 presents a staged reading of the 2007 winner of the Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition as part of the Cleveland Play House FusionFest
Solomon’s Blade One performance only: May 10, 2007 at 7:30pm
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| Playwright:
Lisa Beth Allen has worked as actor, playwright, director, and educator at regional theatres and schools across the country. She is a member of the Actor’s Equity Association, the Screen Actor’s Guild, and the Dramatist Guild of America. Ms. Allen has served as Conservatory Director for the South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, and In 1997 began a relationship with the Sundance Institute for whom she has served as Special Project Director and Director of Educational Programming.Ms. Allen’s plays have been produced at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, The Organic Theatre in Chicago, South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, CA and on the Sundance Resort King Stage. She has received commissions to write pieces for family audiences from South Coast Repertory, The Egyptian Theatre in Park City, UT and The Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, FL. Solomon’s Blade, was presented as one of four pieces for the 2004 Ashland New Plays Festival, Ashland Oregon, and as one of three pieces selected for the May 2005 Chicago based Famous Door Theatre, Women at the Door Festival of New Plays. In the spring of 2006 it received a reading by NascentWorks at Playwrights Horizon in New York. |
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Cast of Characters
(in order of appearance) |
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Stage Directions, Ben, Rabbi Solomon
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Brian Zoldessy* Courtney Anne Nelson Hannah DelMonte* Kyle Primous* Jacqi Loewy* Jean Zarzour* Laura Perrotta* Michael May Jason Markouc* |
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* member – Actors Equity Association
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Synopsis:
Tamar Greenwold has been unexpectedly called to return from a long awaited vacation with her husband. Her sister-in-law, Claire, is lying in the hospital seven and a half months pregnant, brain-dead, on life-support. Arrangements have been made for an Israeli immigrant to adopt the child. Tamar, devoted to her Jewish faith, is thrilled…until she discovers that the mother to be is Arab-Israeli. As the characters wrestle with the conflict, the nature of identity, faith, and truth are called into question. Approached with great humor and humanity Solomon’s Blade speaks to anyone who has ever looked in the mirror and seen a stranger. |
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Production Staff
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Director
Playwriting Contest Coordinator Playwriting Contest Judges |
Fred Sternfeld Deborah Bobrow Reuben Silver, Charles Kartali, Elaine Rembrandt |
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Development History of Solomon’s Blade :May 2004, first reading at American Theatre Company, Chicago, IL October 2004, staged reading as part of the Ashland New Plays Festival, Ashland, OR May 2005, workshop and reading as part of Women at the Door Festival of New Plays, Famous Door Theatre, Chicago, IL April 2006, reading by NascentWorkds new play development unit, at Playwrights Horizon, New York, NY |
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| About the Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition:
Early in her twelve-year reign as Director of the Cultural Arts Department of the JCC, Dorothy Silver recognized the need to encourage the emerging resurgence of Jewish theatre and labored to revive the dormant JCC Playwriting Competition which had been floundering since the deaths of the original benefactors, Lucy and Harry Wolpaw. New angels appeared and the competition was renamed for Dorothy, who retired from her position that same year. Since that time, countless new plays with Jewish themes have been entered into the competition, and many previous winners have been produced in other venues and/or published. Here at the Jewish Community Center, we continue to be committed to developing contemporary Jewish works and nurturing artists who create with Jewish themes. One of the previous winners, Jules Tasca’s Judah’s Daughter, has subsequently been published by Samuel French, Inc. For more information on the competition, call the Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition Organizer, Deborah Bobrow, at (216) 382-4000, Ext. 215.
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