Jewish Plays Project

Jewish Plays Project

The Jewish Plays Project puts bold, progressive Jewish conversations on world stages. The JPP’s innovative and competitive development platform is a unique tool for Jewish agencies and forward-thinking donors to engage emerging artists in their Jewish identity while simultaneously securing mainstream production opportunities for the best new plays and musicals.

The JPP is a boutique new play...
The Jewish Plays Project puts bold, progressive Jewish conversations on world stages. The JPP’s innovative and competitive development platform is a unique tool for Jewish agencies and forward-thinking donors to engage emerging artists in their Jewish identity while simultaneously securing mainstream production opportunities for the best new plays and musicals.

The JPP is a boutique new play development house for R&D for Jewish theater. We work from Idea to Page, matching emerging writers with Jewish thought leaders as they create; and from Page to Stage, advancing the best new shows to production in New York and around the country.

The JPP has created “Jewish Dramaturgy”, a one-of-a-kind process that bridges secular culture and Jewish wisdom. With each project we develop, 6-10 young Jewish artists work together to test Jewish ideas and content through active artistic work and hands on advice from Jewish thought leaders (clergy, scholars, professionals and lay leaders).

Our Vision: Over the next 10 years, the JPP will develop 120 new plays and musicals featuring over 1,000 actors, directors, playwrights and designers, and advocate for their work with major theaters across the country. The result: 10 new Jewish plays and musicals will enter the canon of world dramatic literature.

Recommended by Jewish Plays Project

  • Speak Freely by Andrea Fiest Stein
    14 Feb. 2022
    “ The Jewish Plays Project recommends SPEAK FREELY as a Semi-Finalist for the 11th annual Jewish Playwriting Contest. Our community of readers appreciated this story of assimilation, social aspiration and inherited trauma. This play has strong characterization and builds tension with not knowing who to trust, as well as slowly building the anxiety as characters never get the full truth from loved ones. SPEAK FREELY rose to the top of 20 out of 250 plays and we hope this play swiftly finds opportunities to reach new audiences. ”
  • TAMAR, The Two-Gated City by Emma Goldman-Sherman
    14 Feb. 2022
    “ 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. ”
  • These and Those by Ruth Geye
    14 Feb. 2022
    “ 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. ”
  • Where the Lovelight Gleams by Kyle J. McCloskey
    14 Feb. 2022
    “ 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 SECRET WISDOM OF TREES by Christine Toy Johnson
    14 Feb. 2022
    “ 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. ”
View all 28 recommendations