They call it Traveling Jewish Theatre for a reason. Sometimes they travel.
That’s the plan with TJT’s “The Wonders,” a new play created in honor of the 350th anniversary of Jewish life in America.
“The Wonders” premieres Saturday, July 17, at TJT’s Florida Street playhouse before embarking on a regional and national tour. The show kicks off the sixth season of TJT’s Educational Touring and Outreach Program, which entails the creation of an original production reflecting some aspect of Jewish experience. “The Wonders” then hits the road, touring in theaters, schools, synagogues and community halls and — those involved with it hope — fostering discussion.
Like many of TJT’s original works, “The Wonders” developed organically through workshops, improvisation and sheer imagination. As a community touring piece, the show is intended for non-theatrical venues, which explains its minimalist approach. Masks, puppets and subtle costume flourishes comprise the theatrics, “but the show rests primarily on the actors creating characters mainly with their voices and bodies,” says Eric Rhys Miller, its director and co-creator.
Those actors are Teana David, Karine Koret and Sigal Shoham. Each portrays a composite character drawn from different times and places in Jewish American history: southern Jewry, the vaudeville era and contemporary urban life.
“It’s a fascinating trip around America and through time,” adds Miller. “These are stories the actors really connected with.”
Shoham plays Connie Lerner, a real-life 1972 Miss America contestant from North Carolina. Her mother was a Holocaust survivor, but Lerner grew up on cornbread and grits. Koret plays Sophie, a Yiddish theater actress loosely based on Molly Picon. Finally, David, who is not Jewish, plays Celia Rose, a woman raised nominally Christian who feels deep in her bones a connection to Judaism. Over the course of the play, the characters reveal themselves through music, dance and storytelling.
The idea for the new play came about after Miller and his colleagues received an announcement from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture encouraging theater companies to recognize the 350th anniversary by staging plays with Jewish themes.
All of the foundation’s recommended plays were known quantities. That’s when Traveling Jewish Theater saw an opening. “As far as we know,” says Miller, “we’re the only theater to make an original play on this subject. It seemed like a natural opportunity.”
That launched an extensive research effort. Miller and the actors examined the history of vaudeville, the Jewish settler movement in the American West and South, Yiddish theater, immigrant stories, and everything in between. Says Miller: “We were inspired by, but not limited to, history.”
“The Wonders” is also rich with music, and includes classics from Yiddish theater and the American pop songbook. But because it’s a low-tech traveling production, the actors sing their three-part harmonies a cappella: TJT unplugged.
All three actresses have extensive experience in local theater. Koret has been in many TJT productions over the last year as an artist-in-residence. David co-starred in the company’s production of “Moonwatcher” some seasons back, while Shoham is a graduate of the U.C. Berkeley theater program and a veteran of Lunatique Fantastique, the wildly creative Oakland-based theater troop that uses commonplace objects as outrageous props.
Together they will premiere the show in a one-time performance before the tour. Miller is confident the atmosphere his actresses created in rehearsals will come across wherever they play.
Says Miller, “This is a real road show: a trunk full of props and costumes, the energy of three actors and simple storytelling. It goes all the way back to the origins of theater.”
“The Wonders” premieres 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 17, at Traveling Jewish Theatre, 470 Florida St., S.F. Tickets: Pay what you can. Information: (415) 285-8080.