of Israel and the Tel Aviv-based Institute for Israeli Drama.