Meshugah by Emily Mann November 5th

The reading, and Emily Mann's talk, all went extremely well--enormously positive response from the 100 or so folks in attendance at the reading, powerful performances (several audience members in tears by the end). A quite wonderful evening. Our thanks to the performers, to Alive newspaper's theatre critic Jay Weitz for moderating the post-reading discussion (which ended far too soon), and, especially, to Emily Mann for her whole-hearted and thoroughly involved participation.

Meshugah, Emily Mann's adaptation of the novel

by Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer

will be presented in a staged reading on Sunday, November 5th, as part of the first step towards establishing "Beyond the Borscht Belt, A Jewish Theatre Festival" in Columbus, as a cooperative presentation of the Ohio State University Hillel Foundation, The Ohio State University Department of Theatre and the Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, with support from the Leventhal Fund and the Jewish Arts Endowment of the Columbus Jewish Foundation.
Emily Mann, Artistic Director of the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, will be in attendance.

THE STORY: Set in the 1950s on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, MESHUGAH is a tragicomic portrait of a community of recent Jewish émigrés living in the wake of the Holocaust. When Aaron Greidinger, a struggling novelist and advice columnist, falls in love with the beautiful mistress of a friend from his Warsaw past, dark secrets and bizarre twists threaten to break up the unusual romance. Emily Mann brings to swirling theatrical life Singer’s poignant love story of lost souls in a world gone meshugah.

Schedule:

4:30 p.m.: Schmooze with Emily Mann

Roy Bowen Theatre, Drake Performance and Event Center, 1849 Cannon Drive, Ohio State University Campus

7:30 p.m.: Meshugah reading

OSU Hillel Foundation, 46 E. 16th Ave.

Cast:

Aaron Greidinger: Jimmy Bohr
Max: Joe Cofer
Miriam: Victoria Patten
Priva: Ann Mirels
Stanley: Kal Poole
Woman Who Tells: Irene Braverman
Waiter: Bruno Lovric

In addition to the staged reading of Meshugah, there will also be screenings of films by and about Emily Mann's work:

Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years --a filmed version of Mann's play about the Delany Sisters of New York Thursday, October 26th at 7:30 p.m., Hillel Foundation

Greensboro: A Public Dialogue Documentary about Mann’s play, Greensboro: A Requiem, produced by New Jersey Public Television. Tuesday, October 31st: 7:30 p.m. Hillel Foundation

for additional information, beyondborscht@yahoo.com

and coming in December at Gallery 202 in Westerville: Nancy Gall-Clayton's Levels of Living --ever think that Heaven might be a bit boring? That's the subject of Louisville playwright Nancy Gall-Clayton's new one act. Details forthcoming--