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 BohrMax: Joe Cofer
Miriam: Victoria Patten
Priva: Ann Mirels
Stanley: Kal Poole
Woman Who Tells: Irene Braverman
Waiter: Bruno Lovric
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