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The Jewish Theater Workshop in the former Soviet Union is setting the stage for a community theater project that transforms Talmudic text into creative performance.
The workshop is part of the Melamedia International Informal Jewish Education Center. Melamedia, established with a grant from UJA-Federation of New York, trains teachers, opinion leaders, and community activists in new ways to help communities explore Judaism.
The Jewish Theater Workshop guides 25 Jewish theater directors to develop theater pieces grounded in classical Jewish texts.
“Currently, we’re using an approach based on a model by Boris Yukhananov, a famous Jewish Russian theater director,” says Dudy Palant, director of the Institute for Jewish Studies in the C.I.S. Melamedia is an initiative of the institute that was founded by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, the Talmudic scholar. The institute provides Jews in the former Soviet Union with tools to discover their Jewish heritage.
Yukhananov worked in the 1970s, developing underground, avant-garde theater, and has since made a decision to use theater as an instrument to bring audiences a deeper experience of Judaism, explains Palant.
The approach encouraged theater directors to bring their own interpretations to texts such as the Tower of Babel, which they did, drawing on Pushkin, Dostoevsky, and the unification of people and the Communist regime. As the piece was performed, the audience was invited on stage to say what they thought and improvise with the actors.
When the show ends, the performance may be over but the learning continues. Often, many audience members create groups to discuss Jewish texts. Access to online resources and learning materials from the Steinsaltz Institute for Jewish Studies contribute to their ongoing study.
“We are working hard to find new directions to the Jewish heart,” says Palant. “Our mission is to find new ways and try them — and, thank God, it’s working.” ♦
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