←Jewish Plays Project

This play is exciting and transgressive in all the right ways. It’s also searching and touching and even a tearjerker. I’m thrilled by it and scared by It in equal measure, but I can’t wait to hear what people - Jewish people especially - have to say about it.

This is a riveting play with unexpected turns and central relationships that present a kaleidoscope of perspectives on the connection between Jews and African-Americans, both in the 1980s, when the play is set, and today. The play captures a moment of great transition in the ongoing relationship between two important American communities.

WHO BY FIRE takes a genre that we see at the JPP - the family Seder play - and opens it up to embrace a broader and deeper idea of Jews in America. That’s exciting to me, and feels extremely aligned with our goal of discovering 21st Century Jewish theater.

I am so impressed by this play’s ability to look at violent anti-Semitic incidents and ask broader questions and find deeper answers. THE WRONG QUESTION forces us to look at the realities and limits of Jewish progressivism. This work is exciting and dangerous in equal measure.

This play is such a treasure! Themes of Jewish identity are in the bones of Alice Eve Cohen’s work. This work features a buoyant spirit, unreliable narrators and a ton of fun theatricality to rope audiences in.

This play features a dark, sexy, sharp, opaque world in the best of ways, sucking the reader in. LEO AT YESHIVA juxtaposes ambition, sexuality, faith and love in a manner that delivers incredible roles for actors.

The Jewish Plays Project recommends TAMAR, The Two-Gated City as a Semi-Finalist for the 11th annual Jewish Playwriting Contest. Our community of readers found this play highly compelling as it critiques a history that has marginalized and brutalized women, and examines the impact of not speaking out, in a manner that feels new and relevant. We enjoyed the poetic vision, the tension between perspectives, and the deep questioning of stories that we take at face value. TAMAR rose to the top 20 out of 250 plays and we hope this play swiftly finds opportunities to reach new audiences.

The Jewish Plays Project recommends THESE AND THOSE as a Semi-Finalist for the 11th annual Jewish Playwriting Contest. Our community of readers found this piece compelling as it dramatizes debates facing the modern Orthodox community today, and how beliefs change when violence becomes closer and more real. The play questions if it's more important to be right or safe---with characters that are highly recognizable and specific. THESE AND THOSE rose to the top 20 out of 250 plays and we hope this play swiftly finds opportunities to reach new audiences.

The Jewish Plays Project recommends WHERE THE LOVELIGHT GLEAMS as a Semi-Finalist for the 11th annual Jewish Playwriting Contest. Our community of readers felt this was an exciting, compelling story told in a highly theatrical, stylized way of fire, smoke, and shadows with beautiful poetic language that grabs our imaginations in how this will be staged. This play explores characters who have been dehumanized by society yet are deserving of love and redemption. WHERE THE LOVELIGHT GLEAMS rose to the top 20 out of 250 plays and we hope this play swiftly finds opportunities to reach new audiences...

The Jewish Plays Project recommends THE SECRET WISDOM OF TREES as a Semi-Finalist for the 11th annual Jewish Playwriting Contest. Our community of readers highly enjoyed this love letter and deeply moving tribute to a family coming to terms with multiple kinds of losses. This play explores the emotional journey of parents trying to keep promises to their deceased child that may cause more family turmoil. A beautiful play of enduring love through hardships. THE SECRET WISDOM OF TREES rose to the top 20 out of 250 plays and we hope this play swiftly finds opportunities to reach new audiences.