Category: virtual

Heroes, Streaming, virtual, Yom Hashoa

Theater vs. COVID – 19 #7 Yom Hashoa, perseverance, heroism, and thank you

JET

Today is Yom Hashoa. I just finished a long preparation for a live reading of Vilna by Ira Fuchs and am glad that I persevered and made it happen. The video is below.

Yom Hashoa Facebook Live Ceremony and Reading of Ira Fuchs’ Vilna

Doing this project has brought up a couple of thoughts for me in the past few weeks and I am finally able to share some thoughts here. We are living in a time where people are doing heroic deeds by just being. We live during COVID – 19. It keeps us homebound. It keeps us from living the way we are used to. Of course it is not the same as what my ancestors, my Bubby and Zaidy and their families went through. It will never be the same. They had their stories and we share them today. But now we are creating our own stories. How we go about our story and what choices we make today will be told in the years to come.

These past few weeks have been hard for me. I wanted to continue writing here but I have taken my time. I go in and out of how and what I can accomplish. I get depressed that I am not accomplishing enough and yet there are sparks of inspiration. I said I would read Uta Hagen’s Respect for Acting and I have been reading it but I have not finished. I said I would complete Theater Makers Studio’s course but have not even finished two sessions. I know that I am doing other things that are as good. I launched JET Live! and directed, hosted and acted in the above video but sometimes we need to take a break and refresh. I do have Shabbat for that and I am blessed to be part of the Jewish people and to celebrate what Shabbat is but even during the week we need this. We who are home have that ability during COVID – 19 to take that break. That is what makes us heroes today. To persevere and refresh and continue.

And there are those on the front lines of the COVID – 19 struggle and they too are heroes. They are making sure that those in the field are staying strong, staying safe, and surviving. It is a struggle and there are losses but these people are keeping it together for all of us. The policemen, the healthcare workers, food workers, and more. They are all heroes

What is the Hero story

What is a hero? Who is a hero? I searched on google and honestly could not figure out the right answer or even determine if there was a correct answer. Heroes will be different for each and every one of us But in our discussion last night there was the mention of a hero being a person who finds themselves in a certain situation and rises to the occasion. Human beings, us, are heroes and living through a heroic time just because we are living now. We can call others heroes from their time, but we can also call ourselves heroes today.

We are all heroes

I want to thank every one of you. You are all heroes in today’s story. All an inspiration of what the human spirit can endure.

#stayhomestaycreativestaysafe

Share your written work here. Join the blog. Have any other ideas to weather this virus? Want to join JET Live!? Let us know @ jerusalemenglishtheater@gmail.com

Readings, Theater Vs. Virus, virtual, What's New, Yom Hashoa

Theater vs. COVID – 19 #6 Zoom readings, Some Good News, and a Chag Sameach

JET

While trying to be up to date with all the amazing virtual, live, and recorded theatrical goings on we’ve been involved with quite a few.

Check out the JET Homepage for updates to different virtual theatrical events all over the world. https://wwww.jetcommunity.org

We had a very successful reading of “Paradise” by Yasmine Beverly Rana with the author herself. The play was conceived by Yasmine Beverly Rana during Hurricane Katrina and still feels very appropriate in the “social distancing” era. Yasmine and I had met before in 2014 after I saw her play “Blood Sky” at Terry Schreiber Studios but never imagined we would meet again like this.  

These were some of the things that I took away from the connection that was made between Yasmine and I during this time. Art is essential, storytelling is essential, and now is the perfect time for artists, writers, actors, creators to create and share. Stay Home, stay safe, and connect.

Check out Yasmine’s website here and about her and her plays here

We dedicated this reading to The United Centers for Victims of Sexual Assault in Israel: https://www.1202.org.il/. In the era where you need to stay Home and stay safe can everyone?

CB Davies and Yasmine Beverly Rana reading “Paradise” with a Q & A after with Yasmine

Theater in the Rough continues to do readings with anybody joining in. They plan to finish up The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan and then will most definitely have another play read with YOU. Check them out here.

I have been working on another virtual reading for Yom Hashoa which falls out April 20th. We have at least ten actors involved and will be using methods for transitions and entrances and exits. This is an exciting time of exploring a new way of making theater. Check out the event here.

In the meantime we hope to launch a JET Live Zoom meet up with a little Some Good News flare. If you haven’t seen SGN yet, check it out.

First episode of Some Good News with John Krasinski

John Krasinski, Emily Blount, and the whole original Hamilton cast brought many tears of warmth to people all over the world and the main message is it really is about YOU doing what you can to stay home, stay safe, and stay healthy. We are all in this together.

This year we celebrate Passover with a very different feeling. Many of us are doing it on our own for the first time. This will be a hard time as we usually are with our family, friends, or loved ones all together. But we are all in this together because we are all the storytellers. And we are all telling the same story. Imagine the Jewish people leaving Egypt? They all witnessed the same miracles. Today we are all witnesses worldwide to the same Pandemic. We all have the collective story of COVID – 19 to tell. Let’s remember that as we go into this holiday.

Looking forward to hearing what you are doing and how you are doing.

Share your written work here? Have any other ideas to weather this virus? Let us know @ jerusalemenglishtheater@gmail.com