Jews/Theatre/Performance in an Intercultural World

An International Conference at The Jewish Theological Seminary

February 22–24, 2009

Where else but in New York City can you find every conceivable performance style, in venues ranging from the Broadway stage to the smallest black box theater, and a discerning global audience?

As the capital of the theater world, and with questions of interculturality especially relevant in our multicultural and globalized world, The Jewish Theological Seminary, located on upper Broadway in New York City, will play host to Jews/Theatre/Performance in an Intercultural World, a historic three-day conference that will focus on drama, theater, and performance that are of Jewish interest by virtue of their themes, authors, artists, or audiences.

The conference, which is open to the public at no charge, also seeks to chart and understand the intercultural ties between the theater that Jews create for themselves and the wider theatrical culture, as well as the impact of Jewish artists on the theatrical culture of the societies in which they live.

Sixty scholars from Europe, Israel, and the United States will participate in sessions devoted to a wide range of subjects and performance modes, both experimental and canonic. A sampling of sessions include Bible as Theater, Musical Theater, the Yiddish Stage, Theater of Jewish Communities in and of Muslim Countries, Israeli Drama, the American Mainstream, Jews and the German Stage, Experimental Theater, Jews on East European Stages, and Theater and the Holocaust. The conference will also host a number of performances and screenings.

Jews/Theatre/Performance in an Intercultural World is being held February 22–24 at The Jewish Theological Seminary, 3080 Broadway (at 122nd Street), New York City.

The conference is supported by The Jewish Theological Seminary and the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York.

Co-conveners are Dr. Edna Nahshon, associate professor of Hebrew at JTS and a specialist in Jewish theater and performance; Dr. Jeanette R. Malkin, senior lecturer in the Department of Theatre Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem; and Dr. Peter Marx, associate professor of Theater at the University of Berne, Switzerland.

The conference is open to the public, which may attend all or part of the conference. Admission is free; however, photo ID and reservations are required. For reservations, please call (212) 678-8972 or email Hebrew@jtsa.edu.

Conference Program

Jews/Theatre/Performance in an Intercultural World

February 22–24, 2009

Sunday, February 22

9:30–10:30 a.m. Registration and Coffee

10:30–11:00 a.m. Welcome and Opening Remarks

11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. The Bible as Theater
Shimon Levy (Tel Aviv University)

The Bible as Theater—A Musical Experience
James Reynolds (Musician, Composer)

12:30–1:30 p.m. Lunch Break (a list of dining facilities in the area will be provided)

1:30–3:30 p.m. Session 1: The Yiddish Stage

Chair: David Roskies (The Jewish Theological Seminary)

Neil Levin, The Jewish Theological Seminary
Yiddish Musical as Agent of Americanization

Debra Caplan, Harvard University
A Tongue in Exile: Insiders and Outsiders on the Polylingual Yiddish Stage

Donny Inbar, Israel Center of the Jewish Community Federation, San Francisco
Enter the Yiddisher Jester, Exit the Philosopher: Der Yiddisher Daniel Deronda, Abraham Goldfaden's Last Play

Rachel Rojanski, Haifa University
Yiddish Theater in Israel: A Jewish Theater in a Hebrew State 1948–1952

3:30–4:00 p.m. Coffee and Refreshments

4:00–5:30 p.m. Session 2: Theater of Jewish Communities From Muslim Countries

Chair: Carol Martin (New York University)

Brigitte Sion, New York University
Between Zion and France: Theatrical Performances of the Judeo-Spanish Youth Circle in Cairo (1920–1933)

Yosef Tobi, Haifa University
Jews in the North African Theater in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Sarit Cofman-Simhon, Kibbutzim College of Education
From Community Theater of Protest (in Hebrew), to Professional Light Comedies (in Maghrebi): a Shift in Diasporic Culture in Israel

6:00–7:30 p.m. Welcome Dinner By Invitation Only

7:30–9:00 p.m. Rebecca Fletcher: A Little Yearning
Songs of Jewish cabaret artists—Berlin, Warsaw, Paris, and Tel Aviv

Monday, February 23

9:30–10:00 a.m. Coffee and Refreshments

10:00 a.m.–Noon Session 3a: A panel on Jews, Jewishness, and the American Musical Theater

Henry Bial, University of Kansas

Barbara Grossman, Tufts University

Rebecca Rugg, Yale University

Stacy Wolf, Princeton University

Session 3b: The Merchant of Venice and Holocaust Memories

Chair: Shira Epstein (The Jewish Theological Seminary)

Gad Kaynar, Tel-Aviv University
Everyone Gets His Due Shylock: Hanan Snir's Merchant of Venice in Buchenwald

Melia Bensussen, Emerson College
Circumcision Anxiety and The Merchant of Venice: The Traveling Pound of Flesh and Shylock's Bond

Janet Burstein, Drew University
" . . . Those are pearls that were his eyes": Judd Ne'eman's Zitra

Noon–1:30 p.m. Lunch Break

1:30–3:00 p.m. Session 4a: Jews and the German Stage

Chair: Peter Marx (University of Maintz)

Michael Bachmann, University of Mainz
Monologues of Otherness. Fritz Kortner and the Rewriting of German-Jewish History in Hans Jürgen Syberberg's Theater Films

David U. Garfinkle, University of Washington
Judaica Hysterica: A Study of Creative Literary Hysteria in Expressionist Dramas of WWI

