←Recommendations of The Great Bagel Smuggle

I adore the dialogue in this play! It's comic and poetic and just a little defiant! All much needed things in this world...also delicious carbs! This is a delightful piece that will have audiences laughing, a little nervous and a lot hungry for more than just bagels! One shouldn't have to give up their heritage while running for liberty.

This is a gem of a ten minute, one of the most beautiful and poetic I have read in a long time. A powerful play about heritage and ritual and family.

Wirsansky has written an entertaining, full of heart, comedy that is smart and character-driven, and the stakes feel meaningful.

A sweet, beautiful play about the power of identity, family, and a good bagel recipe. Wirsansky’s story is filled with palpable urgency, and reminds us to remember the people and places that make up who we are.

This play is delightful AND meaningful. The play's specificity is wonderful as it draws a line between the perfect, original bagel and what we might encounter today-- a fluffy raisin bagel, which is the worst. The Great Bagel Smuggle offers three excellent roles for actors ready to bite into a great script. There are too many good lines to list them all, but one of the best is: "If it’s too easy, it’s not a bagel—it’s a doughnut with an identity crisis."

It’s perfect. The brilliant wordplay and the overwhelming desire created for an authentic bagel balance the urgency and even danger of trying to pass on a family legacy. A character like Dvorah doesn’t come along every day. Mature female actors should be lining up for blocks to audition for this role. Great work!

THE GREAT SMUGGLE is a viscerally, poetic play. Letting go and carrying forth are beautifully illustrated in Grandmother Dvorah's quest to uphold family traditions while allowing her daughter to seek a new life in a new world. The language is poetic, poignant and humorous. Bagels as a catalyst to connect strangers and foes is an ingenious device. The ending is heartfelt and satisfying.

I once suggested the title, "Blood, Sweat, and Schmears" for a playwriting challenge where another playwright would have to create a play fitting whichever title they randomly received. The playwright who drew my suggestion was stymied and the end result was fairly unspectacular. Here, however, is the perfect, bagel-centric 10-minute play. Filled with humor, humanity, and a dash of joy, The Great Bagel Smuggle is an absolute delight! THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT, (playwright's name redacted)!!