Awake and Sing! completed its successful four-day run Saturday afternoon at the New Theater on the Indiana State University campus. And following the friendly opening-night activism of kashrut-sensitive audience members, the play’s final three performances continued with the notable absence of milchig and fleishig!
Wilma Turetzky emailed director Arthur Feinsold with high praise for the Clifford Odets Depression-era production after attending Wednesday’s show. Still, she asked, “why was there a glass of milk on the table along with pastrami sandwiches? Was that an error?” (See Awake and Sing! is a worthy production, if not quite kashrut for more details.)
Further, Student Rabbi Aaron Rozovsky attended Saturday and questioned uncovered mirrors in the Berger family’s apartment as they sat shiva for Grandpa Jacob (following his altruistic “fall” from the building’s roof).
Arthur addressed all those questions with his reply.
Hello, Wilma:
Thank you so much for attending the production and offering your response. I am thrilled to know that members of the Jewish community are attending this play by one of the great Jewish playwrights.
You make an excellent point about the milk. I will remove it from Act Three. There is no reason to have it on the same table with the pastrami sandwiches.
Many of the decisions I made for this production are based on my own family. We do not keep kosher but we do hold shiva when someone dies and do wear yarmulkes during shiva. But there is no reason to bring any element of confusion into the production or offend any member of the Jewish community who might attend our show.
You also may have noticed that I opted not to cover the mirror during Act Three, since we need it to motivate some of the action. I believe in our home we covered mirrors, but I had to make the decision not to do that due to the dictates of the play’s action.
Please spread the word about the production and thank you again for attending and assure any of our Jewish friends that they will not see milk on the same table as pastrami from now on.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Warm regards,
Arthur