Jeanette R. Malkin, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Jewish "Body Language" and the Pre-1933 Expressionist Stage

Session 4b: Jewish Refuseniks, Comics, and Idealists

Chair: Burton Visotzky (The Jewish Theological Seminary)

Robert Brophy, Independent Scholar and Playwright
Jewish Symbols of Antitotalitarian Drama: Writers-Refuseniks in '80s Drama

Morton Merowitz, Independent Scholar
The Artistry of Jewish Comedy

Michael Posnick, Manhattanville College
Jewish Theater: Spiritual Dimensions

3:00–3:30 p.m. Coffee and Refreshments

3:30–5:30 p.m. Session 5a: From the Field

Chair: Marion Dienstag (The Jewish Theological Seminary)

Motti Lerner, Israeli Playwright, Kibbutzim College of Education
The Politics of Jewish Theater

David Chack, Northwestern University
Theory and Practical Application for Jewish Intercultural Theatrical and Performance Development

Andy Horwitz, The Foundation for Jewish Culture
Beyond Modern Drama: Envisioning Contemporary Jewish Performance and Theater

Ari Roth, Artistic Director, Theatre J, Washington DC
The role of the non-Jewish actor/author on the Jewish Stage

Session 5b: Experimental Theater

Chair: Vivian Mann (The Jewish Theological Seminary)

Ilana Abramovitch, City University of New York
The Living Theater and the Jewish Question

Shana Komitee, Harvard University
The Spirit Moves: Religious Humanism in Action in Joseph Chaikin's Performance Work

Shelley Salamensky, UCLA
Imag(in)ing "Home" & "Homeland": From Theodor Herzl and Max Nordau to Guy Ben-Ner & Sigalit Landau

Carol Zemel, York University, Toronto
Hadassah and Halakha: The Interventions of Queer Jewish Performance Art

Carol Martin, New York University
Only the Translator Survives

5:30–7:00 p.m. Dinner Break

7:00–9:30 p.m. A Presentation and Screening of The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds
by S. Ansky
An Israeli Production Using Traditional Japanese Theater Aesthetics
(in Hebrew with English subtitles)
Zvika Serper, Tel Aviv University, Director

Tuesday, February 24

9:30–10:00 a.m. Coffee and Refreshments

10:00 a.m.–Noon Session 6a: Early Israeli Theater

Chair: Alan Mintz (The Jewish Theological Seminary)

Dorit Yerushalmi, University of Haifa
Ethnicity, Intimacy, and Popular Culture: The Cabaret Women in Tel Aviv (1944–1947)

Paola Bertolone, University of Siena
Habima in Italy in 1929 and Paolo Milano's Preparatory Work

Leah Gilula, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
A Melting Pot of European Immigrants with a Sprinkle of Sabras: The Case of The Cameri Theater (1945–1953)

Session 6b: In the American Mainstream

Chair: Janet Burstein (Drew University)

Ellen Schiff, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
"They find you, those sons of Moses": Collective Memory and the Disaffected Jew

Andrea Most, University of Toronto
Theatrical Liberalism: Jews, Theatricality and Modernity

Stuart Hecht, Boston College
"Impossible things are happening every day": Acculturation and the Cinderella Musical

William Grange, University of Nebraska
Marlon Brando and the Stella Adler Mishpocheh of the 1940s

Noon–1:30 p.m. Lunch Break

1:30–3:30 p.m. Session 7a: Jews on East European Stages

Chair: Carol Zemel (York University)

Laurence Senelick, Tufts University
Jews in Fashion at the Moscow Art Theater

Alisa Solomon, Columbia University
Fiddler on the Roof in Poland

Iveta Leitane, University of Latvia
The Jewish Theater and teaterpessimismen in M. Yoffe

Session 7b: Theater and the Shoah

Chair: Ellen Schiff (Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts)

Seth Wolitz, University of Texas at Austin
Holocaust Memory in the French–Jewish Theater of Jean-Claude Grumberg

Olga Levitan, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Holocaust Themes in the Israeli Fringe Theater

Lisa Peschel, University of Minnosota
New Theatrical Texts from the Theresienstadt Ghetto

Zlata Zaretsky, International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Va-Shem
Sami Feder: The Producer of Theater "Kazet"

3:30–4:00 p.m. Coffee and Refreshments

4:00–5:30 p.m. Session 8a: Representation of Jews on the German Stage

Chair: Marion Kaplan (New York University)

Hans-Peter Bayerdoerfer, University of Munich
Restaging the Jewess: La Juive on the Contemporary German Stage

Nina Warnke, Vanderbilt University
The Taming of a Belle Juive: Deborah Before Gentile and Jewish Audiences

Matthias Naumann, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main
Conceptions, Connotations, and/or Actions. The Conduct of Jewish Characters in Heinar Kipphardt's Plays

Session 8b: Hebrew Drama

Chair: Andrea Most (University of Toronto)

Glenda Abramson, University of Oxford
"The Fourth Covenant": Hebrew Plays of the Yishuv

Nurit Yaari, Tel Aviv University
Jewish Prayers in Hanoch Levin's Theatrical Oeuvre

Orly Wasserzug Ravid, Kibbutzim College of Education
Guy Biran's Eternal Love As a Religious "Language Game"

5:30–7:00 p.m. Dinner Break

7:00–9:30 p.m. Three Tales
A Theater Performance by the Ruth Kanner Theater Group, Israel

For information and registration, please email hebrew@jtsa.edu or call (212) 678-8972