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April 9, 2004/Nisan 18 5764, Vol. 56, No. 29
Hillel Players tap into Jewish identity
JENNIFER GOLDBERG
Staff Writer
As assistant director for the Hillel Jewish Student Center at Arizona State University, Shotsy Abramson noticed it time and time again: Jewish students who were uninvolved with the Jewish college experience.
Although Hillel already uses the arts to reach out to students - through the Joan Frazer Memorial Award in the Arts and the Debra Goldstein Memorial Photography Contest - Abramson decided that drama was an ideal way to engage more students in a Jewish college experience by appealing to their special interests.
"The Jewish students are everywhere - in the Honors College, engineering, the drama department," she said. "Sometimes you have to go very specifically to those populations to involve them in the Hillel program."
The resulting outreach program, the Hillel Community Players, will bring its first production to the public April 19-27, with shows at Temple Emanuel, ASU, Temple Chai and The Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School. The cast will perform the short play "An Interview with a Scapegoat" by Louis Greenstein and scenes from "A Shayna Maidel" by Barbara Lebow.
"An Interview with a Scapegoat" is a comedic Midrash biblical interpretation based on the figure of the scapegoat. A determined reporter seeks out the legendary goat to get his perspective on his place in society.
"A Shayna Maidel" is a more serious piece that tells the story of a family torn apart by the Holocaust. Mordecai Weiss and his youngest daughter, Rose, leave Poland and escape to the United States before World War II, but his wife and older daughter Lusia must remain due to Lusia's illness. Years later, after the death of her mother and daughter, Lusia comes to America to live with Rose, who has assimilated into American life. Later, Lusia's husband Duvid also emigrates to the United States.
As part of their research for "A Shayna Meidel," cast members visited a workshop by local Holocaust survivor Helen Handler and asked questions about her experiences.
Jennifer Burritt, the show's director, says these pieces were chosen because they were written by Jewish playwrights and incorporate Jewish themes. Burritt, who is also the show's production manager, is not Jewish, and found working with the Hillel Community Players to be an enlightening experience.
"I'm learning so much about the religion and the culture," she says. "I love it. I think it's very interesting."
Of the five members of the cast and two crew members, five are Jewish. Ads for cast and crew were open to all college- and college-age students.
"Since we are on a campus, we have to be inclusive," says Abramson.
Abramson hopes that the Hillel Community Players will bring not only students, but the greater Jewish and non-Jewish community to a closer relationship with Judaism.
"It would be really great to have a group of theater-minded people hanging out at Hillel," she says. "You know, spending their time here, having some of their rehearsals here, getting to know each other, forming a group and feeling good about being Jewish - through the arts, of course."
The focus of the players is to "bring people to the performances that might be interested in drama but maybe never did anything Jewish," she notes. Also, "there are unaffiliated Jewish people out there who might come to a cultural event before they would come to something religious. We can reach them through the arts and get the community involved in Judaism."
While the bulk of the viewing audience will likely be Jewish, Abramson says that the non-Jews who see the show represent a different form of community outreach.
"The people that come to see us won't necessarily be Jewish. They won't be, at ASU. But it'll be a Jewish message of friendship. And every time you make a friend or someone walks away feeling good, you make a friend for us, you make a friend for Israel. When people meet you that way, then you suddenly become personal and familiar."
Currently, funding for the Hillel Community Players only covers one more semester. The ultimate goal is to produce more frequent productions with larger casts.
"Hopefully next semester, with word-of-mouth, the cast will grow a little bigger," says Abramson. "Already the cast is saying, 'I hope you're going to do something next semester.'"
Details
- What: "Interview with the Scapegoat" and scenes from "A Shayna Maidel"
- Who: The Hillel Community Players
- When: 7 p.m. Monday, April 19; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 22; and 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 26
- Where: Temple Emanuel, 5801 S. Rural Road, Tempe, on April 19; Nelson Fine Arts Center, ASU, Mill Avenue and 10th Street, Tempe, on April 22; and, Temple Chai, 4645 E. Marilyn Road, Phoenix, on April 26.
- Cost: Free
- Call: Temple Emanuel, 480-838-1414; Temple Chai, 602-971-1234; Hillel, 480-967-7563.
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