The Snowflake Theory to be featured in 2008 Festival

The Snowflake Theory, a riotous comedy by Louisville playwright Nancy Gall-Clayton, will be the centerpiece of the 2008 Beyond the Borscht Belt: A Jewish Theatre Festival, to take place October 26 and 27th, 2008. Beyond the Borscht Belt celebrates Jewish arts and community in Columbus, which is literally "beyond the Borscht Belt" of traditional Jewish entertainment centered in New York's Catskill Mountains.

The 2008 Festival coincides with, and honors, the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the Gallery Players of the Jewish Community Center, the oldest Jewish community theatre group in Central Ohio.


Marge has had an epiphany. Her adult children will never do what she hopes (get married, produce grandchildren, finish college, be normal), so she's decided to concentrate on her own journey, starting with smashing her melamine kosher dishes. But they won't break. To her surprise, her children, like her, have just headed in new directions. Rachel, age 40, has been inseminated with Jewish sperm and joined the peace movement. Clark, age 33, is changing majors yet again and may actually graduate from college, thanks to a non-Jewish girlfriend whose hair color changes frequently. Marge seeks advice from the new rabbi, whom she impresses with her vocabulary and a gravity-defying Jell-O creation. A happy ending for all makes this exploration of family relationships and faith even more satisfying.


Jello Bridge (2002) by Scott Christensen, scottdesignworks.com

Readings will take place on Sunday, October 26th, at the Jewish Community Center, and on Monday, October 27th, at the Ohio State University Hillel Foundation. Playwright Nancy Gall-Clayton will be present, and will discuss the play with audience members following both performances. To learn more about the writer, visit www.nancygallclayton.net

A gelatin sculpture contest will celebrate the reading. Chef Lana Covel of The New Standard has volunteered to help cooks explore the wonders of jello sculpture construction. It’s hoped that Franklin County-area women’s clubs will be interested in celebrating this traditional form of culinary expression.

Casting information about the readings will be posted early in the fall.

Other events in addition to the readings will be announced soon!

Meshugah to be staged

The reading, and Emily Mann's talk, all went extremely well--enormously positive response from the 100 or so folks in attendance at the reading, powerful performances (several audience members in tears by the end). A quite wonderful evening. Our thanks to the performers, to Alive newspaper's theatre critic Jay Weitz for moderating the post-reading discussion (which ended far too soon), and, especially, to Emily Mann for her whole-hearted and thoroughly involved participation.

Emily Mann’s adaptation of Meshugah

by Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer

will be presented in a staged reading on Sunday, November 5th, as part of the first step towards establishing "Beyond the Borscht Belt, A Jewish Theatre Festival" in Columbus, as a cooperative presentation of the Ohio State University Hillel Foundation, The Ohio State University Department of Theatre and the Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, with support from the Leventhal Fund and the Jewish Arts Endowment of the Columbus Jewish Foundation.

Emily Mann

THE STORY: Set in the 1950s on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Meshugah is a tragicomic portrait of a community of recent Jewish émigrés living in the wake of the Holocaust. When Aaron Greidinger, a struggling novelist and advice columnist, falls in love with the beautiful mistress of a friend from his Warsaw past, dark secrets and bizarre twists threaten to break up the unusual romance. Emily Mann brings to swirling theatrical life Singer’s poignant love story of lost souls in a world gone meshugah.

Schedule for events on November 5th:

4:30 p.m.: Schmooze with Emily Mann

Roy Bowen Theatre, Drake Performance and Event Center, 1849 Cannon Drive, Ohio State University Campus

7:30 p.m.: Meshugah reading

OSU Hillel Foundation, 46 E. 16th Ave.

Cast:

Aaron Greidinger: Jimmy Bohr
Max: Joe Cofer
Miriam: Victoria Patten
Priva: Ann Mirels
Stanley: Kal Poole
Woman Who Tells: Irene Braverman
Waiter: Bruno Lovric

for additional information, beyondborscht@yahoo.com

In addition to the staged reading of Meshugah, there will also be screenings of films by and about Emily Mann's work:

Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years --a filmed version of Mann's play about the Delany Sisters of New York Thursday, October 26th at 7:30 p.m., Hillel Foundation

Greensboro: A Public Dialogue -- a documentary about Mann’s play, Greensboro: A Requiem, produced by New Jersey Public Television. Tuesday, October 31st: 7:30 p.m. Hillel Foundation

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