NJT 2008-09 Plays
CHAIM’S LOVE SONG
, by Marvin Chernoff
September 10 – 28Chaim Shotsky is a retired mailman from Brooklyn. But Chaim has problems. His son Reuben, the actor, has changed his name to Rock Cooper. His daughter is leaving her husband to find herself. His love for his wife Tzawrah seems unrequited. So he spends his days in the park talking to pigeons and looking for someone to tell his troubles to. When he meets Kelly Burke from Iowa, another lost soul, little does he know his world is about to change. Chaim’s story is one of innocence, tragedy, struggle, humor, humanity and ultimately triumph and is guaranteed to melt even the hardest of hearts. It is a love song for life. The story is rich and affecting and genuinely touching.
THE LAST SEDER, by Jennifer Maisel
December 3 – December 21Lily and Marvin Price’s four daughters, each with a respective partner, have gathered to say goodbye to a loved who is already gone - patriarch Marvin who suffers from Alzheimer’s. They have returned for the last Passover in their family home where they find that the magic of the Seder ritual is the one thing that will allow them to heal the past and move on with their lives. Marvin magically regains his senses for one last dayenu amidst a chaotic and fragmented Seder as Maisel leaves us wondering exactly what that future will be. She weaves together a fascinating human drama that grips us, makes us laugh, and holds us completely from its amusing beginning until its lump-in-the-throat ending.
SABINA, by Willy Holtzman
January 28 – February 15Sex! Madness! Scandal! In the dawn of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud was always on the alert for new disciples. His early designated heir, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, had some success with a young patient named Sabina Spielrein, who became intricately involved with both men. Based in real history, “Sabina” has all the elements of a psychological thriller as it tells the twisted tale of a psychological and sexual triangle involving two titans of psychoanalysis and an obscure Russian woman, who later pursued a career of her own as an analyst until her death at the hands of a Nazi death squad. With undercurrents of anti-Semitism lending further fuel to the dramatic fire Holtzman spins a tale of compelling drama.
SONIA FLEW, by Melinda Lopez
(subject to availability)
March 11 – 29The experience of the Kindertransport during World War II was not unique to the Jewish people. Making the life-shattering choice of giving up one's children is a choice that people are forced to make repeatedly. Set between post-revolutionary Cuba and post-9/11 America, “Sonia Flew” explores the powerful tale of Sonia, a Cuban-American woman smuggled as a child out of Cuba and into the United States as part of Operation Pedro Pan. Sonia, married to a Jewish man and in a world filled with Jewish traditions, must reconcile with her memories of that time when she and thousands of other Cuban children were separated from their parents. Both the Cuban and Jewish experiences share the issues of guilt, anger and forgiving the past in order to move on.
THE LAST FIVE YEARS, by Jason Robert Brown
May 27 – June 21A fresh and contemporary musical from Tony-Award winning composer Brown, The story explores a five-year relationship between Jamie Wellerstein, a rising novelist, and Cathy Hiatt, a struggling actress. But this love story is more bitter than sweet. There are two sides to every story...their 5-year relationship is coming to an end, and through the funny, sweet, and heart-breaking songs, you hear both versions of what happened - from beginning to end, and from the end to the beginning. It is An emotionally powerful and intimate musical that is compulsively enjoyable with unpredictably heartfelt insights, and a seductive, rhythmic drive. It is poignant and ironic - a real modern falling-in-and-out-of-love musical.
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