Two Popes in Conflict & Two Jews in Conversation: April 22, 21:00
Yael Valier, Dr. Erica Brown, and Rabbi Herzl Hefter chatted on Zoom about the movie The Two Popes, and the forces of conservatism and liberalism in religious change. Video HERE.
After a sold-out 2019 season, Theater and Theology prepares for its Spring 2020 production...
MIRACLE ON S. DIVISION STREET
a comedy about what happens when we begin to question miracles
by the playwright who brought you Off the Derech Dolorosa,
TOM DUDZICK
Direction by Yael Valier / Design & Consultation by John Krug
Corona (an act of God?) has put a dent
in our production plans! Stay tuned for our new production dates.
Coming to the Khan Theater, Jerusalem, in the spring of 2020
Performance dates: May 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 26, 27
June 2, 3, 4, 10, 11
This season, we'll be joined by
R' Nechama Goldman Barash, R' Dr. Joshua Berman, Dr. R' Zev Farber, Ittay Flescher, R' Dr. Yehuda Gellman, R' Batya Hefter, R' Herzl Hefter, R' Yael Leibowitz, R' Shani Taragin, Dr. Tamar Ross
Stay tuned for each scholar's dates!
Fresh from its off-Broadway run at St. Luke's Theatre, Miracle on South Division Street is the story of the Nowak family, living amidst the urban rubble of Buffalo, NY’s East Side. Maybe the neighborhood is depressed, but not Clara, the family matriarch. She happily runs her soup kitchen and tends to the family heirloom – a twenty-foot shrine to the Blessed Mother which adjoins the house. This neighborhood beacon of faith commemorates the day in 1942 when the Virgin Mary herself materialized in Clara's father’s barber shop! When the play opens, a family meeting is in progress. Daughter Ruth divulges her plan to finally “go public” with the family miracle by creating a one-woman play about the sacred event. But during the course of the meeting, the entire family’s faith is shaken when hitherto hidden information causes the family legend to begin to unravel. The results are thought-provoking, heartfelt, and hilarious.
For updates about ticket sales, click here
I chose to produce Tom Dudzick's deceptively naive Miracle on South Division Street
because, with humor and mercy, it gently unearths issues that all religions and religious people have to deal with. What happens when science, or academia, or our own curiosity holds a magnifying glass to our beliefs and forces us to pay attention? Can we maintain both belief and intellectual honesty? If so, how?
I greatly look forward to bringing Tom Dudzick's wonderful play to the Jerusalem stage and to inviting audiences to join me and my guest scholars in debating the issues after every performance.
Yael Valier
Creative Director
Scenes from current and previous productions